A Sound of Sheer Silence

This Sunday, the Washington National Cathedral, which is technically the cathedral of the Diocese of Washington of the Episcopal Church, invited Max Lucado to preach.  Lucado is an evangelical author and speaker, known (at least in my sense of things) as one of those guys who writes those novels that fill up the massive shelf space in the "Christian Living" section of Barnes & Noble.  But, he's written other stuff, too.  And you will not, I suspect, be particularly surprised to learned that he is against gay marriage and gay relationships.  In reading through the quotes attributed to him, they seem to be pretty standard anti-gay conservative talking points--the Bible says no, if we let gays get married bestiality is next, etc., etc., etc.  So, it's bad, but it is bad in the usual way.  He's One of Those. I want to talk about this, and why I think the decision of the Washington National Cathedral to invite him to preach is incomprehensibly stupid.  ...

Three summers ago, all of the news reports out of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church was "the Episcopal Church approves same sex marriage."  One might have thought that this would be the end of the matter, but, indeed, it is back on the agenda for the 2018 General Convention kicking off in Austin, Texas in a couple of weeks.  For those not following this matter closely, here is the primer.  The vehicle by which same sex marriage approval was accomplished was two-fold.  First, GC15 approved a change to the canons of the church that explicitly authorizes clergy to marry same sex couples.  This change retained the provision that a clergyperson has an essentially unconstrained right to refuse to marry any couple.  Thus, an Episcopal priest or bishop who does not support same-sex marriage can never be forced to marry a same sex couple, as they could always use the general opt-out provided for in the canons. Second, GC15 approved a group of liturg...

So, it has come, the long anticipated Papal document summarizing the Synod on the Family ,  Amoris Laetitia .  I should state up front that, because of its enormous length (250+ pages), I've skimmed the more theoretical sections (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9) to focus on the parts on marriage (4-6, and 8).  I hope to come back and give those theoretical sections some time and reflection later.  I should also say that, despite its length, this is probably the most accessible Vatican document I have read.  The writing is smooth and unforced, and mostly avoids technical theological or philosophical jargon.   Laudato Si' had some of that quality, but this is far more pronounced.  It is, for lack of a better term, an easy read. With that out of the way, how is it?  Well, it's very, very Pope Francis.  Like Laudato Si' , it aspires to a comprehensive account of the topic.   So, for example, if you were curious to get Pope Francis's thoughts o...

The Gospel Coalition is an evangelical organization that seems to take it upon itself to police the boundaries of the evangelical world.  A gentleman named Kevin DeYoung, clearly distressed that some of his fellow travelers in the evangelical world are happy about the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage, has issued "40 Questions for Christians Now Waiving Rainbow Flags." While I have a strong suspicion that these questions are not being asked in good faith, I choose to follow the lead of Buzz Dixon and treat them as legitimate inquiries .  Mr. Dixon answers the questions from the perspective of someone who appears to have once been an evangelical; my answers are slightly different.   [Note: NALT founder John Shore addresses the questions in a less charitable, but still appropriate, way.   Matthew Vines's counter-questions are also very much worth reading. ]  So, I figured I would answer them from my perspective. 1. How long have you believed that gay ma...

Salvatore Cordileone, shown right, is the Archbishop of San Francisco.  He is also the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) effort to oppose gay marriage.  Cordileone has been on the barricades of the gay marriage issue for a while now.  In fact, it is hard not to see his appointment to San Francisco a couple of years ago as a poke in the eye to the city and its famous gay community, but that's really neither here nor there. As part of his effort to oppose gay marriage, Archbishop Cordileone will be attending the "March for Marriage" tomorrow in Washington, D.C.  This event is sponsored by the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage, both prominent anti-SSM organizations.  Both organizations are, as well, classified as "Hate Groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center .  Given the status of the sponsors, a number of civil and religious leaders in San Francisco--most notably Rep. Nancy Pelosi--called o...

The latest round of litigation over same sex marriage occurred this week in North Carolina, where clergy and parishoners of the United Church of Christ challenged Amendment One to the NC Constitution, passed in 2011.  One element of the suit challenged the highlight-grabbing portion of Amendment One, which placed a ban on same-sex marriages into the NC Constitution.  I don't want to be dismissive of this element of the case, as it is clearly of enormous importance to the plaintiffs, but that is the less-interesting part of the case.  We have seen many similar challenges to state constitutional amendments regarding same-sex marriage, and the arguments are well established at this point. The part of the case that caught my eye was the religious freedom challenge to Amendment One made by the UCC ministers.  Under Amendment One, it would be a crime for a UCC minister to perform a marriage ceremony involving a same sex couple.  Since the UCC Church authorizes same...