A Tale of Two Bishops

Dietsche

Dolan

June is traditionally Gay Pride Month -- a month of celebration, education and advocacy on behalf of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) people. The month culminates in New York City with the annual Pride March, held each year on the last Sunday in June -- to commemorate the same Sunday in June of 1969 when patrons at Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn spontaneously decided to fight back against an all too regular round of police harassment in the bar. The event is considered the beginning of the modern LGBT Rights Movement. 

Recently, New York City has experienced a sharp spike in anti-gay violence. The most egregious example is the brutal murder of Mark Carson in May of this year. Naturally, Pride Month events will be both saddened and inspired by this senseless event. 

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, has issued a new bulletin insert to be included in the service leaflets and bulletins used on Sundays in most Roman Catholic parishes. The insert urges parishioners to pray and advocate to influence upcoming Supreme Court cases that might extend LGBT rights. Dolan's timing is focussed on the Supreme Court calendar and, not surprisingly, completely ignores Pride Month and Carson's murder.

The Rt. Rev. Andrew Dietsche, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, takes another tack. Bishop Dietsche issued a pastoral letter on the eve of Pride Month condemning the surge in anti-gay violence in his diocese and condemning the Carson murder. Dietsche's letter urged a different approach for Episcopalians during the upcoming month of June. 

Dietsche writes, "Tomorrow is June, during which our communities will observe Pride Month. We will take into this month the still-fresh memory of these victims of anti-gay hate-crime violence, and most especially our brother Mark Carson... There are many voices in our culture which insist that homosexuality is incompatible with the Christian life. We emphatically do not believe that. So do find a way in these coming weeks to grieve the fallen, to make your witness to the love of Jesus, to engage our godly call to justice, and to let the world see and know that there are countless faithful Episcopalians in the LGBT community, and that they are loved, embraced and respected by the larger body of the Church of which they are and have always been a part." (emphasis added)