Episcopal PB Nominee’s Book on Homosexuality Reopens Hot Topic on Baptist Campus

Discussion of homosexuality resumes despite University's shut down of the school's gay/straight alliance. The Episcopal student group, Canterbury Fellowship, is discussing Presiding Bishop nominee Bishop J. Neil Alexander's This Far by Grace: A Bishop's Journey Through Questions About Homosexuality.

Macon, GA (PRWEB) February 19, 2006 -- J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta and Presiding Bishop Nominee, is scheduled to visit the Mercer University student group currently discussing his 2003 This Far By Grace: A Bishop's Journey Through Questions About Homosexuality, March 27 at 6 pm. The meeting will take place at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Macon, GA.

The book discussion comes on the heels of a gay rights controversy at Mercer and is attracting many former members of the recently decommissioned Mercer Triangle Symposium, a gay/straight student alliance at the university. Controversy surrounding this student group precipitated the withdrawal of support and funding by the Georgia Baptist Convention.

Last year, Georgia Baptist Convention messengers, meeting in Columbus [GA], approved a recommendation from the group's executive committee that the GBC begin the process of severing ties with the 7,000-student school.

The motion noted reports about the Mercer Triangle Symposium. The group billed itself as Mercer's "GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] rights student organization. In conjunction with the Human Rights Campaign — the national gay-rights advocacy group — the symposium sponsored a "National Coming Out Day" event Oct. 11 on the Macon campus.

Robert White, the Convention's executive director, said inviting students to meetings where gay rights are openly advocated was a step too far for the convention.

"I believe that Georgia Baptist parents should be able to have the confidence that their young people who attend a Georgia Baptist institution will not receive errant signals."

Though presenting the Bishop's experiences with gay people in the church in an unbiased way, This Far By Grace is affirming to the LGBT community in its underlying message that gay Christians are Christians first, their sexual orientation being secondary to their faith: "...putting the gospel of Jesus at the center of one's life is a radical choice. But it is a choice that many of us---straight and gay---have made, and it is the decision that most clearly defines who we are. Everything else is secondary."

The Bishop also writes: "Faithful Christian believing does not offer the possibility of cutting off our relationship with anyone...[but] is about active participation with...the whole of God's creation in all its infinite diversity."

"This is a great book and I have given it out......I also met Bish Alexander at the Seminary, I respect him greatly.............The SPIRIT is moving!"

The Rev. Maureen Doherty
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Read the full article at http://maconmemories.blogspot.com

The book can be purchased on Amazon at:
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=maconmemories-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1561012246&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr

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