God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform - so the old hymn goes. Trouble is, with all that mystery jazzing up the works, He doesn't seem to be getting the message across to everybody these days . . . maybe it's just a bad connection? Hello, this is God, can you hear me now?
A couple of examples to show you what I mean about mixed messages.
The Church of Sweden, which was the state church in that country until 2000,
has decided to allow gays and lesbians to marry, beginning November 1. This follows the Swedish parliament's vote to allow same sex marriages in that country earlier this year.
The Archbishop of Sweden, Anders Wejryd, says, "For my part, the right decision was taken, but I can empathise with the many who believe this has gone too fast."
But now conservative Lutherans in other parts of the world are upset. And the Church of England is upset with its sister church too - both maintain the Apostolic Succession, an important point to some folks. And even though Sweden is a very liberal country by U.S. standards, some Swedes are foaming at the mouth: in the comments section of the Swedish news site
The Local,
one guy wrote, "Come on guys, buy your tickets, we're moving away and never coming back to this damned atheist-ridden elk pen!"
Sigh. You can't please everybody, not even in Sweden.
And on the other side of the world, a totally opposite response - still in the name of God. Here is what the Most Reverend Anthony Sablan Apuron, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Agana, had to say in response to Bill 185, a proposal by the Legislature of Guam - a United States territory - to authorize domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
Pastoral letter: Marriage is holy because it puts sexual love at the service of life; homosexual acts are incapable of doing that. . . . Laws in favor of homosexual unions are contrary to right reason because they confer legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, to unions between persons of the same sex. . . . There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. . . . For lawmakers to vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.
And lest anyone think the Archbishop is just mouthing off, he is careful to note that he is stating the official teaching of his worldwide outfit:
The Pastoral Letter is a faithful reflection of the universal magisterium of the Catholic Church. It is taken almost verbatim from the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding proposals to give legal status to homosexual unions.
But wait,
it gets worse. Domestic partnerships will, of course, destroy Western Civilization. (God knows I am working night and day on that in my neighborhood . . . are you doing your part?) But the Archbishop actually
praises Islamic fundamentalists, not only for
killing gays, but also for
fighting against the immoral United States! You don't believe an American prelate would say something like that? Well here it is in black and white from the official
Archdiocesan statement, "On the high stakes of Bill 185" (emphasis mine; click to enlarge):
Mmmm, so. The Archbishop of Sweden says,
Y'all come on in, you're as good as anybody, glad to have you in our church.
While the Archbishop of Agana says, Y'all get the hell away from here, you filthy pigs, how dare you think you're as good as the rest of us . . . I wish you were dead.
Now friends - which one is really upholding the deepest values of Western Civilization?
More importantly from a religious viewpoint - which one is closer to the spirit of the Prince of Peace?
