These days, anything that offends any individual or tiny group is vulnerable to being hauled into the public square and torn to shreds by the mob. It was just a matter of time for the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) to be targeted as a symbol of hate. This week during the Episcopal General Convention the BCP was attacked by no less than a Dean of Cathedral. The report below was excerpted from The Living Church.
Thursday, June 25, 2015The lunatics are running the asylum.
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
When the Special Legislative Committee on Marriage convened its first open hearing Wednesday night, speakers overwhelmingly favored proposals that would clear the way for same-sex marriage across the Episcopal Church.
Of the 15 who spoke to two proposed resolutions, only one said, “I do not have the clarity that others do,” and called for more study of the issue. The rest urged the panel to make marriage rites available to same-sex couples and to allow gender-specific language in the Book of Common Prayer to be used in a gender-neutral manner.
Speakers also connected the quest for same-sex marriage rites with other causes, including the quest for racial equality, which has emerged as a hot topic in the early days of the 78th General Convention. One priest compared marriage-rite language in the Book of Common Prayer with the Confederate flag, which activists have clamored to remove from statehouses in the wake of a June 17 massacre of nine African-Americans at a Charleston, South Carolina, church.
“How long are we going to allow documents like the Book of Common Prayer to contain language that is explicitly discriminatory?” asked the Rev. Will Mebane, interim dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo and a member of the Task Force on the Study of Marriage. “Demands for the Confederate flag, a symbol of hate, to come down have been heard. … It is time to remove our symbol that contains language of discrimination.”
Oh, my word.
ReplyDeleteSorry, cannot say anything more. Who could have imagined this? Does this man feel the same about Holy Scripture, from which the BCP originates?
Oddly enough, my Scripture reading for this weekend has the 'narrow gate' verses (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV):
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Churchmouse
It says a lot about the wide open gates letting the wolves out of Episcopal seminaries.
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