Our Call to Mission - From Bruce Garner

In comment on a discussion about the impact of Vermont's Decision to allow Equal Access to Marriage, Bruce Garner, member of the Executive Committee of the Episcopal Church and former President of Integrity, get's to the heart of the matter... I excerpt this with his permission:

"My experience is that folks will continue to find any way they can to perpetuate discrimination, regardless of the area of our common life together where such discrimination might be found. I would wager that some, perhaps even on this list, regret the overturning of the miscegenation laws....though most would not admit to such attitudes.

I am of the opinion that our church has a teaching role in this discussion. And once again I return to our baptismal covenant promises. Either we baptize into full membership or we do not. If we do not, then we need to own that and clearly state the level of membership into which we are baptizing someone....regardless of the reason for that limitation.

We seem to always conveniently overlook the fact that neither of our creeds, none of the Ten Commandments, nor the Summary of the Law contain any qualifiers at all with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, economic status, educational status, legal residency or any other adjective we might want to slip in there. They summarize our creedal beliefs. They provide direction about our relationship with God and with each other. As Rabbi Hillel noted about the Summary of the Law, all else but the summary was commentary.

We CLAIM to want to grow our church. Yet the greatest source of growth for us, namely young people, has no interest in distinctions about race, gender, sexual orientation or any of the qualifiers we continue to squabble about. We will not attract those young people into or back into the church until we listen to what they are trying to teach us: They are not interested in our reasons for the squabbles. They don't see the need for such distinctions, despite what their elders keep trying to tell them about "what the Bible says."

Time and time again, I have noted that the crux of our duties may be found in the end of the 25th chapter of Matthew's account of the Gospel. Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, water the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit those who are sick and in prison. He does NOT tell us to determine where they sit on any scale of doctrinal purity as a condition of our engagement in ministry to and with them. And as I have also noted before, the Letter of James makes it clear that, to paraphrase, the growling noises of empty stomachs will drown out the salvation message of the Gospel. We are hypocrites if we attempt to preach at people who are more interested
in the source of their next meal or place to sleep.

Thanks, Bruce. We must keep our eye on the prize and put it into the context of the Gospel call to us in the Episcopal Church in 2009.