The Anglican Closet
News on the radio suggests that the Anglican conference has made the wrong decision.
Apparently, the "naughty" members of the Anglican communion (i.e., those who ordain gay bishops and don't feel at all bad about it), will be allowed to leave the group for three years, during which time they should sit contritely in a corner and think carefully about what they did. If, at the end of the trial-schism, they're able to explain themselves, they may be welcomed back.
What a ridiculous notion: the schism that isn't a schism. Unfortunately, the "naughty" ones have ceded the moral high ground when they should have called the schism bluff. They've done nothing wrong — quite the contrary! — so they shouldn't be acting like they have. Now the Anglicans have their own version of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell-Don't-Ordain, and we know how well that worked for the US military.
It's the reactionary faction of their church who raised the ruckus, created the issue out of whole cloth, and then blamed the progressives (a lesson the reactionaries evidently learned from the Republican party). This was not surprising. And, disappointing as it is, it's also no surprise that the progressives are willing to take the blame for it in the name of maintaining peace in the family. Worse than "separate but equal", the Anglicans can now practise "separate but unified".
The progressives now can see how easily their own undeserved shame becomes a weapon to keep them in their own closet, a truth known to, but frequently unacknowledged, by gay men and lesbians.
There is no shame, and it's time to stop acting like there is.
[For an excellent summary of events, see "Church faces schism today" from the Guardian Unlimited (UK).]