Saturday, July 18, 2009
Bishop N.T. Wright Reacts to Recent Episcopal Actions
Anglican bishop N.T. Wright has, over the past few years, become one of my favorite authors. Biblical scholar, historian, and explainer of Christian faith, Wright has responded to recent actions by the Episcopal Church in the US to ordain practicing homosexuals and to consecrate same-sex marriages. I fully endorse what Wright wrote for a British newspaper.
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2 comments:
Mark,
Since I am a gay man in a relationship that is also ordained, I need to speak up.
Both Bishop Wright and you have claimed that no one has a right to be ordained and you are correct. Ordination is not about rights in the secular sense, but about hearing God's call in your life, specifically to ministry as a pastor.
I don't have a right to be ordained. But the church should be willing to discern with me my call in life and not dismiss it out of hand because I am gay. Like most people, like yourself, I heard to call to ministry. What I did not hear from God is that I have to repent and marry a woman for me to be considered for ordination.
In the same light, I don't have a right to have my relationship with my partner blessed by the church. But because we are both people of faith (he's a Lutheran preachers kid and a church musician) we wanted to have our relationship blessed by God and by the community that gathered to witness this bonding.
As the old saying goes, I am a sinner saved by grace. But my sexuality is not the sin. Yes, I can use my sexuality in sinful ways the same as hetrosexuals can, but my sexuality is my very being- to that it is sin is to say that I am sin.
I know that you don't agree and I do respect your views and respect you as a person. But I felt I must share my viewpoint.
Thank you, Dennis. God bless you.
Mark
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