I am writing in response to Charles Schmid’s recent letter (“Disagrees with writers about bishop,” Feb. 4) taking to task the writers of a letter criticizing Bishop Rozanski’s decision to rescind an invitation to the gay men’s chorus. (I was one of the co-signers of that letter.)
Mr. Schmid states that “The bishop followed the Bible,” and asks us all to read I Corinthians 6, with its injunction against those who practice sodomy and adultery.
What Mr. Scmid, and Bishop Rozanski, seem all too willing to ignore is Jesus’ openness, in the gospels, to those who are condemned in other parts of the Bible — “adulterous women” first among them.
At a moment when it’s becoming harder and harder for many of us to continue practicing within the established church, its time to ask leaders like Bishop Rosanski to at the very least explain their actions, and begin a dialogue. It was Pope Francis, after all, who said, in 2016, “People must be accompanied, as Jesus accompanied them. Jesus will surely not say: ‘Go away because you’re homosexual.’”
Tony Giardina
Florence