Episcopal Priest Resigns Amid Gay Debate - Donors Threaten Money Withdrawal (Rome, Georgia)

MyWay News ^

[Happy2BMe]

Episcopal Priest Resigns Amid Gay Debate

 

Oct 27, 3:38 AM (ET)

ROME, Ga. (AP) - An Episcopal priest who wrote an article sympathetic to the church's confirmation of an openly gay priest as a bishop resigned from a private religious school after administrators asked him to apologize to dozens of people upset with his views.

John Merchant, 57, became chaplain at Darlington School, a nondenominational preparatory school, during the summer. He wrote a column for the student newspaper about the Episcopalian church's confirmation of V. Gene Robinson as Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire.

Merchant wrote in the Sept. 3 column in The Darlington that God is more concerned with spirituality than sexual orientation.

"I didn't have to ponder where I stood," Merchant told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Monday's editions. "But I took time to keep it brief and try to explain my beliefs. I was trying to convey it in a positive way."

After the column appeared, school president David Hicks and headmaster David Rhodes told Merchant that some school donors were considering withdrawing their support at the academy. They asked him to initiate between 50 and 75 one-one-one meetings over a month to apologize to individuals upset with the article.

Merchant refused, calling the request "morally and academically intolerable," and resigned. He provided the Sept. 30 letter in which Hicks and Rhodes made the demand to the Rome News-Tribune.

Neither Rhodes nor Hicks responded to repeated requests by a Journal-Constitution reporter for interviews. Calls were referred to Atlanta media consultant Chuck Nekvasil.

"We believe in all sincerity that it's time for the healing to begin and time to move on," Nekvasil said.

[samanella]

Another point in all this is Robinson knew this would tear the church apart. How "godly" can a man be who puts his ambition and desires above the church and above God's law? I think Robinson is selfish as well as gay, neither trait would I like to have in my parish priest.

[BlessedBeGod]

You're absolutely right -- it's all about him. Just like Clinton.

[gcruse]

What part of "NO" don't gay sympathisers understand?

So now it isn't only the gays we are supposed to condemn,
but those who don't condemn them.  McCarthy was a piker
compared to the religiously convinced.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

I saw a guy walking out of an Epioscopal church carrying a Queen James bible. Hadn't seen one before. Rainbow on the cover too.

[Marauder]

So now it isn't only the gays we are supposed to condemn, but those who don't condemn them.

Do you really understand the issue?

[gcruse]

Do you really understand the issue?

An Episcopal priest who wrote an article sympathetic
to the church's confirmation of an openly gay priest as a bishop resigned

John Merchant was condemned for his failure to condemn
the gay priest.  Actually, he was condemned for writing his
opinion.  Apparently this was a big mistake.  But this just
reiterates what I originally said, doesn't it?

Let's run the WayBack machine.

In response to :
What part of "NO" don't gay sympathisers understand?

I said

So now it isn't only the gays we are supposed
 to condemn, but those who don't condemn them.

In other words, 'gay sympathisers', ie those who
fail to condemn gays, will be condemned for failing
to say NO.   What part do you feel I misunderstand?

[Marauder]

He didn't "fail to condemn." He wrote an article clearly in support of the apostatic ordination of Robinson as bishop.

I can't speak for others; however, I bear no animosity toward Robinson because of his sexual orientation. My problem is that his becoming a bishop is contrary to Biblical law. Thus I also have a big problem with the Bishop of the ECUSA, without whose support - for Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire - this situation would not have developed.

[gcruse]

He didn't "fail to condemn." He wrote an article clearly in support of the apostatic ordination of Robinson as bishop.

Sounds like failure to condemn to me.