Bishop John Chane speaks out about Warren controversy

Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Diocese of Washington DC, has issued his own take on the invitation issued to Pastor Rick Warren of the conservative and evangelical Saddleback Church to provide the invocation at President-Elect Barack Obama's Inauguration. There are things we didn't know about Pastor Warren, a man who advocates for life even when calling for the deaths of foreign heads of state. We do indeed live in strange and contradictory times...

DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON
Episcopal Church House
Mount Saint Alban
Washington, D.C.

The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane
Bishop of Washington

December 18, 2008

I am profoundly disappointed by President-elect Barack Obama’s decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to offer the invocation at his inauguration. The president-elect has bestowed a great honor on a man whose recent comments suggest he is both homophobic, xenophobic, and willing to use the machinery of the state to enforce his prejudices—even going so far as to support the assassination of foreign leaders.

In his home state of California, Mr. Warren’s campaigned aggressively to deny gay and lesbian couples equal rights under the law, relying on arguments that are both morally offensive and theologically crude. Christian leaders differ passionately with one another over the morality of same-sex relationships, but only the most extreme liken the loving, lifelong partnerships of their fellow citizens to incest and pedophilia, as Mr. Warren has done. The president-elect’s willingness to associate himself with a man who espouses these views as a means of reaching out to religious conservatives suggests a willingness to use the aspirations of gay and lesbian Americans as bargaining chips, and I find this deeply troubling.

Mr. Warren has been rightly praised for his efforts to deepen the engagement of evangelical Christians with impoverished Africans. He has been justifiably lauded for putting the AIDS epidemic and global warming on the political agenda of the Christian right. Yet extravagant compassion toward some of God’s people does not justify the repression of others. Jesus came to save all of humankind, and as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pointed out, “All means all.” But rather than embrace the wisdom of Archbishop Tutu, Mr. Warren has allied himself with men such as Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda who seek to “purify” the Anglican Communion, of which my Church is a member, by driving out gay and lesbian Christians and their supporters.

In choosing Mr. Warren, the president-elect has sent a distressing message internationally as well. In a recent television interview, Mr. Warren voiced his support for the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These bizarre and regrettable remarks come at a time when much of the Muslim world already fears a Christian crusade against Islamic countries. Imagine our justifiable outrage if an Iranian cleric who advocated the assassination of President Bush had been selected to offer prayers when Ahmadinejad was sworn in.

I have worked with former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to improve the relationship between our two countries as hawkish members of the Bush administration pushed for another war. He has spoken at the National Cathedral, which will host the president-elect’s inaugural prayer service, and I have visited with him several times in Iran and elsewhere. Iranian clerics are intensely interested in the religious attitudes of America’s leaders. In choosing Mr. Warren to offer the invocation at his inauguration, the president-elect has sent the chilling, and, I feel certain, unintended message that he is comfortable with Christians who can justify lethal violence against Muslims.

I understand that in selecting Mr. Warren, Mr. Obama is signaling a willingness to work with both sides in our country’s culture wars. I appreciate that there is political advantage in elevating the relatively moderate Mr. Warren above some of his brethren on the Religious Right. But in honoring Mr. Warren, the president-elect confers legitimacy on attitudes that are deeply contrary to the all-inclusive love of God. He is courting the powerful at the expense of the marginalized, and in doing so, he stands the Gospel on its head.

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+++Rowan reflects, Obama takes a stand for equality, and Bonnie Anderson: Living into the Baptismal Covenant

Now that the Olympics are finally over, and the Democratic National Convention has adjourned, and Lambeth is recent history, here are three items of interest to Episcopalians everywhere:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today [August 26th] sent a letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion, setting out his personal reflections on the Lambeth Conference.


"As the Lambeth Conference of 2008 comes to an end, I want to offer some further reflections of my own on what the bishops gathered in Canterbury have learned and experienced. Those of you who have been present here will be able to share your own insights with your people, but it may be useful for me to add my own perspectives as to where we have been led.

For the vast majority of bishops, it seems, this has been a time when they have felt God to have been at work. The Conference was not a time for making new laws or for binding decisions; in spite of the way some have expressed their expectations, Lambeth Conferences have never worked straightforwardly in this way. The Conference Design Group believed strongly that the chief need of our Communion at the moment was the rebuilding of relationships – the rebuilding of trust in one another – and of confidence in our Anglican identity. And it was with this in mind that they planned for a very different sort of Conference, determined to allow every bishop’s voice to be heard and to seek for a final outcome for which the bishops were genuinely able to recognize an authentic account of their own work."

You can read the rest here.

If you would like to get the "Anglican" perspective on Communion news and happenings, you really simply need to go the Anglican Communion News service. All things Lambeth and then some, can be found there.

Joe Solomonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, recently sent out an appeal on behalf of fundraising for Barack Obama. In his appeal he quoted the Democratic Party's nominee on his stand regarding real equal rights for all Americans, specifically, the gay community, who--by the way--are American citizens too.

Senator Obama stated:

When I am President of the United States, gays and lesbians will have somebody who will fight for equal rights for them, somebody who opposes Don't Ask, Don't Tell, somebody who's fought to make sure that gays and lesbians aren't discriminated against on the job or hospital visitation. Because they are our brothers and sisters, and I don't mind anyone knowing where I stand.

— Barack Obama
November 16, 2007

Yeah, I'll be voting for him all right. Not only will he be making sure that the gay community has equal standing with the rest of the citizens of this country, but he will return dignity and respect to the United States, and he will do all that is within his power to fight special interests and corruption which is rampant among the rich, selfish Republicans who want to repeal rights and liberties for the sake of their own agendas and cronies.

On August 25th, President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson--touring the Diocese of Southern Ohio--challenged every Episcopalian to live into their Baptismal Covenant, "taking seriously the unique promise of the baptismal covenant as a foundation" for renewing the Church and being who Christ intended us to be.

Anderson challenged different groups from throughout the diocese to live out their baptismal covenant, both within their church communities and in the world. At the invitation of the Episcopal Community Services Foundation, Anderson served as the keynote speaker at a conference for social justice advocates and grant seekers. Anderson also met with youth of the diocese in Columbus and preached at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati.

Within the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church is the only province with a baptismal covenant, said Anderson. "Our baptismal covenant brings us to an understanding of the gifts of laity that isn't really understood in the same way by the rest of the communion ... [In the Book
of Common Prayer] the catechism says that the ministers of the church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons -- in that order. And so we are called by God to do the work we are given."


You can read the rest of this inspiring ENS article here. I love how she reminds us that our primary vocation is "living for God". How often we forget this. Bonnie Anderson, truly an inspiring woman of our time and in the Church.

Catherine