"I came across your blog and I felt I need to tell you that your words are very hurtful, and seem to lack empathy of any kind. I understand that you enjoy things a certain way, we all do... but as a gay man who was bullied in Churches and scared to enter a church for fear I would be singled out as the lone sinner, I can now say I have found comfort and the love of Christ in an Episcopal Church (not a super "liberal" one either). I really can't understand why you are so angry about things, or so mean about it. You sound like a holy man, isn't that enough?"
Here's my reply,
We are talking past each other, anonymous. That is the position in which TEC's put us.
I'm no more holy than you are. I am, like you, seeking that same comfort in love of Christ. Because of Jesus, you are my brother and I am yours, even in disagreement or even in estrangement or conflict.
Bottom line, I am not asking the church to toss out people like you or congregations like the one that nurtures you in Christ.
But you will one day have to see that LGBT people have been marched out as human shields for a mixed agenda because right now you are the object of public sympathy. It costs too much to be sympathetic when that requires me to accept radical abortionists, a centralized church autocracy, liberal protestant disdain for the Bible and all kinds of other stuff the various "consultation/coalition" groups bundle in with "inclusion."
As an ordained person I am expected to look out for the well being of the church. TEC leadership promised growth by advancing LGBT activists; now that there's no growth (there is, in fact, accelerated decline), the PB is saying, "Well, numbers don't matter. We're a small church."
You probably won't experience great empathy in people like me who have been lied to again and again and again in the purported "dialogue" about LGBT concerns.
Less than a generation ago, I graduated from General Theological Seminary, NYC and passed all seven required areas of the General Ordination Exams on the first try. Today, I couldn't get into the ordination process, let alone pass the tests.
TEC doesn't pass the smell test. Not because gay people come to seek Christ like the rest of us, but because TEC lies about what that means and what it is doing.
And brothers though you and I be, that kind of church is going to warp our relationship.
Because the issues expressed by the commenter were delicate and personal to him, I am disabling comments for this post. I will accept comments by email and, if I think they enhance the public discussion, I will post them.
