The key words in today’s New York Times story about Truro and the Falls Church’s impending decision to leave the Episcopal Church are these:
“In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature or eat together in a restaurant.”
The members of these churches are about to declare to the world that they cannot live in a church that permits the ordination of an openly gay bishop, but they can happily accept the discipline of a church that believes gay people should be imprisoned for the crime of eating together in public. A distressingly large number of commenters on sites like Stand Firm and Titus One Nine have already made this declaration.
Perhaps I am naive to be appalled, but this no longer seems to be a debate about the proper role of gay and lesbians Christians in the Church, but about the moral legitimacy of rolling back human rights for minorities, in this case homosexuals, in a much wider ranging sort of way.