Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the realities of parish ministry in these times is that everyone seems to need their church to say something about the issue that is a source of scandal or outrage. Often, these are absolutely legitimate outrages and the issue demands a Christian response.

The question I find myself wrestling with is, “Which and whose Christian response?”

For every letter or email I get asking me to respond to something, there is almost always an equal and opposite email from someone else asking me to respond to the same event or issue from their point of view.

I’ll offer the example of the Bishop of Washington’s sermon.

Several folks asked about a response from me supporting the Bishop for defending the dignity of marginalized groups. Several others asked me if I’d be condemning her for injecting political bias into this event which should have been a point of unity—not more division.

I do have an opinion. I have thoughts about it from a theological, homiletical, and practical point of view. But my opinion is not yours. Indeed yours are split based on the correspondence I get.

So whose Christian response do I offer—and when?

Do I write an editorial in the paper?

Should I set aside the Sunday Gospel to address the issue of the day or hour or minute based on the rate and pace of the flare-ups?

In an editorial for a secular or multi-faith newspaper readership, would I write it from a strictly Christian point of view (which is really the only point of view I’m trained to offer)?

Is a sermon, which is a monologue, a fair place from which I can hold hostage those who disagree?

There are some issues that deserve the Church’s universal condemnation.

Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and many more have spoken out to condemn the indiscriminate and cruel way new immigration controls are being enforced. There is no historic Church (by which I mean Churches and denominations that pre-exist the USA) that has not condemned the building of camps where we can concentrate migrants we are rounding up.

There is a near-universal Christian response to this issue—a near-universal Christian call to respect the dignity of every human being.

There are issues where there is more agreement than disagreement.

I’d offer the death penalty. While there is some disagreement even within Churches and denominations, the weight of social teaching is opposed to the death penalty—and I would agree with that teaching as part of a consistent ethic of life. But that weight is not as overwhelming as it is around migration so I tend to be more careful in how I offer the teaching of the historic Church as it is not, indeed, unanimous.

There are issues where the split is more pronounced.

Here I would offer abortion. There is a range of teaching—from the consistent Roman Catholic position which holds the unborn, the migrant, and those on death row as all holding an inviolable dignity that we are called to protect even when it is not what our politics or our legal system point toward. This is a consistency for which I have immense respect. However, other denominations have more complicated positions that see the right of a woman to make her own choices as also an issue of human dignity.

So on this third issue, I have been clear in small group or individual conversations that I tend to be pro-life. However, I do not preach this from the pulpit as there is not a universal consensus on this across the historic Church.

I do not insert prayers for the unborn or other signifiers of a pro-life position into our liturgy and I do not write letters pretending that my view is the dominant view of the Episcopal Church. I want to respect the complicated histories and stories of so many and also respect the conscience of each of you by not presenting my own theological and political views as those of the whole Church.

On top of that, I love and value each of you who may hold a different opinion and you have every right to it. These complicated issues are not just topics. They are the lives and loves of real people and deserve carefully respectful dialogue in relationship. They are more than a political football, and we are more than partisan creatures.

My role is to offer the teaching of the Church Catholic—the universal Church across the centuries and today. I try as much as I can to offer a window into how I might perceive or understand some particular issue but I cannot tell you what to believe or think.

I view it as my role to help us dive together into the sources of Scripture and Tradition where we might develop our reason in response to the challenges of the day.

Everyone wants the Church to say something. Few agree on what that thing should be!

The Church does not exist to be a source of non-stop political commentary. We exist to help people find and be found by Christ. In that work we will sometimes need to speak clearly for the dignity of Christ we see in those the world would have us neglect, despise, or abuse.

And there we must be clear.

But I also think we should be careful.

A God who always agrees with us is more likely an idol and a temptation for us to make God in our image. I expect there will be many times in the years ahead when the clear truth of the Gospel will need to be brought to bear in the defense of many. The outrages of our politics are seemingly unending, and our focus on Christ must be fixed so we do not find ourselves lost to the politics of the day and far afield from any sense of grounding or enduring truth.

“Whose Christian response?” is a question I frequently ask myself. If you are hoping the Church, this church, will say something, then I encourage you to speak up and write and call and more because you are the voice of the church as much as I am.

I will almost inevitably never speak to every issue as quickly or as decisively as some would hope. And I will almost inevitably alienate and anger your neighbor in the pew when I do.

That’s part of the work of prayerful discernment here and I do not take it lightly. I do not take it lightly because I do not take your life in Christ here lightly.

I hope you will hear all of those conflicting streams of conscience and prayer whenever I do speak out because I will do so with all the love and prayerfulness I can as priest, pastor, and teacher here.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert