By undermining marriage, and making it only one option among many, it is not conserving.

[See his full text]

I still fail to see how blessing two persons in a same-gender relationship undermines marriage. The couple is committing itself to uphold the same strict moral standards that an opposite-gender couple does. My reasoning, of course, is based on the fact that I do not believe in reparative therapy or that homosexuality is a 'choice.' I still haven't figured out what all the fear is about...

In Vermont, the civil union law makes quite clear that heterosexual couples who desire the legal benefits of the state should get married. Up until April of this year, such an option did not exist for homosexual couples. What the state has done has provided for both types of couples an opportunity to make committed vows and accept the responsibilities incurred by making such vows (including, God forbid, divorce). Civil union, therefore, is not an option for heterosexual couples (as les pactes civiles [civil pacts] are in France where one might argue that they really do cut into marriage).

I will also repeat what Elizabeth Keaton said on the floor of the House of Deputies: with all the threats of schism and a church-wide split, the people who are most often blamed for the potential of division--those in the sexual minority--have not left the church in droves. The threat of schism largely seems to be coming from the side that does not want to acknowledge that there have always been gays and lesbians in committed relationships who occupy the pews and the pulpits. I find it interesting that there was a shadow eucharist sponsored by the AAC over at Executive Towers while the rest of us were worshipping in the convention center. Little has been said about that split.

Lastly, I think the church has been ordaining gays and lesbians for a lot longer than ten or fifteen years, given some of the talented and wonderful priests I have known during my journey as an Episcopalian (since birth in 1957)....

Lee Alison Crawford
c2, Vermont

• The Series: 'Assays toward General Convention 2000': http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/assays.html
• Louie Crew's Anglican pages: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html
• Louie Crew's home page: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew
• Send mail to: lcrew@newark.rutgers.edu

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