Fascinating new developments today in the way Jesuit liberation theologian Jon Sobrino has been denounced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but the denunciation unimplemented and left to be interpreted by local bishops. Isn't it a strange thing to be enthusiastic about degrees of silencing or about nuances of condemnation as in the following example??
A prominent Southern Baptist has made a pronouncement on gay identity in an interview with Time magazine:-
"We sin against homosexuals by insisting that sexual temptation and attraction are predominately chosen," wrote the Rev. Albert Mohler, the influential president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mohler's position is a startling departure from years of insistence among fundamentalists that gay rights advocates are wrong when they say homosexuality is not something they choose.
The sin of homosexuality however has not changed, nor is moral responsibility removed. I can't decide which news item is more hopeful...or less depressing.
1 comment:
The news about Jon Sobrino is very sad. I've had the honour of meeting him twice - once in London and once in Central America. I treasure my signed copy of 'Christology at the Crossroads'. A lovely man, and enormously brave. He really lives his theology as a disciple. The other depressing one was Roger Haight - whose work on the interface of doctrine and philosophy I've long admired; and then Jacques Dupuis, of course, who I heard when I was on the staff at Heythrop in London - he died a man broken by his quite ridiculous condemanation for 'Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism' (backed by Gerald O'Collins, for goodness sake). Whose next? Paul Knitter, I'd guess. Hmmnnn... come to think of it, I know quite a few 'condemned persons'. I followed Lavinia Byrne (then IBVM)at the Institute of Spirituality, and helped organise a UK visit by Tissa Balasuriya - who was promptly arraigned for 'Mary and Human Liberation'. On the bright side (Mohler doesn't *quite* count!) - well done TES for the response to the Anglican Primates. Go, Piscies!
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