Head of The Episcopal Church Says Gay Sex Is Like the Seven Deadly Sins

Good grief where to start!! Another Anglican post I know I know. Expect more next week because there will be some crucial Bishop elections in several important Episcopal Dioceses in the United States. Needless to say what they are doing over there now affects what we are doing over here a great deal.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori basically said it appears that homosexual acts are like the Seven Deadly sins. In this case gluttony and excessive consumerism.

Now one wonders if she has thought this through. See Episcopal Presiding Bishop Says Door Still Open to Bishops in Non-Celibate Same Sex Partnerships. A transcript someone has done is at the bottom of my post .

Midwest Conservative Report goes to town all over this by the way. See WHEN YOU’RE IN A HOLE…. As to the Gluttony comments he says:

“I think [gluttony and excessive consumerism] are far more challenging issues than a long-term, committed relationship with a person of the same gender.” Really. Katharine Jefferts Schori thinks that a “far more challenging issue” for the Christian church is fat people who buy too much crap.

But what about a fat homosexual who buys too much crap? Would you have a problem ordaining him? What should TEO do about two fat homosexuals who both buy too much crap and want to get married?

You obviously haven’t thought these things through, Presiding Bishop. And by the way, does J. Jon Bruno know about TEO’s upcoming anti-gluttony project?

In the above TITUSONENINE comments someone made this observation:
I wonder what the LGBT community thinks about her comparing gluttony and excessive consumerism [Oniomania ?] to their relationships. It is interesting for her to use addictions for comparison to homosexual relationships. If she is OK with same gender relationships Why did she use these examples?

Indeed!!

Indeed gluttony and consumerism are huge problems. But there is a another problem here. We don't take sins and bless them?

As far as I know the Catholic Church or any other Christian body do not have :

The Annual Blessings of the Credit Cards So you can seek relief in material Goods
We Don't have a Rite of Blessing for Whorehouses
We don't have a Rite of Blessing So I can bang my Secretary
We Don't have A Rite of Blessing for Getting to the TOP no matter what?
In fact there is no rite of blessing for wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

Again we are not talking about discriminating against people that have levels of same sex attraction!!! We are talking about the acts themeselves. Not the people.

Has she thought this out? Is this a consistent theology?

By the way what " Angel" shall we associate with these new blessings? The following "angels" (fallen ones) are taken"
In 1589, Peter Binsfeld paired each of the deadly sins with a demon, who tempted people by means of the associated sin. According to Binsfeld's classification of demons, the pairings are as follows
Lucifer: Pride (superbia)
Mammon: Greed (avaritia)
Asmodeus: Lust (luxuria)
Leviathan: Envy (invidia)
Beelzebub: Gluttony (gula or gullia)
Satan/Amon/Azzarox: Wrath (ira)
Belphegor: Sloth (acedia)
There are also other demons who invoke sin, for instance Lilith and her offspring, the incubi and succubi, invoke lust. The succubi sleep with men in order to impregnate themselves, so that they can spawn demons. The incubi sleep with women to lead them astray and to impregnate them with demon spawn.

Hopefully there will be an announcement soon.



Here is a rough transcript.
KJS: We did not see that as a reversal. The Canons or the Church Law of The Episcopal Church has for a long time said that the discernment process is open to any baptized person. So it does not represent a change. It represents a reaffirmation of what church law has said for a long time. It did not say anything about repudiating the statement that the bishops made in 2007.

NPR: So the bottom line is it fair to say that at least the door has been opened for gay and lesbian bishops in addition to Bishop Robinson.

KJS: The door has been open for many years.

NPR: So if an openly gay or lesbian person were to make it through to the stage where he or she could be consecrated bishop you would go ahead with that.

KJS: It is my duty, my canonical duty as Presiding Bishop, to take order for the consecration of a bishop whose election has been affirmed by the consent process.

NPR: The Archbishop of Canterbury said that we need to have a real thorough exploration of all of this and we need to have a wider consent within the communion in order to go ahead with either the consecration of gay bishops or blessings of gay unions. He said that does not exist in the communion right now. How do you feel about that?

KJS: The conversations been going on in The Episcopal Church for 45 years. The reality is that same-sex unions are blessed in many churches of the Anglican Communion. Not just in the United States or Canada but in the Church of England. Not officially but that is reality.


KJS: The scriptural basis for what the convention affirmed about our discernment process is that each human being is made in the image of God.

NPR: I think perhaps for some folks the distinction is not about how one is made but how one behaves. All of the arguments I’ve read center around behavior, ways of acting, is there a difference between the two?

KJS: In some circumstances yes. My experience in talking to people about this is that some people who object to the ordination of gay and lesbian people really begin with their orientation. They cannot see beyond that. Others will admit that gay and lesbian people might be created in the image of god and be fit mattered whatever their orientation. But object to the fact that some live in partnered relationships. What the church is really called to do is support all its members in living holy lives as exemplars of God’s love in the world. I think the biggest challenge we’re having right now is knowing what holy living looks like. We do not reject people who give evidence of gluttony; we do not prima facie reject people who give evidence of excessive consumerism. I think those are far more challenging issues than long-term committed relationships of a person with the same gender.

NPR: You said in a conversation with me last year that approaching people who disagree we need to be in conversation and that’s not lobbing words at each other its listening to each other. What would you say to somebody who says ‘ok this vote by the general convention is not conversation but a form of escalation’?

KJS: Legislative processes are not terrible conducive to conversation when we push something to a vote we create winners and losers. The decisions of General Convention last summer I don’t honestly believe pushed things any farther. We simply re-iterated what the standards of this church are at this time.

NPR: That is not what at least some of those who’ve been unhappy with it are saying

KJS: It’s hard to understand General Convention as being top down. It’s nearly 1,000, its more than a 1000 people gathered together representing the broad diversity of this Church, seeking discernment in the name of Christ together. It’s not an archbishop saying this is how things must be.

NPR: You’ve probably also hear people saying, ’this is going too slowly. If this is right, why not just do it the people who are gonna leave are gonna leave any why’?

KJS: Our tradition has been called the middle way for a very long time and its attention to the fact that we are called to deliberate action. Considered action. And it doesn’t happen as fast as some would like it. It happens faster than others would like.

NPR: But in the mean time you are spending more and more of your resources on legal battles. Doesn’t that take away from what the church should really be about?

KJS: The reality is that this is a portion of our mission. Preserving the assets of our church is a part of our responsibility. It’s certainly not the whole of our responsibility. There are abundant resources for the work of the gospel. Our task is to focus on the ways they can be most productive