Evangelical backlash follows England's decision to allow "gay" bishops

Distinction between chaste and active gay partnerships mere sophistry African leaders say
January 7, 2013
By George Conger

Conservative Evangelical leaders have charged the Church of England’s House of Bishops with hypocrisy, denouncing the 20 Dec 2012 announcement that gay clergy in civil partnerships, who remain celibate, may be appointed as bishops.

"A bishop known to be in a civil partnership could hardly be a focus of unity nor be a bishop for the whole church," the leaders of Anglican Mainstream said over the weekend, while the Archbishops of Uganda and Kenya have warned that appointment of a partnered gay bishop would be a grievous blow to the wider Anglican Communion.

“Our grief and sense of betrayal are beyond words,” Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of Uganda said on 7 January 2013.

In a press release summarizing the work of the December House of Bishops meeting, the Church of England announced on 20 Dec 2012 the bishops received an interim report from a committee chaired by Sir Joseph Pillings looking at the church’s pronouncements on human sexuality. Buried in the seventh paragraph of the press report, the bishops said that “pending the conclusion of]the Sir Joseph Pilling] group’s work next year the House does not intend to issue a further pastoral statement on civil partnerships. It confirmed that the requirements in the 2005 statement concerning the eligibility for ordination of those in civil partnerships whose relationships are consistent with the teaching of the Church of England apply equally in relation to the episcopate.” the rest

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The Episcopal Church: Nothing Like Consistency (With Comedy Video Bonus)
The very first newspaper op-ed article I ever published, way back in 1984, was about All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, which has long had a reputation as a leading “progressive” parish. I wrote about attending a meeting where a group of parishioners were reporting back on a recent visit to the newest workers’ paradise, Nic . . .—now just wait for it!!—yes, indeed, it was Nicaragua (or “KNEE-car-AHHH-gua,” if you’re really au courant). Since this article was published in the pre-Internet age, I can’t link to it, so here’s the lede from my hard-copy archive:

When Karl Marx wrote that religion was an opiate, he never foresaw the ironic way his words would be confirmed. In Pasadena, California, at All Saints Episcopal Church, the congregation recently witnessed a “political pilgrimage”—the phrase coined by Professor Paul Hollander to describe those earnest travelers who visit the latest revolutionary “experiment” and return with glowing reports of peace, harmony, and progress.

It got worse from there, of course. Those loveable Sandinistas—why they were all “deeply devout Christians” practicing brotherly love. Naturally everything wrong in Nicaragua, even late garbage pickup, was the fault of American intervention and CIA skullduggery. This was the heyday of “Liberation Theology,” fruit of the fad at the time known as the “Christian-Marxist dialogue,” though I always thought the idea of “Christian Marxism” made about as much sense as Jewish Nazism, while “Liberation Theology” was best described as “Marxism with Salsa.”...