Faith and Reason: A conversation about religion, spirituality and ethics

Apr 19, 2010

Anglican fight: Can a woman bishop speak for God in England?

08:36 AM
Comment

Recommend

Welcome to the echo chamber. If you tuned in to the fierce battle over gay bishops in the Episcopal Church -- whether it would fracture the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion and maybe the Communion as well -- you will certainly hear a familiar clashing sound if you pick up the latest New Yorker.

In the context of a massive look at the history, status and struggles of the Church of England (miniscule church attendance, immigration, rising fundamentalist and charismatic Protestantism), writer Jane Kramer examines its current fight over whether to ordain female bishops.

Things are slower over there. It took England nearly two decades longer - until 1994 -- to allow female priests in the Church of England. The Episcopal Church ordained women officially in 1976 (although 11 were "unofficially" brought to the pulpit in Philadelphia in 1974). While that the CofE's governing Synod will debate female bishops at its July meeting, the Episcopal Church already is led by one, presiding bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori.

The going is bitter. According to the piece, nearly a third of the CofE's working priests are female, a status that took the Synod 17 years of "wrenching" fights to permit and even now there are "flying bishops" who zip around England filling in at parishes that refuse to accept the faith from a female.

Kramer calls Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams support for female bishops as "sincere but timid." And later she calls him "a theologian of huge distinction
and, perhaps because of this, almost paralytic reticence." Like President Obama, she writes, he appears believe in "a commendable but not very realistic belief in the power of reason to turn your enemies into allies."

But Williams is now up against more than just battling bishops and bishop-want-to-be's on his own turf. Williams was blindsided last fall by "Pope Benedict XVI, whom Kramer calls a theologian of less distinction but far steelier entitlement," who seized on the moment to invite dissenters to jump overboard into what she calls "the sheltering misogyny of the magisterium."

And unlike the Catholic pope, Williams carries no canonical clout. He may be head of the communion of more than 77 million people in 160 countries, the globe's third largest Christian denomination, but all he comes armed with is moral, spiritual persuasion.

Which is evidently not working so well. As one flying bishop told Kramer:

Certain things are unalterable. You can develop women's ministry in a normal way, but you can't change ministry or the episcopate any more than you can bread and wine. What remains is Jesus' choice of twelve men. The Catholic priesthood is successor to the Jewish priesthood. A gracious patriarchy.

Indeed, Kramer calculates, "As many as a thousand conservative Anglo-Catholic priests are now said to be weighing Benedict's offer" including John Broadhurst, the Suffragan Bishop of Fulham and the chairman of Forward in Faith (which formed after women were first ordinated) who says rather than bow to a " 'new' CofE, " in the end I'd rather knuckle under to the Vatican."

But among the women priests, and many believers, the battle is far simpler, Kramer writes. The Rev. Helen-Ann Hartley says people at her parish church near Oxford...

...Just want to get on with the work of the Gospel. What they want is sympathy from a human being. Not a 'man' or a 'woman' but a priest to minister to them.

Archdeacon Christine Harman told Kramer,

What I don't understand is why they think maleness is enough, and why the only ones they grant as having theological beliefs are men. This isn't about what women want. It's about religion and about what we believe God wants, about how we "discern" someone to whom leadership is given...

Doesn't this sound a whole lot like the U.S. fight over gay bishops? So far, that battle cost the Episcopal Church about 10% of it's parishes which decamped to more traditionalist alliances including the Anglican Church in North America which won't ordain gay bishops -- or women.

Do you believe a woman can -- or can't -- fill any post in your faith? Why? Is years of debate over changing church rules essential because discernment takes time and prayer? Or is it just stalling the inevitable?

Apr 16, 2010

Obama will still issue National Day of Prayer proclamation

08:05 PM
Comment

Recommend

The blogosphere and Facebook have been overwhelmed over the past 24 hours with rumors and accusations that President Obama has canceled the National Day of Prayer, scheduled for Thursday May 6. So, is it true?

No. The rumors arise out of Thursday's decision by Wisconsin U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. She ruled that it violates the First Amendment's ban against a law respecting an establishment of religion (full decision pdf).

The Obama administration has both tweeted and confirmed in an e-mail to the Associated Press from spokesman Matt Lehrich that Obama still plans to recognize The National Day of Prayer as it did last year.

Bloggers that accused Obama of canceling the National Day of Prayer also cite displeasure with Obama's departure from the Bush administration policies. Last year, Obama decided not to hold an official White House service for the day, as former President George W. Bush did during his administration. (But Obama did make a proclamation.)

Read more »

Apr 13, 2010

Christian singer Jennifer Knapp says she felt pressure to choose between her faith, being gay

09:25 PM
Comment

Recommend

Move over Ricky Martin. The hunky Latin-pop singer who announced last month that he is gay has company: veteran Christian musician Jennifer Knapp. In interviews with Christianity Today and Advocate.com, Knapp, 33, a Dove Award-winning folk rock singer, acknowledges that the rumors are true: she's in a same-sex relationship.

"I don't want to come off as somebody who's shirking the truth in my life," she tells Christianity Today.

She calls the rumors that she left music for a seven-year sabbatical because she was a lesbian ...

... a straw (in my decision), but there were many straws on the camel's back at the time. I'm certainly in a same-sex relationship now, but when I suspended my work, that wasn't even really a factor. I had some difficult decisions to make and what that meant for my life and deciding to invest in a same-sex relationship, but it would be completely unfair to say that's why I left music.

Knapp says in the interview that she's "absolutely" felt pressure to choose between her faith and her gay feelings.

Everyone around me made it absolutely clear that this is not an option for me, to invest in this other person, and for me to choose to do so would be a denial of my faith.

Scripture, she adds, has been her salvation.

The Bible has literally saved my life. I find myself between a rock and a hard place -- between the conservative evangelical who uses what most people refer to as the 'clobber verses' to refer to this loving relationship as an abomination, while they're eating shellfish and wearing clothes of five different fabrics, and various other Scriptures we could argue about.

I'm not capable of getting into the theological argument as to whether or not we should or shouldn't allow homosexuals within our church. There's a spirit that overrides that for me, and (that is) what I've been gravitating to in Christ and why I became a Christian in the first place.

In the Advocate interview, Knapp says she knows her coming out is "going to be shocking and feel like a betrayal to some people" who have been fans. Still, "I'm quite comfortable to live with parts of myself that don't make sense to you."

Her new CD Letting Go is set for release on May 10, and she has begun touring, but Knapp tells Christianity Today that her public revelation is not motivated by political activism.

I'm in no way capable of leading a charge for some kind of activist movement. I'm just a normal human being who's dealing with normal everyday life scenarios.

As a Christian, I'm doing that as best as I can. The heartbreaking thing to me is that we're all hopelessly deceived if we don't think that there are people within our churches, within our communities, who want to hold on to the person they love, whatever sex that may be, and hold on to their faith.

Do you think Christians who publicly acknowledge that they're gay must choose between their faith and a loving relationship, as Jennifer Knapp says she's felt pressure to do?

--By Michelle Healy, USA TODAY

What causes sex abuse? Research conflicts with Catholic leaders

03:35 PM
Comment

Recommend

Another day, another development in the Catholic sex abuse story. Now, high-ranking Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is pointing his finger at gay clergy, saying:

Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. That is the problem.

According to research, he's right and wrong: right on celibacy, wrong on homosexuality.

On homosexuality

After the U.S. clergy abuse scandal in 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a multi-year study conducted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Results reported in 2009 suggested that access to young boys, not homosexual orientation, was largely responsible for the high percentage of male abuse cases. John Jay researcher Margaret Smith told bishops Nov. 17:

We do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now ... It's important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior. Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity.

Read more »

Apr 12, 2010

Hindus bathe in Ganges in massive festival

05:05 PM
Comment

Recommend

With all the news of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, you wouldn't know that half a world away one of the biggest religious gatherings on the planet is going on -- the Kumbh Mela. This is when Hindu pilgrims come to bathe themselves in the Ganges River, which they believe heals them and cleanses them of their sins. Sound like another dip you know?

It's estimated that tens of millions turn up over the three months of the "pitcher festival," with a the last rush of tourists and pilgrims arriving now in the final days (Wednesday is the last "royal bath"). To get a better view of this holy event, check out video from the first day below, or to see a Westerner's personal account of Kumbh Mela, including concerns about fecal and other waste, check out this Vancouver Sun article. I remember when swine flu concerns were at a peak, some Catholic churches installed hands-free holy water dispensers. WOULD YOU, have you let health concerns keep you from participating in a religious ritual?

--Anne Godlasky, USA TODAY

Apr 10, 2010

Vatican's new line: Openness, rigor, justice on abuse crisis

07:34 PM
Comment

Recommend

The Vatican appears to be singing a new tune after a Holy Week of gaffes on the sexual abuse crisis -- demeaning reports of failures to remove pedophile priests dismisses as petty gossip and critics of the pope compared to anti-Semites.

It's been announced that the pope will meet with more abuse victims and Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told media that it will set up a new web site where the Church will detail in lay language how it deals with reports of abuse.

Lombardi also told the Associated Press that "transparency and rigor are urgently needed to show that the church is run in a wise and just manner."

Widsom and justice may be seen very differently than the Church's version, however. Victims are having none of the so-called new transparency. The call remains strong for punishment -- for the priests who violated their vows and bishops who protected them.

That, however, raises another question: Will these new efforts at openness, rigor and justice be enough?

Apr 09, 2010

Does the U.S. Supreme Court need another Protestant?

12:35 PM
Comment

Recommend

The last Protestant on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, announced his much-expected retirement today, opening the floodgates of speculation on who comes next. Another Catholic to join the current six? Another Jewish justice?

NPR's Nina Tottenberg tracked the history of what she calls a "radioactive subject" of justices' religion, with one source saying this was not discussed "in polite company."

Really? It was discussed aplenty when Sonia Sotomayor made No. 6 for Catholics. It's noted whenever the court is off for Jewish holidays to accommodate Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer. And certainly it came up during speculation over who would fill the seat Sotomayor eventually took.

Tottenberg points out the faith of three current front-runners for the Stevens seat: Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal judge Merrick Garland, both Jewish, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is Catholic. Our White House blog The Oval includes federal judge Diane Wood as another top name but I'm unable to locate any mention of her religious background or current affinity.

Still, even if we know someone's label, we can't assume:

  • That everyone lives -- and judges rule -- in accord with that brand.
  • That even if they were formed in one childhood faith, they haven't come to see the world, or that religion differently
  • That they will -- or will not -- impose their personal faith views on the entire nation with their rulings.

Justices Sotomayor and Antonin Scalia are both Catholic but their interpretation of living the faith -- social justice emphasis on the left or traditionalist on the right -- seems quite different. (The other Catholics on the court are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito).

Does it matter, in a majority Protestant country, that another one join the court? Sarah Pulliam Bailey, blogging at Get Religion, notes that this does matter to another Protestant -- retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who told the Associated Press that the court needed more religious diversity.

What kind of Protestant? There's a pretty big stretch between, say the Disciples of Christ and the Southern Baptist Convention.

And survey after survey shows that people often retain a denominational identity but drift far afield in their theology, indeed to the point of contradicting the core doctrines their faith preaches. Consider that most folks believe all good people go to heaven although evangelical Christian faiths teach that salvation is open only through Christ.

Given the current climate in Washington, D.C., I'm not sure Solomon or Jesus could get through a confirmation hearing unscathed. All that social justice talk ...

Do you care what religion the next Supreme Court justice claims? Why?

Funniest faith: Muslim comics top British contest

08:06 AM
Comment

Recommend

The venerable reign of the Jewish joke has a serious rival in Muslim wit, according to The Jewish Daily Forward pop culture coverage.

The Shmooze has the news of a recent comedy contest in Britain sponsored by promoters for The Infidel, in which a Muslim character discovers he was really born to Jewish parents. Oy!

The film opens in England today and at the Tribeca Film Festival here later this month. Promoters invited online voters to name "Which religion is the funniest" (while smartly banning "anything offensive or racist.")

Two of the top three places went to Muslim performers. While it's hard to get a ha ha out of the Middle East, writer Nathan Burstein notes that one of the comics who tied for top prize, did so:

A Bahai comedian from Canada, Parker drew laughs with a story about Israeli and Palestinian co-workers, both of whom laid claim to a single parking spot.

Read the rest, have a laugh and, if you care to comment keep this clean and civil.

Apr 07, 2010

Rev. Barbie, the plastic priest, is dressed to bless

11:13 PM
Comment

Recommend

Barbie, the plastic princess of girlhood dreams has moved on to higher powers. Meet Rev. Barbie, a fully outfitted little blonde priest ready to bless you -- and maybe marry your Bratz dolls.

Leanne Larmondin for Religion News Service, interviews the creator of the stylish little priest, Rev. Jule Blake Fisher, a priest in Kent Ohio, who outfitted "Episcopal Church Barbie -- High Church Edition,"as a gift for a friend, Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew, rector of Christ (Episcopal) Church, in Manlius, N.Y., near Syracuse.

The 11.5-inch-tall fictional graduate of Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., has donned a cassock and surplice and is rector at St. Barbara's-by-the-Sea in (where else?) Malibu, Calif.

She arrived at the church fully accessorized, as is Barbie's custom. Her impeccably tailored ecclesiastical vestments include various colored chasubles (the sleeveless vestments worn at Mass) for every liturgical season, black clergy shirt with white collar, neat skirt and heels, a laptop with prepared sermon and a miniature, genuine Bible.

Apparently a devotee of the "smells and bells" of High Church tradition, the Rev. Barbie even has a tiny thurible, a metal vessel used for sending clouds of incense wafting toward heaven (crafted from a teeny tea ball)...p>

She's got a Facebook page and Fisher plans to expand the line to include...

... an African-American Bishop Barbie, a Hispanic Ken doll who will be cathedral dean (rector) and his African-American friend, Stephen, will be a deacon. Barbie's little sister, Kelly, will be an acolyte. "

The little plastic priest is ideal for making any argument you like about women in the church.

Elizabeth Tenety spins this into anOn Faith look at how the Catholic Church might have avoided the sexual abuse scandal " if real women could rule."

Thomas Peters at Catholic Action.org huffs,

I think this is a very compelling argument against ordaining women priests.

The Midwest Conservative Journal has field day mocking Rev. Barbie and, through her, the liberal Episcopal Church led by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Schori is known for supporting full inclusion for gays and lesbians in the church (and for her own colorful vestments). MCJ says:

I suppose "orthodox" Christians would raise all sorts of "theological" objections to the "ordination" of inanimate "objects" in the Episcopal "Church" as well as to their full "inclusion" in the "life" of that institution. But it seems to me that the benefits would far outweigh the risks. These include but are not limited to:

(1) Better sermons
(2) Less heresy in sermons
(3) A lessening of Anglican Communion tensions since inanimate standing committees would be far less likely to assent to the election of controversial episcopal candidates
(4) Your parish no longer has to buy as much good coffee or communion wine.

Should the Archbishop of Canterbarbie -- I mean Canterbury! -- be looking over his shoulder?

Chuck Colson to Christians: Hold the tea, pray for government

11:03 AM
Comment

Recommend

Chuck Colson -- Watergate figure turned evangelical activist -- looks at the amorphous Tea Party movement through a Christian lens in Christianity Today.

While big government can grow away from the people it is meant to serve and populist movements have a role in reform, Colson and co-author Catherine Larson write. But, he says,

This time, a massive wave of anti-government sentiment could shatter the political consensus, which may well leave the country virtually unmanageable.

The inevitable consequence of all of this should deeply trouble Christians, who, of any segment of our society, understand the necessity of a strong government....

The tea party movement may have a lot of traction in America today, but it makes no attempt to present a governing philosophy. It simply seeks an outlet -- an understandable one -- for the brooding frustrations of many Americans. But anti-government attitudes are not the substitute for good government.

And ultimately it is good government that Christians should be striving for with "constructive reformation," says Colson.

CT often includes an unscientific quick poll. This one, with 1127 replies so far, asks readers what they think of the Tea Party movement.

So far, 18% say they are part of it, and 32% say, "I like what they stand for, but I'm not part of the movement."

Others disagree with it (22%) or say "the movement makes me nervous" (12%) or "I don't think the movement knows what it is" (8%).

Another 5% are ambivalent and 3% don't know what the movement is.

Do you see any fit between the Tea Party movement -- as you understand it -- and what your faith or philosophy teaches you about the role of government?