The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. George L. Carey
Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace, London SE1 7JU
 

Dear Archbishop:

Thank you for your letter received by facsimile and dated November 24th. Your response was quite helpful in that it illustrated more clearly than I could ever have hoped the nature of the problem faced by this Communion.

You characterized my statement as "intemperate" and as "leaving little room for dialogue." Yet I do not recall your issuing any criticism, much less similar harsh words, about the Kuala Lumpur Statement, the Dallas Statement, or the Statement by the Archbishop of the Southern Cone. Those statements made assertions about gay and lesbian people that were not just intemperate, but offensive, rude and hostile. Those statements went so far as to threaten schism if their point of view did not prevail or to break
off communion with provinces of our Communion who disagreed with them. You do not appear to have suggested that they left "little room for dialogue." These statements also threatened to withdraw financial support from the [see  Giving to the DFMS in 1996. -- Louie Crew] work of the Church unless the Church's leadership endorses their point of view. That strikes me as a form of ecclesiastical blackmail. By your silence in the face of these affronts, you reveal quite clearly where your own convictions lie. That makes it quite difficult to have confidence in your willingness to handle
this debate in an even-handed way. Gay and lesbian Christians are at great risk if these attitudes prevail at Lambeth.

You suggest that the problem for our Communion lies in the fact that there are deep divisions among the bishops on the subject of homosexuality. May I respectfully disagree. We have had deep divisions before over important issues like slavery, segregation, apartheid and the full humanity of women
and their right to pursue equality in both church and society. The Church can live with divisions. The issue is not that these divisions exist, but who is right. Church unity is important to me, but it is not an ultimate value. Truth and justice are. A Church unified in racism, chauvinism or homophobia cannot be the Body of Christ. Our task as God's Church is to discern truth and to proclaim justice, and if that disturbs the unity of the Church, then so be it. In our effort to discover truth, however, we cannot close our minds or ignore new insights that challenge even the literal truth we quote from holy Scripture. I am aware, as I am certain you are, that church people have used biblical quotations, as well as what you have called "theologies and reasons" for centuries to justify attitudes that today are universally rejected. Why do we not recognize that quoting an ancient text to try to solve a complex moral or scientific issue is as irrelevant today as it was when the book of Joshua was quoted to condemn the discoveries of Galileo? I am amazed that this is not clear. It certainly is to so many in the secular world who have rejected the Church as no longer viable for their lives.

How many more moral debates will we have to undergo in the Christian Church before people recognize that the literal Bible was wrong on the seven day creation story, wrong on epilepsy being demon possession, wrong on sickness resulting from sin, wrong on the sun rotating around the earth, wrong on slavery, wrong on defining women as inferior people, and is now wrong on the origins, causes and meaning of homosexuality? How many irrelevant rear guard battles must we Christians lose before we give up this tactic? How much longer will we pretend that this is about divisions in the Church?

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that Anglicanism has never identified the word of God with the literal words of Scripture. The living word of God for us is rather found underneath the literal words of Scripture and in the person of Christ, whom we have called traditionally the "Word of God
Incarnate." In the living word of God we hear it proclaimed that all persons are created in God's image, loved by God through Jesus Christ and called to the fullness of life inside God's Holy Spirit. Our task as Christian ethicists today is to apply that "Living Word" to the complex moral issues of our day with minds informed by knowledge developed in the secular and scientific world. We cannot stop the world because it no longer affirms our prejudices. If we are uninformed by available scientific data,
we have no business trying to prescribe for the lives of millions of people.

Finally, you seem to assume that my intention is to seek to impose a solution to this issue upon our Communion. Perhaps if you would reread my statement, you would discover that is absolutely not what I said or what I intend. I speak today as I do only because of the silence of leaders like
yourself in the face of the abuse present in the public statements of the Southern Hemisphere bishops, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone and the Dallas signatories who do seek to impose their solution on the Church. They are the ones threatening the Church. I seek, and will continue to do so in the future, to stand between the gay and lesbian Christians I am privileged to serve and the negativity and abuse of one more insensitive statement issued on this subject by those who, while quite sincere, are not well-informed. I do not want our Church to be embarrassed yet again because we are so slow in embracing new knowledge and new ways of perceiving reality. Your leadership in this endeavor is crucial.

I will come to Lambeth guided by the motto of my theological seminary, "to seek the truth of God come whence it may, cost what it will." I hope you and all the other bishops of this Church will do likewise.
 

Yours sincerely,

John S. Spong
Bishop of Newark

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