Likewise, an unwillingness to accept homosexual marriage might make you a bad Democrat, but it also does not necessarily make you a bad Christian. The scriptural record offers some challenges to homosexuality that could legitimately be regarded by faithful believers as proscriptive. Although my own church and tradition are supportive of love wherever it blossoms, those who believe that marriage can only be between a man and a woman are not doomed or damned.
My friend Brian McLaren, himself perhaps something of a secret Episcopalian, has written in A New Kind of Christianity about this pervasive phenomenon, about how often we act as though the thing we believe has to be believed by everyone . . . or else.
When we insist that everyone has to believe as we do, when we elevate every item of our faith and belief to essential status, we don't do anyone any favors. It's the kind of practice that makes Catholic bishops decree that if you don't follow the church's teachings on birth control, abortion, or other social issues—none of which are creedal or talked about by Jesus—you are outside the Church.
It's the kind of practice that makes progressive Christians say that if you don't agree with them on the environment, gay marriage, or social safety nets, you are unchristian.
And it is the kind of practice that makes Democrats say that if you are not wholeheartedly pro-choice, your beliefs are not welcome on the party platform.
Much better, it seems to me, is the practice suggested by Messrs. Hooker and Danforth—that of moderation and reconciliation. That sort of thinking reflects an awareness that not every element of our faith is actually necessary for salvation, and some diversity is not only acceptable, but probably useful. The Anglican via media offers an understanding that we must be willing to forgive and to compromise if we are to move forward together. And the history of the via media suggests the opportunity of actual achievement, something we seem to see very little of in either our political or our religious lives these days.
A few days before the general election, Anglicans worldwide will celebrate the feast day of Richard Hooker, and if you walked into an Episcopal Church, you might very well hear this collect, offered as a closing prayer today:
O God of truth and peace, who raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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