Seventeen … 14 … 2 …

Seventeen … 14 … 2 … February 18, 2005

1988 …

1) that sexual intercourse is an act of total commitment which belongs properly within a permanent marriage relationship;

2) that fornication and adultery are sins against this idea, and are to be met by a call to repentance and the exercise of compassion;

3) that homosexual acts also fall short of this idea, and are likewise to be met by a call to repentance and exercise of compassion;

4) that all Christians are called to be exemplary in all spheres of morality, including sexual morality, and that holiness of life is particularly required for Christian leaders.

— The Episcopal Church, 1988.

Melton, J. Gordon, The Churches Speak on: Homosexuality, pp. 102-103.

Three years later, 1991, the Episcopal Church …

We do not agree, in particular, concerning two issues fundamental to the Church’s position on ethical questions before us:

1) whether homosexual orientation is an equally valid, God-given alternative to heterosexual orientation

2) whether committed, monogamous, heterosexual marriage is the only morally acceptable context for sexual intimacy

We agreed that homosexual orientation is not morally culpable or inconsistent with being a committed Christian. Such a position is consistent with a biblical witness, which, as mentioned earlier, does not speak in terms of orientation. It is also consistent with the evidence we have received from the social sciences that such an orientation is not, in the vast majority of cases, a matter of choice.

The Blue Book (1991): Reports of the Committees, Commission, Boards, and Agencies of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

2003, 12 years later, the Episcopal Church …

consecrated a practicing homosexual as Bishop.

What the future holds, God only knows.


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