After the press conference some reporters persuaded Bishop Beetge to stay and converse a bit. There were a variety of questions. The most telling came toward the end of the session when a reporter who said he was shooting a documentary for “American television” tried to nail the bishop down on the question of homosexual behavior.
It was very difficult.
Bishop Beetge served on the Windsor Commission. He was loath to speak of his own opinion on the matter. He said, over and over again, in several different ways that the most important thing we can do is, and I am sure you can fill in the blank here, “sit down together”. He mentioned that the bible study group he attended that morning was very difficult. The sides are “hardening” he said. We must, he said, hold together in the midst of our tensions.
The reporter was not to be put off that easily. “What do you think personally though?”
The bishop continued to dissemble until he finally said that he was in the middle. He said that he can see the argument from both sides. He certainly sympathizes with those who feel they are not being included in the life of the church and he also can understand those who take a more conservative viewpoint. I cannot take a public position on either side of this.
“Is that what Jesus would do?” asked the reporter.
A good question, I thought, although the reporter seemed to be more sympathetic to Gene Robinson and Integrity
The bishop’s answer, however, displayed obfuscation of such practiced elegance that it could have only escaped the lips and originated in the mind of Anglican bishop.
“On the cross Jesus hung in the middle, between the earth and the sky, between humanity and God. In the same way, sometimes, the body of Christ must sometimes stand between two extremes for the sake of reconciliation.”
It just slipped out, effortlessly.
Notice how the bishop draws a parallel between his own unwillingness to go on record saying anything controversial and the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. Notice the subtle use of the word “reconciliation”. Just like Jesus reconciled God and humanity on the cross so this Anglican bishop stands for reconciliation by, well, standing for nothing.
You just can’t teach that.
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Knuckleball.