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Eminentoes
Too Messy Even for Liberals
The Episcopal Church passes on ordaining scandalized former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey.
New Jersey Governor James McGreevey famously declared himself a “gay American” at a 2004 press conference, where, flanked by his parents and wife, he resigned in disgrace after a male staffer alleged sexual harassment. He subsequently went through a bitter public divorce and sought ordination to the priesthood in the highly inclusive Episcopal Church. But now even that denomination’s extremely liberal Newark Diocese is rejecting McGreevey, apparently citing his messy divorce, not his homosexuality.
After McGreevey’s confession to have appointed his purported homosexual lover as an aide (the adviser insisted he was the victim of unwanted sexual advances), the then still married New Jersey Governor stepped down from office and later began attending the Episcopal Church’s General Theological Seminary in New York. He had quickly renounced his lifelong Roman Catholicism to join a more accommodating denomination. But apparently even New Jersey Episcopalians still have some ordination standards.
Episcopal Diocese of Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith has declined public comment about McGreevey’s rejection as an Episcopal priest. But the New York Post, in an April 25 story headlined “Heaven Can Wait,” quoted anonymous sources within the diocese about the church’s decision to decline ordaining McGreevey at this time.
“It was not being gay but for being a jackass — [McGreevey] didn’t come out of the whole divorce looking good,” one diocesan source told the Post of the decision not to proceed with ordaining McGreevey.
After leaving office, McGreevey and his new male partner began attending Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York, in addition to All Saints’ Episcopal Parish in Hoboken, where he began serving on staff. Almost immediately after being received into the Episcopal Church, McGreevey was accepted into General Theological Seminary (GTS) in 2007, where he graduated last spring with a Master of Divinity degree, a requirement to become an Episcopal priest.
Episcopalians typically wait years as discernment groups decide if they are in fact called to ministry; for McGreevey, there seemingly was no such period before his admission to seminary.
In a 2009 interview with Inside Jersey magazine, McGreevey described his pursuit of a career in the Episcopal Church as “a spiritual journey.”
“At different points in my life, I had grappled with the idea of going into the priesthood — in high school or law school,” McGreevey said. “Where it ends, I’m not quite sure.”
Some Episcopal Church officials were wary of McGreevey’s sudden embrace of their faith after his scandal and feared the church was being used, the Post reported.
After resigning as governor, “he was sort of looking for every angle to make a complete redo of his professional life,” another church source told the Post. “He ran to the church for some kind of cover, which isn’t fully appropriate. Even if he’s a good guy, he should wait five to 10 years to get over his issues.”
In 2006, McGreevey wrote about his claimed affair with an aide who had threatened a sexual harassment suit.
“Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today,” McGreevey divulged in New York magazine. “The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.”
Saying he “craved love,” the former governor described frequent illicit encounters with other men in bookstores and parkway rest stops, but lamented that “there never was an emotional meaning to these trysts.”
McGreevey was ultimately forced into a public discussion of his homosexuality after he was threatened with a sexual harassment and assault lawsuit by the former aide, who allegedly sought millions of dollars from McGreevey in exchange for keeping the allegations secret. The former aide, an Israeli military veteran named Golan Cipel, dropped the suit after McGreevey’s resignation.
“Hiring a lover on state payroll, no matter the gender, was wrong,” McGreevey admitted in his 2006 article, which he would expand upon in a published autobiography titled The Confession. “I needed to take my punishment — and to begin my healing out of the fishbowl of politics.”
About the Author
Jeff Walton directs the Anglican program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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Kenny| 4.27.11 @ 7:14AM
One of the sad things about McGreevey isn't about him at all. It's how the media in New Jersey totally covered up Screaming Jimmy's homosexuality and his sham marriage when he ran for governor in 2001.
But it was more important to the media to 1) be politically correct and 2) insure a liberal Democrat be elected governor than it was to inform the public what was obvious to all the political insiders.
And newspapers like the liberal Star-Ledger (Newark) wonder why they're dying. Ha!
David W| 4.27.11 @ 8:21AM
He and the church deserve each other. If the church under Spong(?) doesn't support the true identity of Jesus then what's the big deal about adultry (after all, does the church really believe that the 10 Commandments really came from God? Surely there were just the 10 Strong Suggestions). Homosexuality is okay, treating Jesus as nothing more than a man, what kind of a church is it really? Since Charles Manson just came out in favor of the environment, maybe the Episcopal Church will ordain him as well?
mames| 4.27.11 @ 10:35AM
Nobody talks about the serious ill health effects of homosexuality, their shortened life expectancy and their excessive obsession with sex. Sticking your penis in someone's anus is patently unsanitary and irrational not to mention the various other acts they engage in. It is a perversion of the created order. Homosexuals do not want to be left alone they DEMAND that everyone accept their perversion. This "church" and this creep deserve each other. Telling a homosexual that they are just fine is like telling a cancer patient, whose cure we have yet to find, that he is just fine - it is cruel and uncaring. By the way the Gov apparently is bi sexual (children) as are most so called homosexuals. What he did to his wife and children is absolutely disgusting.
michigander_sandusky| 4.27.11 @ 10:35PM
Thanks mames for telling the truth!
"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (Romans 1:26-29)
Whitey O'Carr| 4.27.11 @ 9:16AM
Didn't the media claim that Goldwater wanted to cut off the eastern seaboard from the country back in the 1964 election? This sounds like the vindication for good old Barry's idea to me. Just remember kids, they always want to control yer brain, even when they say they do not!
Caped Crusader| 4.27.11 @ 9:20AM
What a tragedy this once great church, along with all other mainline Protestant churches, has become. Catastrophic loss of members and influence for good is the legacy of liberal theology. They have passed the point of no return without radical return to orthodoxy which is unlikely to happen. A few rotten apples can indeed spoil the entire barrel and hasten the spiral into chaos and oblivion. There is little choice now except for Catholicism or a white suit fluffy haired preacher with his cult following.
mames| 4.27.11 @ 10:38AM
Laymen are to blame when this occurs as they sat there and did nothing to stop it. Read Samuel and you can see how apostate the church can become and has indeed become in many denominations.
Libertytim | 4.27.11 @ 7:06PM
Caped Crusader said: "There is little choice now except for Catholicism or a white suit fluffy haired preacher with his cult following."
Caped Crusader, there are also the Eastern Orthodox Churches and even what are called the Continuing Anglican Churches, which, although small in number and, unfortunately there are several jurisdictions instead of just one, they at least hold to the traditional and what are believed to Biblical beliefs...no actively homosexual relationship, no marriage if divorced unless given an annulment by a Bishop, no women clergy, and they aren't forced to use that disgusting piece of heresy called the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. They even own their own property, which is one way the Episcopal Church was able to control the congregations...it confiscated the properties from the local parishes.
I've included a link to the jurisdiction of churches I attend just in case there are those here who are Anglican and want to know something of a Continuing Anglican Church and that a possible alternative to what is going on in the Episcopal Church is available.
PsychoDad| 4.27.11 @ 8:23PM
Eastern Orthodoxy rocks, woo hoo!
Hillel| 4.27.11 @ 9:25AM
As with church organists I thought clerical homosexuality was part of the job description.
Old Soldier| 4.27.11 @ 9:32AM
Everyone seems to forget, it was McGreevey's corruption that started the federal investigation that ultimately exposed his homosexuality and brought him down.
David D'Amiano was shaking down Mark Halper - a NJ Farmer whose land was being designated as open space. The FBI had Halper wired up and caught D'Amiano making promises in McGreevey's name in return for cash and campaign contributions.
If McGreevey run out of the Governor’s office screaming he's gay and immediately resigned, he would have been prosecuted and probably convicted.
Instead D'Amiano took the fall and NJ Democrats took revenge on the Halper’s. The state condemned Hapler’s farm and threw them off their family land. Eventually they received the fair-value of the land after a long lawsuit.
Jim McGreevey is scum. He was a thoroughly corrupt politician who his sexuality when it was convenient and used it as a shield when his crimes caught up to him.
Doctor Right| 4.27.11 @ 9:45AM
I will never forget the time in 1997 that a friend of mine who lived in Woodbridge, New Jersey (McGreevy was the Mayor of Woodbridge in the 90's) told me flat-out:
"McGreevy is a closet-queer; my friends on the Police Force told me he was picked-up for soliciting in the Jewish Cemetery on Route 1, a known gay pick-up spot. Take my word for it!"
I was incredulous; my friend was so right-wing he made me look like a Liberal. I chalked it up to nothing but rumors.
...Oh, how the sunlight has a way of shining on the truth, doesn't it..?
Ted| 4.27.11 @ 11:29AM
Wow... What I find truly incredible is that ANYONE could make you look like a liberal.... : )
Dan Hirsch| 4.27.11 @ 9:49AM
Mr. McGreevy, you say that you "...don't know where it ends..." Sir, have you thought about HELL? You might want to give that a real good look, sir.
I remain, praying for us all,
D.H.
Citizen Jerry| 4.27.11 @ 10:08AM
I find this who affair (pun intended) rather strange. It's been decades since the Episcopal Church left "the faith once given" to embrace and celebrate every perversion known to man. Why is an amateur like McGreevey making them so squeamish?
Grant Johnson| 4.27.11 @ 1:48PM
Anyone with a modicum of Christian understanding and common sense would know that you cannot lead a Christian congregation if you have not first been a committed follower of Christ. A church that had any idea what it was about would never have allowed McGreevey to join the seminary.
AngloSaxon Virginian| 4.28.11 @ 9:00PM
Grant, as a recovering Episcopalian I can tell you that following Christ isn't a priority in the Episcopal Church but fighting for "social justice." Insisting on morality is seen as a sin. Two former friends of mine have been ordained in the last two years as Episcopal priests. They started out as boyfriend and girlfriend and yes they had a sexual relationship. Eventually, they broke up and the woman, who described herself as "conservative" theologically went on to have another 4 or 5 partners before marrying a seminarian. The guy eventually became engaged to a girl and cohabited with her during his first year at seminary before marrying her for appearances sake. Both of these priests went to VTS and I don't know if the seminary was aware of their private lives but they probably wouldn't care anyways.
Cromulent| 4.27.11 @ 1:58PM
McGreevey's mistake was to be a Democrat. If he'd been a Republican his application would have been approved. His messy divorce could have been blamed on the evil right, and Jim could play the prodigal son.
Mark| 4.27.11 @ 5:21PM
Cromulant,
Sorry, but it would never play out the way you describe.
PCPSmoker| 4.27.11 @ 7:14PM
What is it with homos and their public trysts? Andrew Cuomo should have brought his "vote for Cuomo, not the homo" campaign to Jersey. This was one more embarrassment Jersey did not need.
Michele| 4.28.11 @ 8:52PM
" But now even that denomination's extremely liberal Newark Diocese (Episcopal Church) is rejecting McGreevey, apparently citing his messy divorce, not his homosexuality."
Oh please, who are they kidding ?? -- as if there is a "good" divorce that co exists with being a "good" minister of any congregation...
Petronius| 4.29.11 @ 11:33AM
There's still the Church of the Subgenius.
Unemployable basement dwellers to the front of the line.
Richard Baker| 4.30.11 @ 9:48AM
"the church's decision to decline ordaining McGreevey at this time." This line from the article above tells me that the "Church" will eventually ordain this pervert. Jesus wept.
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 9:44PM
is good