Truth To Tell (2010-11-22)
However many Catholics welcomed these pastoral instructions is generally unknown, but the larger community – Catholic and non-Catholic alike, including Catholic and other clergy – responded swiftly and angrily, not only to the insult to thousands of Lesbian and Gay members of the Archdiocese they saw this representing, but to the notion that, once again, the Church was inappropriately interceding in the political process and attempting to drive public policy. Separation of church and state, it seems, is fine as long as it favors the church end of the equation.
One response was the formation of a group calling itself ReturnTheDVDs, urging all DVD recipients to either refuse delivery or send back the DVD in protest. Another saw the Basilica of St. Mary’s artist-in-residence, Lucinda Naylor, deciding to gather up as many of the DVDs from volunteer donors to create a sculpture out of them. She painted the hundreds she received blue and turned them into a piece of interlocking discs called “The Wave.” Yet another was a scathing essay written by Father Mike Tegeder, pastor of St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Bloomington and another by the Rev. Clifford Robinson, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Minneapolis. (Remember, elevation of the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopalian Church, V. Gene Robinson, sparked a schism among Anglicans everywhere, and Robinson is resigning or retiring in 2013 in part because persistent death threats have rocked his marriage.)
TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with this week’s guests for a lively conversation about the role religion plays in uniting or dividing us, with an emphasis on religion’s, especially the Catholic and Episcopalian faiths’ responses to the reality of same-sex relationships, no longer as closeted and demanding a place not only in society but in the congregations of their choice. We’ll also discuss the roles churches should or should not play in mixing their spiritual missions with the more corporal business of secular politics.
REV. LEEANNE WATKINS – Rector, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Saint Paul
REV. MICHAEL TEGEDER – Pastor, St. Edward’s Catholic Church, Bloomington, MN
LUCINDA NAYLOR – Former Artist-in-Residence at Basilica of St. Mary, Creator of “The Wave” DVD Sculpture
The Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis (Dennis McGrath) stated that they do not participate in such discussions, unless there’s a theological conference or something of similar gravity involved.