SEXUAL DISARRAY IN THE CHURCHES

The Scandal of Christendom

The Episcopal Diocese of New York has been one of the most liberal Episcopal dioceses of a fairly liberal denomination. For example, it was the first diocese to declare publicly, as early as the 1970s, under the leadership of Bishop Paul Moore, that it would ordain practicing homosexuals. Moore’s action was not tokenism; he ordained homosexuals in large numbers.
Yet by the 1990s, Moore’s diocese had also succumbed to the widespread frenzy over alleged sexual abuse, which was directed almost entirely against heterosexual men. Under pressure from the counterrevolution, in 1994, this diocese put in place a peculiar document, entitled Policies and Procedures for Responding to Sexual Misconduct in the Episcopal Church.
The committee that created this document consisted, curiously, of nine women and fi ve men—this in a diocese where the ministers were mostly men. In the leadership’s attempt to halt what was alleged to be widespread sexual exploitation by male ministers, the committee created a monstrous set of definitions and rules. These rules resulted in conditions that effectively outlawed, as far as the male minister’s behavior was concerned, almost any manifestation of sexuality.