Episcopol Church Approves Gay Clergy

As much as I trash religions, I'll give them their due when they get it right. NPR:

"Just a few weeks ago, even liberals were predicting that the Episcopal Church would back away from allowing openly gay men and lesbians to become bishops. Ever since 2003, when the church elevated Gene Robinson to be bishop of New Hampshire, it's taken fire from conservative Anglicans around the world. Three years ago, leaders tried to tamp down the anger by promising a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops.

"And we did that for a time — for the last three years — and that time is over," says Susan Russell, a priest in Pasadena, Calif., and president of Integrity, a gay rights organization in the church. Russell was at the church's general convention in Anaheim, Calif., on Tuesday when it voted overwhelmingly to allow gay men and lesbians to become priests and bishops."

I don't see what the big deal is. Lesbians aside, the Catholic Church has been doing that sort of thing for years...

OK, no more snark, I promise. As you might expect, not everyone greeted the news with flowers and pastries:

"The conservative wing of the Episcopal Church walked out last month and is creating its own rival church, leaving liberals in the vast majority....

Russell acknowledges this was a risky move, particularly because Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, warned the Americans not to endorse gay bishops or same-sex blessings lest the second-largest Christian church in the world be split in two. But Russell says the U.S. church is independent, and no foreign province can tell it what to do."

Good for them.

Of course, you can't, in the words of Dan Savage, convince a knuckle-dragging bigot that homosexuality is a natural, harmless variation from the norm. Because that would be looking at the evidence rather than the Bible. And we can't have that, now, can we? At any rate, at least we know who the haters are.

And I could get all nuanced over the sentiment of, "well, now, some of those people might have conscientious objections to gay priests and blah blah blah." Not any more. This is the 21st century--you know better. No excuses for bigotry. Own up to it; you'll get at least a token of respect that way.

Which is more than you deserve.