LETCH enthusiastically embraces Bishop Gene Robinson's interpretation of Romans 1:22-27.

We would also point out that LETCH scholars have made similar points regarding Jesus' words in Matthew 6:27-28.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

We know that Jesus' injunctions against heterosexual "promiscuity" (actual and imagined) cannot be applied accurately to heterosexual men because heterosexual men are created with the expansive desire to include as many women as possible in their physical expression of love.

Jesus' proscriptive words clearly apply to homosexual men who, acting against their own created orientation, engage in, or imagine engaging in, sexual activity with women.

In this sense, Jesus' words in Matthew 5 ought to be seen as consistent or corollary with the principle St. Paul articulates and Gene Robinson reveals in Romans 1:22-27. It is unnatural, a perversion if you will, for men who are heterosexually oriented by virtue of creation to have sexual relationships with other men. Likewise, according to Jesus, it is unnatural, a "perversion", for homosexual men to lust after or engage in expansive sexual activity with many women.

LETCH believes that all men must act in accordance with the created order

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Comments:

Unatural is unatural. I think the wise can understand that. And not be against nature, God’s created order. Order.

[1] Posted by COLUMCIL on 02-04-2010 at 12:21 PM • top

Hear hear!

Now where do I renew my LETCH membership?

[2] Posted by Greg Griffith on 02-04-2010 at 12:25 PM • top

[3] Posted by Hosea6:6 on 02-04-2010 at 12:32 PM • top

I think we need to formulate a corollary to Johnson’s 3rd Law of Episcopal Motion. To wit:
“As the Episcopal body moves farther from the center of orthodoxy, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify parody.”

[4] Posted by tjmcmahon on 02-04-2010 at 02:03 PM • top

I don’t think Jesus would have a problem with Grindr, either.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-01/sex-in-the-time-of-gps/?cid=hp:originalslist3

[5] Posted by Nasty, Brutish & Short on 02-04-2010 at 03:43 PM • top

Has anyone seen a response from NAMBLA?

[6] Posted by Festivus on 02-04-2010 at 03:50 PM • top

I think I just walked into Htrae. (The Bizarro World)

[7] Posted by Undergroundpewster on 02-04-2010 at 04:12 PM • top

http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/letch
How appropriate. God is good.
Intercessor

[8] Posted by Intercessor on 02-04-2010 at 04:24 PM • top

Spot on #4

It took me far too long to realize this was parody (and to remember LETCH from a previous news release). I was actually to the very end before that possibility occurred to me….

Well done, Matt. When parody is soooo possible, it is at its most effective, and this news release illustrates the degree to which TEC and her uber-liberal associations have fallen or strayed.

Sigh (but in a funny way)

[9] Posted by cityonahill on 02-05-2010 at 07:54 AM • top

Now I have yogurt in my nose. What a way to start a snow/ice day.

[10] Posted by Positive Phototaxis on 02-05-2010 at 09:12 AM • top

The PCUSA proposed to adopt the LETCH standards at its last General Assembly, by deleting all requirements for its clergy, elders and deacons to practice faithfulness in marriage and chastity in singleness.

The ratification of the amendment was subsequently defeated due to the actions of rightwing fundamentalists who refused to understand the concept of inclusive love preached by Jesus, but I am sure the progressives in the church will pass the measure again at the next General Assembly this summer.

[11] Posted by Jim the Puritan on 02-05-2010 at 01:46 PM • top

I have heard that the following change is in the mix in the new to be Episcopal BCP fowarded by Katherine Hancock Ragsdale:
The Lord be with you….
And also with you…
LETCH us pray.
Intercessor

[12] Posted by Intercessor on 02-05-2010 at 01:59 PM • top

LETCH really? Are their members letchers then?

[13] Posted by Rocks on 02-05-2010 at 03:30 PM • top

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