STORM2K

ARLINGTON, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- Clergy and lay delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth are expected Saturday to repudiate a decision by the denomination's national convention to confirm its first openly gay bishop.

Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker said the national church exceeded its authority and violated the church constitution by confirming the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a bishop. Iker also takes issue with the national body approving the blessing of same-sex unions.

Fort Worth area Episcopalians are considering resolutions denouncing the actions in a special meeting at St. Peter and St. Paul Episcopal Church in Arlington.

The Texas meeting follows an overwhelming vote Saturday morning by delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh conservatives approved a statement declaring the General Convention's actions "null and void, and of no effect."

I'm an Episcopalian, and my objection is not this person's lifestyle...but, if he is acting as a representative of God's Word as codified in the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, then he should not have taken the nomination at all, since the Bible strongly proscribes his personal behavior. "Hate the sin, but love the sinner", please.

Ditto "same-sex" unions, for the same reason. The Constitution is a "flexible instrument", adaptable to change by amendment; the Bible is non-negotiable. It seems that many people confuse the two in how they are to be approached, and this is how I see it.