WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.
Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.
Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.
"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. 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," she said.
"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."
Some people also come into this world with affections toward small boys. Some people come into this world with affections toward every woman they see. Some people come into this world with affections towards cows, horses, and sheep. Others come into this world with affection for [insert inappropriate behavior here]...
This is a prime example of what is wrong with the moral relativism of today's American culture. Activities that are wrong, and ought to be treated as being wrong, are accepted because we are afraid to judge. A kid who will not sit still and pay attention in class is labeled with ADD and demands special treatment. A woman who kills her children is slapped with Post Partum Depression and is somehow given sympathy by certain people. Homosexuals in this country have been given this special, protected status and their behavior has been deemed acceptable by our culture at large.... because they are born that way. Some children are born with ADHD, some women are born with the emotional makeup that leads to PPD, and some people are born with affection towards animals...
Does being born with affection towards another man make that behavior acceptable? Not in my opinion, not at all. "I was born this way" is not an acceptable excuse for behavior; it is something to be controlled. Personally, I was born with a natural affection towards many, many women. Does that make my ogling, flirting, or worse, affairs with these many, many women moral or right? Heavens no!
I say shame on Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for pushing the idea that behaviors are not to be judged; Shame on her for leading her church down the undeniable path of moral relativism.