RE: GAFCON Response to Evangelical English Bishops

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

The GAFCON epistle appears at 
http://www.anglican-nig.org/main.php?k_j=12&d=156&p_t=index.php

I agree that best friends tell us hard truths about ourselves and
call us to repentance.  I have several best friends who know me well at
close range who do that for me, including most especially Ernest, my spouse.
Several on all sides of the 'issues' have performed that important spiritual
service.

For more than four decades lesbian and gay Christians have chosen to submit
our lives and our faith to the scrutiny of the church to help the church
test whether God is at work in our lives. Are we guilty of "stubborn
unrepentance" merely because we do not reach the same conclusions of those
who excoriate us?

I have never felt "I have no need of you" regarding any of my adversaries.
We all need one another very much.

As late as 1979 the official position of The Episcopal Church was very
similar to that of Lambeth 98.  Does anyone seriously think that The 
Episcopal Church changed only because deputies to conventions since 1979 
have been too timid to hold lgbts accountable "to God and godliness"?

I do not understand my sin to be my love of my male spouse of 34 years.  My
sin is my failure to love him enough, namely as much as I love myself.  Of
that sin I steadily repent and commit myself to the hard work of amending my
life, with God's help.

Even if I am wrong in my assessment of what my sin is, please do not presume
that I have come to that conclusion glibly with no attention to those who
disagree.  I have listened and listened and listened and listened and ....
not found them persuasive.

Could I be wrong?  Of course.  Could they be wrong?  Of course.

We pray individually and corporately, "Forgive us our sins -- known and
unknown."  Our access to the infinite love of God does not depend on our
getting all the kinks out of our theology, but depends rather on God's
grace.

I may be wrong about sin, but I am not wrong about God.  God's property is
always to show mercy.  As far as the East is from the West God has removed
my sins from me -- sins known and unknown -- the GAFCON bishops to the
contrary notwithstanding.

Are those who are  going to GAFCON  my "best friends"?
What mercy have they shown to those with whom they disagree?  Can anyone
imagine Jesus turning to the woman at the well and pointing luridly saying,
"I can't drink water from this well because of the evil in your life"?
That's what the GAFCON epistle says regarding Bishop Robinson and his
beloved spouse Mark Andrew.

What efforts have any of the authors of the GAFCON epistle made to know
Bishop Robinson or other lgbt Christians?

Why have they broken the promises of several Lambeths to listen to us?

What time or money have they spent evangelizing lgbts?

When lgbts have been sick or in prison or scorned as "lower than pigs or
dogs," when have these bishops stood by us to ask those without sin to cast
the first stone?

Are those who wrote the GAFCON epistle prepared to pray, "God, forgive me my
sins as I forgive The Episcopal Church for its trespasses against us"?  or
"Use the same standard in judging my sins that I use in judging the sins of
lesbians and gays"?    We should not risk praying the Lord's Prayer if we
don't mean it.

Those who wrote the GAFCON epistle in effect have changed scripture to say:
"God came into the world not to save it, but to condemn it."

My shepherd is a friend of lesbians and gays.  My shepherd knows our names.

Drink from Samaritan Wells!

Louie, L1 Newark 2009

Louie Crew, 377 S. Harrison St., 12d, East Orange, NJ 07018.  973-395-1068
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew