THOSE CONTRARIAN EPISCOPALIANS

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

Jesus once said to would-be disciples that whoever would follow him must take up his cross daily… lose himself… forget about his own personal fulfillment, and, if necessary, lay down his life.

The former Episcopal Bishop of Utah and Episcopal Divinity School president Otis Charles, at 78, believes in the exact opposite. At his recent “wedding” to a four-times-married man, Charles said his actions were “guided by his belief that all human beings are called upon to live as fully as they can.”

For the believer, to live “fully” is to live fully into Christ, but that is not what Charles meant. He meant that to live “fully” was to personally fulfill oneself sexually, in this case with another man, despite the fact that neither the Christian Church, 2,000 years of church history, nor Holy Scripture gives him that right to do so.

Furthermore, one must ask oneself just how much fulfillment does Mr. Charles have in mind for him and Sanchez? Between the two of them they have had five marriages, double-digit kids, and in Charles’ case, grandchildren. When or where does personal fulfillment end… does it ever?

Mother Teresa lived “fully.” She spent herself in the service of others; she understood what Jesus said and meant. She, like millions of Americans, daily sacrifice their lives for others— their own personal “fulfillment” often runs a distant second.

Take one Episcopal lady I know whose husband left her after a number of years, denying her children, and then one day he announces he is gay and is “in love” with Guido. He leaves, she cries, then she gets off the floor and takes care of her parents—one has Alzheimer’s, the other MS. Where is the fulfillment for her?

She’s 44. Her chances of finding an understanding single man who is not in recovery from something are less than zero. She has better odds of being hit by a Mack truck.

The greatest commandment is to love God and then your neighbor as yourself. We are not told to specifically love ourselves—presumably because that comes naturally to most people who can find a mirror.

The Good News of the gospel is the greatest news the world has ever known. To embrace it and proclaim it in whatever form God has called you is the noblest cause of all. It is not amassing great fortunes, looking to be CEO of Disney, embracing the culture of celebrity, joining Integrity, or having sex at 78 with someone of your own sex! Those things are not worth laying down your life for, nor is the pursuit of them worth endangering the destiny of your eternal soul.

“He that loses His life for My sake and the gospel will find it,” said Jesus.

Otis Charles has it all wrong. In reversing Jesus’ command, he endangers his own soul and those of others—especially his 7-year-old grandson who was obliged to watch a farce of a “wedding” take place, and may well be permanently scarred as a result.

The Episcopal Church may well be in its death throes, the Global South ready to pull the plug on the whole stinking mess of Griswoldian pluriformity and pansexuality. The Otis Charles “marriage” is just another example of the Gadarene slide toward the abyss.

God save us all.

END