Considering Covenant Promises

Last night in EfM, I broke one of our norms and owned it immediately. When outlining the resources of tradition that we could consider, I mentioned church documents... "even the Anglican Covenant" and then blew a raspberry. As a mentor, I am not supposed to pass judgement that way, and I am aware that some of the people in the room may not hold the same opinion I hold about this attempt to define "Anglicanism... in the image of the Archbishop of Canterbury."

My main objection to the Anglican Covenant is that we here in the Episcopal Church already have a Baptismal Covenant which pretty clearly lays out who we are as God's people, what we believe, and what our understanding and beliefs should lead us to do in the world. Hence, I don't think we need another Covenant. The document seems designed to punish us 'piskies in the States who hold such beliefs that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected for ALL people... including the gay ones. Take that one to some parts of Africa and Asia and you'd think we were the worst heretics ever!

Or you don't even have to leave our country. There are plenty of people out there who believe that I should be treated like a second-class citizen. And they sit in the pews of churches across the United States, offering prayers and petitions to the same God that I pray to week after week. They will profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and will be happy to quote John 3:16. They seem to miss the next sentence in that chapter:

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

I take this as furthering the statement that Jesus didn't go through the death on the cross to be resurrected only for those straight people who are sure of their place in heaven. And yet there are many out there sporting a Christian fish symbol on the back bumper of their car who think it's OK to vote on our rights to get married, don't want us to serve openly in the military, or grant the same immigration status to the foreign partners in same-sex married relationships as exist for those who are in straight couples.

On another blog recently, I offered a slight amendment to the final lines of our Baptismal Covenant:

Will I strive for justice and peace in a country that routinely denies my full citizenship, puts my life up for public votes, takes the pulse of the majority a gazillion times to determine when is it time to "do the right thing" for me and other minorities who also find themselves in the "other" camp?
I will, with God's help.