Two theologies

John M Gessell writing in The Covenant Journal - The present crisis in the Episcopal Church (and, indeed, in the worldwide Anglican Communion) is not just about the moral status of homosexuality and its expression.

Homosexuality and scriptural authority in this perspective are wedge issues in a struggle to gain power and to preserve patriarchy in the Church. The blows to male domination which have occurred in the past fifty years threaten patriarchal control and underlie the present hysteria. The end of patriarchal power has engendered conflict, and attempts to force the Church to adopt novel theories of Scriptural authority and to adopt novel systems in its polity under the claim of historical legitimacy and of traditionalism. Those who cannot agree to this takeover are called, ironically, "revisionists."

This conflict is played out through alternative doctrines of God. Though not articulated openly, there is a face-off between the God of love and justice, and the God of judgment and wrath. Both may be found in the Old Testament. On the one hand we can read of a blazing, thunderous, blasting storm-God who strikes down in wrath all who fail to meet his demands. This jealous God of wrath is in contrast to a God of compassion, of a humane God who makes the rainbow promise not to destroy his people. This is God as rescuer, as redeemer, who is relenting and who is ever wooing his people and in whom there is plenteous forgiveness.

God as male authority figure. God as lover. Images of God have consequences that matter. The conflicting images of God profoundly inform the present debate in the Church and its sex wars. The Windsor Report seems to project a God who is judgmental, censorious, legalizing, casting down sinners to keep his Church holy and pure. This is a gospel of intolerance. On the other hand, the Episcopal Church's response to Windsor, "To Set our Hope on Christ," is deeply thoughtful, considering scripture and tradition carefully in its explanation of the Church's actions. It presents a God who is not judgmental, but forgiving, caring, accepting, loving, who seeks to bring all to himself. This God is the firm foundation of a Church that is inclusive and accepting and which calls all to God's table. At this present, the two images are remote from one another and establish unbridgeable gaps in faith.

To put the conflict in alternative terms, we can draw a circle of love and include all of God's children, or we can cast out those we dislike and of whom we disapprove.

PDF link: To Set our Hope on Christ