In rejecting the authority of Schori and refusing to bless homosexual unions, the dissenters have God, Scripture, and church teaching and tradition on their side. Did not Christ Himself say to the Pharisees of his day: "Have ye not read that He who made man at the beginning 'made them male and female'? And He said, 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.'"
As for the Old Testament, Leviticus is a good deal rougher on the Mattachines than even Archbishop Akinola.
And, tell us, Meyerson, if the dissenters believe in their hearts that Christ restricted the priesthood and apostolic succession to men and that homosexual sodomy is a sin against God, which, persisted in, corrupts the soul and can bring eternal damnation, should they stand firm in the faith -- or should they conform to the commands of "modernity"?
Meyerson is particularly upset that Pope John Paul's "Orthodox International" -- Israeli rabbis, Christian and Islamic clergy -- came forward to "bury ancient enmities and to jointly condemn a gay pride festival" in Jerusalem. Yet one need not be a raging homophobe to think it probably not a good idea -- in the middle of a Moslem intifada that may lead to a war of civilizations between Islam and the West -- not to have 100,000 Sodomites cavorting in the Holy City.
In discussing the late pope and traditional Christians, Meyerson tosses about insults like "benighted," "tribal" and "Phobics." He charges the Catholic Church with "backwardness," and draws a direct parallel between Catholic teaching and "tribal norms" and "traditional morality and bigotry."
Meyerson's is the authentic voice of an anti-Catholicism that is out of the closet and on the op-ed pages of the national press.
"Episcopalians Against Equality" is the title of Meyerson's piece. But this is surely unjust. None of these folks has called for the denial of any rights to homosexuals. They are simply saying that, as faithful Christians, they cannot elevate to the same moral plane as Christian marriage, which the Lord commends, the homosexual unions Scripture condemns.
God bless these brave Episcopalians at Christmas -- and a very Merry Christmas to you, too, Meyerson. |