Newly Elected Episcopal Church leader biblically ignorant

“Bishop” Katharine Jefferts Schori, recently elected leader of the United States Episcopal Church, is on record as saying that not only is homosexuality not a sin, and that God gets the credit for the unnatural affections of homosexuality.

Reuters reported on an interview she had on CNN, and I want to examine just a few of the things she said here, perhaps letting Bible- and Christ-loving Christians caught up in the U.S. Episcopal Church know what kind of leadership they are submitting themselves to.

When asked whether or not she believes homosexuality is a sin, Jefferts Schori said, “I don’t believe so, I believe…” That is notable. Why is she unable to stand on the certainty of the Holy Scriptures on this matter of which they speak? It is one thing to say, “I don’t believe so,” when asked whether or not the whites are still in the dryer or not, but in regards to an issue God has spoken of? So before she even has a chance to get started with her answer, she shoots herself in the spiritual foot and supplants the word of God for her own ideas.

Continuing: “I believe that God creates us with different gifts.” Amen to that! I don’t see what this has to do with a conversation about sexuality, however. She says that “Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us.” And further, “Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender.”

But we are all predisposed to sin! Murderers, liars, adulterers, thieves, idolaters, homosexuals, child molesters, kidnappers, blasphemers, lovers of men more than lovers of God, abusers of themselves with mankind, and more are all born with a predisposition toward their action. Jesus emphasized greatly that it is the heart of men that leads to these actions, and as such they are all just as much a “lifestyle” as homosexuality supposedly is. Sin is not excused because of being formed in iniquity (Psalm 51:5)!

The Reuters article tells us that Jefferts Schori is the first woman to serve as leader of the 2.3 million member Episcopal Church, that she will take office later this year, and that she has an advanced degree in marine biology, with a specialization in squids and oysters.

Not to attack her character, but if she is so educated, why do simple Bible verses trip her up so much? Take this one for example:

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife… 1 Timothy 3:2a, NKJV

Can someone please tell me how this woman can be a husband? God demands it of those who will oversee His saints assembled on Earth. A couple of other verses scream out at me as well:

Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. 1 Timothy 2:11,12, NKJV

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. 1 Corinthians 14:34, NKJV

The Reuters article displayed a picture of Ms. Jefferts Schori as well, sporting short hair. This is a curious thing if “a bishop must be blameless,” for a woman has hair as “a glory to her … a covering” (1 Corinthians 11:15) because “…every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head [her husband], for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved” (v.5, NKJV).

She was questioned on CNN how she reconciled her beliefs with what the Bible teaches. Here’s a piece of advice: If your teachings are so whacky that you have to work out an excuse for what you believe because it is in clear violation of the Word, then you must repent and stop being a Bible rejecter.

How does Jefferts Schori justify herself? Like a lame duck:

The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings. The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear — there are rules in the Bible about those that we don’t observe today.

She passes off her sins by failing to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Her reason, apparently, is that because the Laws given to Israel don’t apply to us today, we can pick and choose what we want to apply or ignore, with “culture” as our guide. Fascinating.

Perhaps it is notable that when God destroyed Sodom, He did so before the Law was given. Do you know what that means? The Sodomites were in violation of God’s nature not because of some Law one can relegate to a specific culture, but because of their conscience, something every man must hush in order to sin. Typically, it is pretty safe to assume that what was a sin before the Law is still a sin after the Law. The Law added more commands for a specific people, and now a different set of people has a different set of laws (the Church, the New Testament). Homosexuality is still a sin which should be repented of. Why? Because the Bible says so. Any opinion contrary to the Bible is about as worthless as things can get.

The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that’s certainly the great message of Jesus — to include the unincluded.

Yeah, it’s good to ignore the “Go, and sin no more” commands He gave to those He helped. Jesus may well have been good to a homosexual had He come across one, but just as He did with all the other sinners, He would declare that by their faith they are healed, and that they should go and sin no more. Do you know what that means? Jesus loves us enough to not leave us the way we are.

And since when are homosexuals the “unincluded”? Judging from what I see on the television, their America’s golden children. When’s the last time someone through me a parade for having a wife in a godly marriage? Ha! The world loves it’s own. The world loves their own sinners and hates Jesus Christ because He reproves their sin. That is reality. It is an absolute. It is what Jesus taught. Beware any church which seeks to embrace the world while ignoring the rebukes of the word of God.

As an aside: I am not being sexist, but it is notable that the only biblical example of a woman teaching in the assembly of the saints can be found in Revelation (Jesus speaking):

Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. 2:20-23, NKJV

It is notable that here Jezebel is a woman teaching within a church (forbidden by God) and she is approving of sexual immorality. Is that not what Ms. Jefferts Chori is doing?

Oh, that Christians would forsake this world and stay true to the Book.

Edit: For some reason, upon first saving this post, some of my text became mangled, being noticed by my awesome wife Alicia. I fixed it to the best of my memory as to how it should have been, but please forgive any parts of the text which seem to transition weird or perhaps may be redundant. God bless.

2 thoughts on “Newly Elected Episcopal Church leader biblically ignorant”

  1. Well written, excellent points made. Pray that Schori’s eyes will be open to the plain teaching of God’s word

  2. This blind leader of the blind, fortunately she does not have the final say in such matters. She is being lead by the devil and if her groupies can not see the plain truth, as the Word of God presents it, they will all suffer the consequences.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Use your Gravatar-enabled email address while commenting to automatically enhance your comment with some of Gravatar's open profile data.

Comments must be made in accordance with the comment policy. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam; learn how your comment data is processed.

You may use Markdown to format your comments; additionally, these HTML tags and attributes may be used: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

the Rick Beckman archive
Scroll to Top