Friday, July 22, 2005

Theology dodged says The Living Church

Quoting:

Asked by the Windsor Report to explain “from within the sources of authority that we as Anglicans have received in scripture, the apostolic tradition and reasoned reflection, how a person living in a same-gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ,” the Episcopal Church’s seven-person delegation instead emphasized that its decision to consecrate a non-celibate homosexual person as bishop was prophetic. Rather than approaching the matter theologically, most of the Episcopalians turned it into a justice issue.
But, as we read in Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Though OT, Micah 6:8 anticipates the NT approach to religious law -- and Christians are a New Testament people, aren't they? The Bible is not a codification of how to "do justice." But we are required to do it, including figuring it out. Figuring out justice issues is at the core of theology. By defering to the people of New Hampshire our bishops skipped over the figuring out. Ironically, the Windsor Report appears to have at least forced the Episcopal Church to construct a case that its teaching on homosexuals was not just.

Consider verses 6 and 7 leading into Micah 6:8:

"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
No; what do these offerings have to do with justice? What does ostricizing homosexuals have to do with pleasing God?

No comments: