Political Sin and Religious Redemption (Part 2 of 2). Yesterday I focused on political sin. Today I'll focus on one tiny act of redemption by religion, which all too often is part of the political sinfulness we see every day, as superstitious fools assert that theirs is the one true path and every heretic / nonbeliever / infidel must be forced by government to obey religious laws whether they want to or not. Now and then, Christians behave as such, so it's good to be able to report that, when it happens.
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The Episcopal Church in my city has nominated an openly gay priest now living in San Francisco with his lover of 24 years, to become the next Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, which encompasses most of North Jersey (some 6 or 7 million people of all religions, including sizable Jewish and Moslem communities). Alas, this progressive move was denounced by rightwingers who, tho out of step in the United States, are more in tune with the regressive Anglican Church worldwide.
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These are the bastards who broke from the Roman Catholic Church because the Pope wouldn't allow Henry VIII to divorce Catherine of Aragon, youngest child of Ferdinand and Isabella, "Their Catholic Majesties", who united Spain, drove out the Jews and Moors, and sponsored Christopher Columbus's voyages that opened the New World to European settlement and made Spain, for over two centuries, the superpower of the age. What might the world look like today had Henry VIII managed to ally the Anglo and Hispanic worlds?
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There was no significant doctrinal difference between the new Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, but Henry VIII, one of the most wicked people in all of English history (known for beheading his wives and their lovers — or men falsely accused of being their lovers, so Henry could rid himself of wives he tired of), wanted (a) the right to marry a younger wife who might bear him a son to become king after his death and (b) to control the wealth and policies of the Church (which had power over the minds of the people) in England.
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As I have occasionally observed, history has a sense of humor — or at least irony. Henry's functioning heirs were both girls: first Mary I ("Bloody Mary"), then Elizabeth I!
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Henry VIII's bitter split with Rome produced centuries of conflict and killed unknown numbers of people in mutual attacks (Catholics oppressing Protestants under Bloody Mary; Protestants oppressing Catholics thereafter), then imposed anti-Catholic bigotry upon, among other places, what was to become the United States. To this day we have had only one Catholic President out of 43, even tho the U.S. is about 1/4 Catholic.
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That anti-"papist" bigotry has hugely complicated our relationships with Latin America, and underlies a lot of the present hostility to immigration from Latin America, because the Protestant bare-majority (52%) is deathly afraid that Catholics will replace them as the majority faith and we will have a parade of Catholic Presidents, Speakers of the House, Governors, and Senators, and Catholics will dominate national politics.
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The concern they hide behind is Spanish language, but that is absolutely phony, because everyone knows that almost all Hispanics master English in a single generation and are perfectly content to use it in public discourse with their neighbors. Most even lose Spanish entirely, or have to take it as a foreign language in high school, within two generations. But religion! That's quite another matter. Born Catholic, die Catholic, usually. Latinos meet Anglos in church, and Cuban-Irish, Mexican-Polish, Puerto Rican-Italian babies are raised Catholic.
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Had the U.S. not had Anglican hostility to Catholicism deeply engrained in the dominant Protestant culture, we might long ago have extended our Union to much of Latin America by eagerly courting and admitting new states from the Caribbean to Mexico to Central America, and even to the southern tip of the Continent, Tierra del Fuego. Had we done that, the population explosion that menaces us today would never have happened, because it was driven by poverty, and wide Pan-American Union would have made the entire Hemisphere prosperous.
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There is one salutary good that has emerged from religious diversity, however: Catholic-Protestant tension has enabled nonbelievers and minority religions more freedom from compulsion of conscience than a population unified religiously might have permitted. Now, while the Catholic world struggles to suppress homosexuality, in league with the most regressive forces in the Protestant world (the Anglican communion outside the U.S. and Britain, for instance), much of the push for acceptance of homosexuality (and lesbianism, a parallel, if trivial, phenomenon) comes from liberal Protestantism, including most notably the Episcopal Church. My city, Newark, has played a major role in the liberalization of that Church.
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Episcopalians are among the most liberal of denominations, just having elected a woman to head the entire U.S. church. Moreover, the (Newark) Star-Ledger points out that:

Newark is among the most liberal Episcopal dioceses in the country. Bishop Croneberger, who supported [gay New Hampshire bishop] Robinson's election and another measure authorizing blessings of same-sex unions, became the diocese's ninth bishop in 1998, replacing liberal icon John Shelby Spong.

Wikipedia says "Spong is the bestselling liberal theologian of recent times." He's still alive and kicking, but in Morris Plains, an outer suburb, no longer within Newark.
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Not surprisingly, this nomination was met with hostility by regressives, who identify as Anglicans more than Episcopalians:

"[The Rev. Michael] Barlowe's nomination illustrates clearly that those in the Episcopal Church USA committed to the revisionist agenda with regard to sexuality are willing to sacrifice membership in the Anglican Communion," the statement [by the rightwing Anglican American Council] read.

"We are shocked that just one week after the close of General Convention [which passed a resolution urging restraint on nominating gay bishops] . . . the Diocese of Newark has sent a clear and defiant message nationally and internationally that there will be no turning back," continued the statement.

If Barlowe wins in September, his election would need to be confirmed by the national church. * * * Asked if Barlowe might not be confirmed if he wins in Newark, [a member of the nominating committee] said, "That possibility exists." * * *

The committee had earlier considered a gay woman,* the Rev. Tracey Lind of Cleveland, as a finalist but she withdrew as a potential candidate earlier this month.

None of the finalists was immediately identified as a favorite to lead the 30,000-member diocese, which covers most of northern New Jersey. * * *

New Jerseyans are disinclined to be lectured by bluenoses in the national church:

"I don't feel we need to be under anybody's discipline," . . . said [the Rev. Dwight Neglia, of St. Agnes Church in Little Falls].

Good for them. You see now why I live where I live. The New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Tristate Metropolitan Area is perhaps the most liberal part of this Nation (with Massachusetts?), and is very congenial for people who embrace our unofficial national motto: "Live and Let Live". Now, if only it weren't so cold much of the year. Bring on Global Warming!
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* There is no such thing as a "gay woman" any more than there is a "lesbian man". Homosexuality and lesbianism are parallel, not the same. Parallels never touch, and women should stop hiding behind gay men's numbers, and stop calling themselves "gay". Gay men should stop hiding behind women's 'skirts' and misrepresenting male sexuality behind a New Homosexuality that is to be perceived as dominantly female, on the assumption that straights are less hostile to women "loving each other" than to men having sex with each other.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,565.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 2:51 PM