PB talks in Mississippi

From Greg Griffeth

"You have been, both personally and in your office, very supportive of homosexuality in the church, especially the blessings of same-sex marriage. There are parents in this church right now, and all over the country, who are very uneasy with the prospect of explaining to their children that while the Bible condemns homosexual behavior as sinful, the Episcopal Church wants to confer its blessings on it. If you were asked, for example, to lead the youth group class here tonight, what are the precise words you would use to explain to teenagers how it is that the Bible says homosexual behavior is a sin, but our church should confer its blessings on it?"




Then there were two follow up questions ....

"So, it sounds like you're saying that for the last 2,000 years, all of Christianity has gotten this very important question completely wrong, and only in the last 30 or 40 years have a few Episcopalians gotten it right." The response was more boilerplate about interpretation.

Second follow-up was:

"But you, yourself, have authorized same-sex blessings in your diocese of Nevada..."

Schori cut me off to clarify that what she had done was to allow those parishes that wished to perform same-sex blessings, to do so. There was some mention of discernment by the congregation, but when she was through explaining, there was nothing to indicate that the sum of the situation was anything other than: If you want to do it, go for it. How that differs from "authorizing," she never explained.