St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Presiding Bishop properly remind us of the precarious context of African Christianity. The devastation of AIDS, and the competition of Islam and Pentecostalism, have made African Anglicanism wary of any corrupting influences upon their faith, a faith that understands scripture's taboos on homosexuality as essential to The Word of God.

Like those who have liturgical authority over me, I do not want to contribute to making international mission more difficult. I want very much to help them with their mission and attempts at reconciliation.

My context is much different. Unlike the African churches, I’m competing with Buddhists, Unitarians, Rock and Roll, a cup of Coffee and the New York Times, and the apathetic. Our interfaith gatherings are hosted and subsidized by the American Jewish Committee. The End of Faith and The God Delusion are best sellers, even recommended by my family members. In some parts of the United States the Christian vocabulary is taken for granted, the differences in religiosity determined by class and preference. But while they battle over biblical interpretation, I’m trying to make sense of the Hindus who serve food in my soup kitchen twice a month on Sundays. I discover that they, also, love Jesus and believe he was resurrected. They also pray to their air conditioners, but didn’t Paul say, pray unceasingly? In another context I might remind them about their eventual damnation, but they’re serving the homeless whenever I think of saying something.

In my context, the consequences of having sex for the sake of pleasure and affection have diminished. Sex, which makes easy victims in patriarchal and biblical cultures, is revealed in our culture to be less about procreation than about all sorts of other exchanges: status, money, cooperation, play.

I live this out: even when I was a seminarian, a lovely strawberry blonde once cooed in my ear, “what do you really believe?” She wasn’t unfamiliar with believing: she had grown up in a Mormon family. But she left such security for the philosophy of a pleasure seeking feminism. As she distracted me, I told her everything I could. She said, “I think it is so hot that you believe in something.”

In one moment, she had deflated my beliefs, my work, my soul. Jesus became a pick-up line. “It’s such a beautiful fantasy,” she said, as she continued to seduce me. What did I do? Well, it didn’t feel sinful. At least, that is what she said.

I asked her if she was an atheist. She winked at me, leaned an inch a way from my face. “I don’t even know what theism is. But… I do have a wild imagination.”

She was one sharp woman, sharper than me. All I could think was, at least I’ve read the church fathers. Jesus loves me.

Plainly, women have greater power in our culture. And although I suspect men, or at least the men's desires, run the show, the range of choices that women have is wider. Have we, as a culture, figured out what this means? Not really. Women, at least, live with less fear in Westchester, living alone until they desire otherwise, than they can in other parts of the world. Our ability to talk honestly and openly about domestic violence and rape simply evinces the fact that women have a voice.

Different contexts. In a world without hell, why bother with Jesus? Does Jesus heal any better than a pill or rigorous exercize? Can Jesus do better than a government loan or mathematical ability? Does Jesus give us a better understanding of the world than chemistry? While in Africa they rage against the carelessness of the west and our rape of their natural resources, I’m simply trying to get people in my community to give a damn. And they do. But they are busy. Busy with lives outside of church.

So when the primates talk about homosexuality I imagine they assume that I’m in a context where people have read, or care about scripture. In Africa they have issues with illiteracy; in my context, people watch American Idol. If they do read, it better have something to do with money or health.

In my context, scripture isn't useful. Scripture isn't reliable. And to make it reliable requires too many intellectual leaps and confusions for anyone who thinks rationally. Not that I want to elevate rationality. Irrationality is, I think, the human condition. Scripture makes sense of irrationality, but such a view is a hard sell in our current climate.

In my context, many of the people who do care about church, who consider scripture, who want to hear the good word, are gay or lesbians. They don’t ask for very much. None of the couples in my church have even asked for blessings. I’m pretty clear in my church, I only bless weddings as an agent of the state. I’ll help write liturgies, I’ll call on Jesus when I’m asked, but I’ll bless using the pronoun “we” rather than “I.” After all, they are Christians also, and any Christian can bless other Christians. I’m humble enough to understand that God works practically, concretely and faithfully in their lives.

In my life, gay men created, revealed and deepened my experience of Anglican, Christian spirituality. The supernatural love of these faithful men, quiet about their inclinations, gradually replaced my inherited atheism, offered the beauty within the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I didn’t leave atheism because someone told me it was wrong. I accepted Jesus because there were priests who cared about me. Through their openness and presence I began to read scripture more lovingly, attentively, believing that the words in scripture were meant to make us better, more beautiful, more wonderful, and wiser people who could fall in love with God, and that this falling in love was excellent.

In my context, the presiding bishop and the primates will write documents. Bishops may decide not to authorize public blessings. But gay Christians will bless each other. God will be present, unless we can prove otherwise. Scripture does affirm, after all, that He is present where two or three are gathered in his name. The documents that the primates write might inflame the anger of some, but it will finally reveal the church’s utter irrelevance to others. While they claim the priority of biblical cosmology, our churches will find creative ways to ignore the cultural biases of bishops to help make the Kingdom come. We will not offer the pagan myth of “tough” love, the excuse for abuse that pervades some parts of the church. We may simply do our work quietly, letting God do what he has been doing in history all along, exposing the limits of our Gods, and revealing the presence of his Son through the Spirit.