Do you ever get the impression that the goal of many modern Catholic theologians is to demonstrate that there is no longer any reason for anyone to consider converting to Catholicism? I do. Often, their message seems to be that individuals such as John Henry Newman, Ronald Knox and Malcolm Muggeridge were insufficiently attuned to the necessity for respecting “diversity” in religious beliefs.
And yet, conversions of prominent individuals continue. Judge Robert Bork and the columnist and television commentator Robert Novak come to mind. Perhaps the decision of the Episcopal Church to elect V. Gene Robinson as its first open and practicing homosexual bishop will prod more Protestants serious about their faith to follow Bork’s and Novak’s lead. There is no way to overstate the importance of what the Episcopal Church leaders have done. They have openly and proudly placed “God in the dock” — to use C.S. Lewis’ phrase. They are calling on their flocks to worship what Hegel called the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.
Am I overstating the case? Being unfair? I don’t think so. In electing Robinson, the Episcopal bishops have proclaimed the Bible and 2000 years of Christian teaching on the natural law in regard to sex to be in error. New “insights” into sexuality generated by the social sciences and the popular culture have trumped the deposit of the faith. Consciously or not, the Episcopal leaders make the case that the Bible and Christian tradition are no longer sources of authority for our behavior. If the nature of the homosexual act can be defined by the winds of cultural change, everything can.
It makes one wonder if the Episcopal bishops have considered the implication about their personal role in this new scheme of things. If their job is to keep track of the latest opinions in academic and show business circles, and then cast their approval when they see a new consensus forming, the Episcopalians can do without theologians and a hierarchy. They don’t need to put money into the basket each week to discover what is politically correct. A contract with the folks who run the Gallop poll can do that for them.
Perhaps that last line is a bit flippant. But, in all seriousness, now that the Episcopalians have proclaimed Christianity (and the world’s other great religions, by the way) to have been in error on this matter for two centuries, because the popular culture has moved in another direction, what other teaching will be overridden next? How would the Episcopal Church’s leaders condemn pedophilia or incest, for example, if someone who wanted to engage in these behaviors were to argue that he is convinced that society will one day come around to accepting them? What would they say? That this individual is sinful because he is engaging in these acts too soon? That he has to wait until society approves before his alternative lifestyle becomes moral. I repeat: That is worshipping the Zeitgeist. Jesus did not come to tell us to follow popular opinion. The popular opinion of his time put him on the cross.
But are the Episcopalians going really that far? Are they proclaiming homosexuality to be morally equivalent to the conjugal love between man and woman — because society has developed an understanding of the nature of sex that is more enlightened than the biblical view? There is no way around it. They are. They are not saying, as does the Catholic Church, that Dr. Robinson may not be responsible for whatever it is in his psyche that causes him to be homosexual. They are not asking us to be forgiving of his weakness, to not cast the first stone. Dr. Robinson does not think his sexual activity is sinful. The Episcopal leaders are not making a distinction between his sexual orientation and his acting upon that orientation. Dr. Robinson is openly cohabiting with his “partner.” He makes no pretense that it is a non-sexual relationship. He demands that we accept it.
His supporters understand all this. Consider the August 9th editorial in my local newspaper, The Record-Journal in Meriden, Connecticut. The editors applaud the Episcopal Church’s decision “not to let the particulars of Robinson’s long-term, committed and loving gay partnership detract from the worthiness of his candidacy.” They argue that “Christians who are gay deserve to participate fully in every level of its ministry. It has affirmed that all are equal in the eyes of God even in the midst of stone-throwing by those who themselves are not without sin.” If there are Christians who cannot see the light on this matter, the editors continue, it is because they have “lost sight of what the church’s true mission is about.”
Got that? The sin is not in leaving one’s wife and children to live with a homosexual lover, as has Dr. Robinson, but in being judgmental about such a decision. In other words, the sin is in accepting the Bible and traditional Christian teachings, in not being sufficiently open-minded and ready to adapt to the new truths blown into place by the winds of change. What standard would the Episcopal leaders use to condemn the slave-owners in the ante-bellum South? Young Germans who joined Hitler’s S.S.? Romans who gathered to cheer the execution of Christians in the Colosseum? The enlightened opinion of their time approved of what they were doing. What would the Episcopal bishops do? Quote from the Bible? Explain the Christian understanding of the natural law in regard to human rights? They just brushed aside the Bible and the Christian understanding of the natural law to approve of Dr. Robinson’s homosexual lifestyle. Why trust it them as authorities anywhere else?
The Episcopal bishops have forfeited their right to teach. They have surrendered their right to say “no” to society, to stand against popular opinion, to convert, to transform, to act as a leaven for fallen men and women. They have surrendered their authority as teachers of the Gospel. The Catholic Church has its problems these days; no doubt about that. But we still have a Pope and a Magisterium that can serve as an anchor against the winds of change; the Episcopal bishops are a sail.
James Fitzpatrick's new novel, The Dead Sea Conspiracy: Teilhard de Chardin and the New American Church, is available from our online store. You can email Mr. Fitzpatrick at fitzpatrijames@sbcglobal.net.
(This article originally appeared in The Wanderer and is reprinted with permission. To subscribe call 651-224-5733.)
