PROPHETIC CHALLENGE TO A PROPHETIC CHALLENGE

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

Most of my ministry work engages government officials, but occasionally I have other equally important opportunities. Washington being the city it is, a lot of people who come through here are, to use a Spanish term, influyentes, or "influencers." And many of them land at the nearby National Press Club, which is exactly that, a private club for journalists and others in the media.

My latest encounter was yesterday at a luncheon at the Press Club featuring Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the embattled Episcopal Church in the United States of America, or ECUSA. (Some still call it PECUSA, retaining the anachronistic adjective "Protestant," before the rest of it.) Anyway, Bishop Schori was in town to give a speech--or lecture--or sermon--to the members of the Fourth Estate. She emphasized the church's "prophetic" challenge to society and government.

Because I am on the opposite side to so much of what the Bishop believes, promulgates and enforces in her churches, I wasn't sure what I was in for. I was there because I was invited by a board member of the club who is a friend and Christian brother, and because I like to get my information firsthand. I'm often asked about what's happening with the Episcopal Church by, among others, the media, so, I thought I should hear it myself.

A lot of what I heard was predictable, but some of it was not. For example, the Bishop spoke of the inherent value of each and every human person, no matter their "size." That was interesting, considering it's one of the prime arguments for the sanctity of all human life and against it's willful termination through abortion. The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, is officially "pro-choice." I'd like to ask her about that. 

For that moment, though, I thought it would be even more revealing to ask her if she is open to being wrong on any of her opinions, especially on moral questions. I got my opportunity immediately after she finished her speech. She was much more congenial than most Press Club "celebrities," and warmly invited my question. It was simple: "Are you open to being wrong, for example, on the morality of homosexual behavior?" 

Her surprising answer, "Yes, of course, yes."

When I asked my follow-up, "Should you discover you are wrong, what might you do about it?" She answered, "I think I should reserve my answer to that for another time." (Or words to that effect.)

The implications to her uncertainty on the paramount moral issue of human sexual behavior, fidelity, standards for the church membership, clergy and leadership (remember, the Episcopal Church was the first to consecrate an openly practicing homosexual bishop), are absolutely astounding. It has huge and far reaching consequences.

If there is any doubt in Ms. Schori's mind, and or heart, over whether homosexual behavior is right or wrong; if she's the least bit open to the claim that it is, in fact, a violation of God's will and Word on human behavior; if she has any reservation at all about whether it comports with the moral model the Church is to be to the world, and especially to young people, you would think she wouldn't be willing to take such an enormous risk.

Then again, we all share the same predictable, daring and sometimes menacing sinfulness about which Bishop Schori spoke yesterday. "We are all sinners," she declared.

Indeed.

For more on my encounter with Bishop Jefferts Schori, visit www.christiannewswire.com.

Back later . . .

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329