Jonah Goes Rogue

The present controversy is not about homosexuality.

Stokoe’s not saying that’s what it’s about. The Synod is not saying that’s what it’s about.
+Jonah isn’t saying that’s what it’s about.

The only people saying that’s what it’s about are two guys in Dallas who won’t even sign their names to some very incendiary stuff. I think its really unfortunate that anyone felt the need to go there. We’re now not even talking about the issue at hand. We’re now attempting to characterize what +Jonah represents, or at least what people think he represents. I’ve never met the man and honestly don’t know a lot about him, other than what’s in his official bio, so I can’t really speak to that myself.

....

The authors seem to be suggesting that we take our bishops aside and ask “Hey Vladika, are you gay and do you know anyone who is and condone it?” Or even “Are you anti-gay enough? Are you willing to jump up and down and declare to the world just how anti-gay you are? Should you want to prove your credentials, just sign this declaration.” This will rapidly create a very toxic atmosphere in the OCA.


The authors do, however, raise some interesting points with regard to culture differences in the OCA. A large faction of converts are, in a sense, what I call “culture war refugees,” people who left other denominations often times largely because of the homosexuality issue and become Orthodox, in part, because of what they perceived as the Church’s uncompromising stance, thinking they would never again have to deal with the issue in their own churches. They are the ones who, increasingly, are trying define what it means to be Orthodox in the context of the American “culture war,” which I think has the potential to distort Orthodoxy every bit as much as liberal revisionism.

We are Orthodox because of the fullness of the sacraments, doctrine, and the Communion of the Saints, not because it’s the most reactionary church on the block. Just as there is an exodus of conservative Episcopalians to Orthodoxy, I fear there may also come to be an exodus of gay and liberal Orthodox out of the Church. There’s a place for conservatives in the Church, just as there’s a place for liberals, a places for gays, and place for everyone. The Church is a place where all people ought to grow and love and be transformed by God’s love, not shout accusations at other people and cling to resentments.


The writers also raise a very legitimate fear, that younger people are leaving the Church, and the Church will become less and less relevant to both society at large and even the lives of its members. They way to combat this, however, is not to narrowly define ourselves as politically conservative. In terms of public perception of homosexuality, the right is fighting a loosing battle. People of our generation, by and large, simply aren’t repulsed by it, have gay friends, and aren’t interested in curtailing the civil right of gays.

This is not to say that the Church should kowtow to every trend that comes along or change its fundamental stances (I actually would be a little bit off put is suddenly, tomorrow one could have a gay Orthodox wedding), but simply that we should be compassionate to gays living within the Church and let go of our obsession with what society at large sanctions. I think that the homophoic tone of a lot the church rhetoric these days, particularly the Manhattan Declaration, makes the Church look reactionary and rather than principled, dogmatic rather than spiritual, and fearful rather than compassionate.


The authors are right to say the Church ought to address the most relevant issues of society today. In my view, however, those issues are not homosexuality and abortion.
They are poverty, militarism, and the environment.

In my first Divine Liturgy after returning from Senegal, I was treated to a rousing sermon on the Manhattan Declaration and the evils of “Obamacare.” I left feeling truly devastated. I’d seen a lot a lot things in my year abroad, things I needed the support of the Church to make sense of, things I need the Body of Christ to care about, and hear was a priest driving away the hypothetical queer kid in pew three away with a verbal scourge, a kid who would need Christ, the Church, and the Sacraments in his life every bit as much as I did.

The writers of OCAtruth are right on another count, too. The Church is not about the power plays of bishops. It’s also not about which Archdecons are remiss in their monastic vow and with whom. It’s about the People of God, imperfect people who live in a baffling world who are in dire of need of God’s love and grace. If our clergy fail to provide even one of those people with opportunity to grow in, that is a real tragedy and matters far more than who screwed who, metaphorically or otherwise, in Syosset, as fascinating that that little game may be.

Mark Stokoe, who has an impressive track record on uncovering real financial mismanagement, has taken his spin of vestry gossip to a mass audience. This is unfortunate.

The vitriol, paranoia, bile and mean-spiritedness the writers of OCAtruth.com have injected into the conversation, however, is unconscionable. As a liberal in the Church, I try to be very conscious of not crossing the line when comes to respecting doctrine and respecting hierarchs. This particular piece crosses every line imaginable. Accusation are leveled about the sexual morals of our hierarchs on the strength of the evidence of “six minutes googling.” Even if all those allegations are true, presenting them in this way does no one any good. It even goes so far as to insinuate that one bishop staying at another’s house while on vacation somehow makes them gay.

So, anonymous writers, for the sake of your own souls, for the sake of the Church, please stop. You’re unleashing forces which may well transform the Bride of Christ from a place of love, grace, hope into an Institution which distorts them into fear, paranoia and judgment. If that happens, our beloved traditions, our sacred doctrines, and our solemn sacraments will all become, in a phrase, just so many “bells and smells.”

This has gotten so ugly. .....

(Editor's note: Thanks Matt, for your words. While one doesn't have to agree with you, and I am sure many reading will not, no one could have expressed your sentiments better, nor more clearly, from the depths of their heart.)