Great Post about TEC and "The Situation"

This might be kind of weird- posting a post that was in response to something on another blog. However, I did not know how to link to the post (it was on the comments on Father Jake Stops the World- a blog I read every day- sometimes twice a day).

This was from Harry in the comments section. I hope he forgives me for reposting it without his permission...

Having gays as scapegoats makes everything that is murky about American Christian life easier.

Everybody in America knows gays are everywhere. We have hit TV shows based on gay characters. We have constant revelations of gays in high and low places.

So, if we can pretend gays don't exist in our churches and base it on the idea of 'the one true orthodoxy' then we create a formula for dealing with everything else that is murky in our lives as Christians. If I say ridiculous things like, 'God Hates Fags' (from the extremists), to 'homosexuality is a choice' (from the slightly less extreme) to 'celibacy is an option' (from many Christians who know nothing about psychology or celibacy) to 'they can be cured if they ask Jesus to do so' (from those who have no idea what statistics on cures are and how dangerous they are for the individuals and their families)...if we can convince ourselves that the complex problem of homosexuality can be buried in blind faith, then the rest of it all becomes easy.

Witness the 70% figure for people who identify as Christian. Everyone who lives in this country knows that as time goes by fewer and fewer people go to church. I come from West Virginia mountain people, and I spent years as a farmer--so I'm not just talking about my arsty-fartsy intelligentsia Episcopalian friends! But, because we have a model for burying things--the gay model--we can bury the 'definition' of being Christian as easily.

One could make the argument that a 'yes' answer to the question 'are you Christian?' would be possible only if one answered yes to the following questions:

1. Do you actively feed the hungry?
2. Do you visit prisons?
3. Do you work to make sure people have places to sleep at night?

etc.

But these aren't the kinds of questions that matter when we start counting Christians. What matters is:

1. Are you Evangelical?
2. Where do you come down on the gay thing?

For Christ's sake, let's do the work and stop raising high the cross that's built of a million splinters over arguments that only mask the sloppiness of everyone's practice of Christian religion.

BY THE WAY--THE BIG GUY got really mad at King David for counting his troups, and I wonder if he likes it when we do....
Harry
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Nicely put, don't you think?