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Doctrine or Discipline? An Episcopal Bishop is on trail for holding and teaching false doctrine because he ordained a non-celibate homosexual. The defense is arguing that the ordination did not pertain to doctrine, but discipline. Not being versed in the definitions of canon law, I cannot judge the matter. I can say, however, that I've never encountered a single author whose thought on the stormy issue of sexuality did not have profound doctrinal implications. Let us consider a few examples. The theme of chapter ten of Bishop Spong's, Living in Sin, is the "Word of God in creation." According to this Word, whatever exists comes from God, it is wholly good, and God is inclusive because God creates all. Since Spong believes that one's sexual orientation, straight or gay, is given by creation in the womb, that orientation is the Word of God in creation and must be affirmed and celebrated. Further, for Spong, the Word in creation is no different from the Word in Jesus Christ. Spong must affirm this, or sexual orientation as God's Word in creation could be challenged by a distinct and superior revelation in Jesus. In fact, Spong will claim that the Word in creation cannot be compromised by anything in Scripture. (p. 158) The fourth century heretic Arius also claimed that the revelation in Jesus was that of creation. He was opposed by Athanasius, the father of the Nicene Creed, who stated the following: "This distinction, then, Holy Scriptures very plainly makes between the eternally begotten and made or created. It declares the Son of God to be the former . . . and that the being and substance of creatures are wholly external and foreign to the divine nature." Athanasius distinguishes the created from the eternally begotten because he distinguishes God's revelation in creation from that of the eternally begotten Son. If both revelations are the same, then the Father who creates is identical to the Son who redeems, and therefore, Father and Son are not two distinct persons of the Trinity, but one as in Arius. In other words, Spong's Word of God in creation is doctrine, a contemporary form of the Arian heresy. L. William Countryman is professor of New Testament at the Episcopal Seminary in Berkeley, California. In his Dirt, Greed, and Sex, Countryman argues that the sexual sanctions of the Old Testament, and certain of their reflections in the New, were the result of property law and social boundary legislation, and that this legislation was abolished in Jesus who revealed an ethic of pure love. For Countryman, the motive, not the content, of an act matters. If an act is loving, life- affirming, non-exploitative, it is legitimate. Therefore, he states that "the gospel allows no rule against the following, in and of themselves: masturbation, nonvaginal heterosexual intercourse, bestiality, polygamy, homosexual acts, or erotic art and literature." (p. 243) Countryman's approach is analogous to that of Marcion, the second century heretic who felt that the harsh, exclusive, judgmental God of the Old Testament could not square with a loving Jesus. Marcion edited a new Scripture, eliminating the Old Testament and much of the New. Countryman maintains the text; he simply guts it of objective content. A stake, is a doctrine of Scripture, how the God of the Old Testament is the Father of Jesus Christ, how law relates to gospel. Finally, we may consider Carter Heyward, Episcopal priest, professor of ethics and theology at the Episcopal Seminary in Cambridge, and author of When Boundaries Betray Us. Heyward's book offers a valuable critique of our capitalist culture, therapeutic assumptions, and presumed Christian faith. It also describes her lesbianism as a vital element in the erotic, creative, healing, and dangerous energy of her embodied relationships. Heyward proclaims this energy divine, and therefore normative, and it is precisely this doctrinal claim that marks the boundary between her paganism and Christian faith. More than discipline is at stake, more than a sexual ethic, the faith itself is up for grabs. (Plenteous Harvest, May, 1996.) The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D. May, 1996. |