Posted on 06/19/2006 1:10:35 PM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.
Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.
Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.
"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.
"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."
Jefferts Schori's election seemed certain to exacerbate splits within a Episcopal Church that is already deeply divided over homosexuality with several dioceses and parishes threatening to break away.
It could also widen divisions with other Anglican communities, including the Church of England, which do not allow women bishops. In the worldwide Anglican church women are bishops only in Canada, the United States and New Zealand.
Three years ago when the Church last met in convention, a majority of U.S. bishops backed the consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in more than 450 years of Anglican history.
The Robinson issue has been particularly criticized in Africa where the church has a growing membership and where homosexuality is often taboo.
Jefferts Schori, who was raised a Roman Catholic and graduated in marine biology with a doctorate specialization in squids and oysters, supported the consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in more than 450 years of Anglican history.
The 52-year-old bishop is married to Richard Schori, a retired theoretical mathematician. They have one daughter, Katharine Johanna, 24, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and a pilot like her mother.
Asked how she reconciled her position on homosexuality with specific passages in the Bible declaring sexual relations between men an abomination, Jefferts Schori said the Bible was written in a very different historical context by people asking different questions.
"The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings. The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear -- there are rules in the Bible about those that we don't observe today," she said.
"The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that's certainly the great message of Jesus -- to include the unincluded."
Along with the commandment against adultery.
Actually, I just posted that very thing on another thread. Good for the Antiochian Orthodox Church.
"Before the same "whiney" shellfish comment is made again, I would like a valid response to this question."
I would just like to know what a whiney shellfish is.
Well, until I read 77, I'll have to clam up;)
I agree with you.
Yeeccchhhhh!!!
"Ritually unclean til evening" at the one end, "stoned to death" at the other. Guess where consumption of shellfish falls. It wasn't a death-penalty crime even in the days of the exodus, when the people were in the very presence of God and God demanded holiness of them. That's why people dismiss the shellfish argument.
That, and the fact that God told Peter it was okay to eat them. Those who had been washed clean by Christ would not be made dirty by food or clothing.
Looks like they had B-52s on station.
Naughty name, btw, charliefoxtrot.
Naughty name, btw, charliefoxtrot.
I don't get it.
(hangs head in shame)
C for cluster, F not for bomb.
Exactly right. And the early Church divided Mosaic Law into ritual law (like the shellfish prohibition) and moral law (like prohibitions against murder and adultery).
Guess where homosexual behavior fell?
BTW, your raising of Peter's dream and Christ's cleansing is interesting. The ECUSA heretics make a lot out of that section of Acts. In the Windsor Report, ECUSA was "invited" to give a scriptural justification for Gene Robinson's consecration and same sex blessings. The ECUSA product, ironically titled "To Set Our Hope on Christ", relied heavily on that section of Acts. The given reasoning is that Christ has washed us all (especially homosexuals) in His Blood, and therefore anything washed by Christ cannot be unclean.
Voila! Homosexual behavior is clean!
Our friend went out of bounds, so his number’s been disconnected.
What an either ignorant, or disingenuous statement!!! Give her education, and probable intellect, the latter is likely true...
HELLO! CHRISTIANS OF ALL STRIPES HAVEN'T ARGUED OVER WHAT CLOTHES TO WEAR OR WHETHER TO EAT KOSHER OR NOT SINCE THE FIRST CENTURY!!!
Discerning what is part of God's moral law from the Old Testament, and what is part of ancient Israel's ceremonial and/or civil law really isn't that hard...and has NEVER been a serious point of dispute--since it was settled by the First Jerusalem Council in about AD 50. (Acts 15....check it out...).
Besides that, what does the Bible "teach us about how to live as human beings" more than what are acceptable sexual relations? So next is polygammy just fine? How about sex with animals??? As long as everyone is affirmed and accepted...why not???
The name "FUBAR" had already been banned or suspended.
You made a smart move.
Disclaimer: I'm not making excuses for them, only sharing observations.
My husband and I just left ECUSA last month. I was never a member, he had been when we married. The parish we attended was conservative, orthodox, spirit-filled.
The priest was a couple years from retirement, with a chronically ill wife. A tough place to be when they hold your pension, retirement, and insurance. (I personally believe that God would be big enough to provide if you stepped out FOR HIM. But, that's me.)
His mantra (which I believe came from the bishop) is:
* THIS parish is focused on Jesus.
* We need to just continue going about God's business.
* This "National Church stuff" doesn't effect us. (huh???)
* As long as WE'RE ok ........
Many of the people there have been there for years. They don't know or WANT to know what is going on outside their own parish doors. They have NO idea the tsunami that is headed their way. They continue teaching sunday school, or serving on the alter guild, or planning the next function.
Those that do know, and do think it's a problem, just don't see the urgency because they are being lulled to sleep by the above mentioned mantra. They are comfortable.
I'm so thankful that the closer and more faithful my husband became, the more the Lord opened his eyes. He no longer could worship in truth, he didn't believe in ECUSA, he couldn't follow the bishop. He was in leadership. He had been 'warned' about talking with parishoners about the issues of GC '06.
When we left, he told the priest that by not informing the congregation of what we know, then we are copable in the lie. The priest said (and I think it's more mantra from the bishop) that was like saying that we would be somehow responsible if we had a homosexual uncle in NH. (?)
I think it's more like Enron. If you are in management, and you know the company is breaking the laws that the company is governed by, and ripping people off, yet you say nothing, you are responsible. The scary thing is, it's no MAN's laws that are being broken in ECUSA; it's God's. And it's not money the people are losing, it could be their soul. Ouch.
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