GIVE THAT BISHOP A BROOM

by Giles Fraser

Consider this sensitive editorial on the gay debate by the Revd Professor Gerald Bray in the journal, Churchman:

"Although no one will be surprised to discover that many of the Episcopal churches [in the Southern United States] are horrified at the recent election of a practicing homosexual as bishop of New Hampshire, the nature of Southern traditionalism does not immediately suggest that they would turn to a place like Rwanda for assistance. But, faced with the choice between a white American homosexual bishop and a black-skinned African archbishop, there has been no hesitation — Rwanda has won hands down.

"The celebrant may look more like the church janitor than like many of the worshippers in the pews, but that does not matter . . ."

Readers might be divided between those who want to emphasize that Professor Bray concludes "but this does not matter", and those, like me, who found it disgraceful that he needed mention that the Archbishop looked like the church janitor in the first place.

Professor Bray seems to be suggesting that, for these Americans, there is a hierarchy of acceptability: black and straight now coming in a nose ahead of white and gay. The assumption seems to be that the best sort of bishop is white and straight, and presumably the worst sort black and gay. Little wonder that some Christians question whether anti-gay theology is bigotry dressed up as biblical scholarship.

One of the ways in which the crisis over homosexuality is being spun is that it is a debate between the arrogant white global North and the powerless black global South. Yet African-American Episcopalians seem to see things differently. Their attendance at the two huge "realignment" conferences in Plano, Texas, has been minuscule.

"The African-American community is missing," complained the Revd Tom Logan, Rector of Calvary Church, Washington DC.

It is significant that the center of gravity of those who oppose the existence of the Rt Revd Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire is the American South. Less than 150 years ago, Christians in the South were still arguing that there is solid biblical support for slavery on the basis of texts such as Ephesians 6.

One of the leading lights of the American Anglican Council, Tom Tarrants, used to be a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and served time in jail for the attempted murder of a Jewish businessman. He now lectures Christians on the evils of racism. The disturbing thought is that he still has to.

The Revd Dr Giles Fraser is Vicar of Putney, and lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford.