Faith & Reason & Sex
Regarding the Episcopalian situation, part of the reason I find it so interesting is that it pits those whose belief rests on Scripture in a sort of faith-alone position against those who exercise reason alone and give Revelation short shrift.
God knows that obedience is hard enough for us even when reason alone is invoked (i.e. don't do drugs since they'll wreck your life) or faith alone (i.e. Christ is God). But Catholicism tries to rest on both the faith & reason wings and this is never more clear than in her teachings on sexuality. Once you disconnect sex from procreation it seems contrary to reason to say that masturbation and gay sex are wrong. Is God arbitrary? What principle(s) underlay human sexuality? The Church doesn't scorn God's gift of reason while holding firm to the constant interpretation of Scripture regarding the sinfulness of homosexual acts.
I'm listening to a course on WWI and the instructor says that new technologies changed moralities. The newly invented machine gun was looked upon as a barbarous weapon, something never to be used on so-called "civilized" peoples. And yet we know the rest of the story. It seems the invention of the ever-so-convenient birth control pill has likewise changed moralities.
Another lesson of the Episcopalian Convention is how if the guiding principle of Anglicanism is lex orandi, lex credendi (or "what we pray is what we believe") then it doesn't seem to be working. (An off-the-cuff thought: does this mean the Latin Mass isn't the panacea Traditionalists think it is?) To the extent that Anglicanism's reason for existence is to ignore doctrinal differences (i.e. as a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism) then are the liberals in that church ironically more in keeping with what Anglicanism is about after all?
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