Censings

I am a married, monogamous heterosexual male. But does that automatically make me qualified for ordination than an uncommitted, promiscuous lesbian? Conservative Christians would say, “Yes” to me, even though I’ve not yet been to seminary, but “No” to the uncommitted, promiscuous lesbian, even if she had earned a Summa Cum Laude Doctor of Sacred Theology degree and exuded enough charisma to pastor a sky-high parish of 4,000 pledging units with a seven million dollar budget and a liturgy beyond that described in Revelations and Nehemiah combined. To hear conservative Christians speak, a non-Christian would quite unfortunately conclude that Christianity is about sex.  Most of the Roman church has a de jure celibate priesthood. Rome opposes as “wrong,” sex before marriage, swinging relationships, along with any nearly all birth control. Romans and conservative evangelicals all agree abortion and all gay, lesbian, or bisexual relations are bad. Witness how when we hear the secul...

Lessons:  Revelations: 11:19-12:6 Psalm 132:7-10;14-17 John: 19:25-27 Collect BCP Page 243 + In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen. Early last month, I traveled from Palm Springs to Pasadena for a mediation. For those of you who are not lawyers, that’s a meeting between attorneys, their clients, and a neutral facilitator to try and get a case settled so as to avoid a trial.  I guess that’s what Christian lawyers are supposed to do.  Now, a trip to Pasadena is no small endeavor for me. When I have a morning appearance west of Pomona, I always drive in the night before and stay in a hotel so I can get a good night’s rest.  Rush hour traffic is something in which I refuse to participate. As I prepared for bed, apparently somewhere along the line I took off my three rings. They’re very important to me. Of course, I wear my wedding ring, but also my engagement ring and my law school class ring. After my relationship to God, my r...