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Eminentoes
Too Messy Even for Liberals
The Episcopal Church passes on ordaining scandalized former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey.
(Page 2 of 2)
In 2008, former campaign aide Teddy Pedersen brought McGreevey back into the limelight after claiming he engaged in regular threesomes with then-mayor McGreevey of Woodbridge, New Jersey, and McGreevey’s second wife Dina from the 1990s until his election as governor. McGreevey confirmed the allegations, while his ex-wife denied them. The claims and counter-claims were likely related to McGreevey’s custody battle over a young daughter he has with Dina. He also has a daughter from his first marriage.
The ultra-liberal Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which encompasses the northern third of the state, is widely recalled as the seat of retired Bishop John Shelby Spong, who flamboyantly denied Christian beliefs about the virgin birth and bodily resurrection. Spong was among the first to ordain actively homosexual priests within the 2 million-member denomination. Having lost over 40 percent of its membership under Spong, the Newark Diocese never recovered and continues to spiral on the trajectory Spong established. It’s unclear if priests like McGreevey are what Spong had in mind in his campaign for actively homosexual clergy.
McGreevey currently cohabitates in Plainfield, New Jersey, with a male Australian real-estate executive. But evidently the former governor will not become an Episcopal priest anytime soon. According to the Post, the former governor has told friends the church has counseled he “needs more seasoning” before entering the priesthood. How much “seasoning” is unclear. But evidently even the Episcopal Church, so anxious to keep its permissive doors wide open even as its membership shrivels, is not yet ready for a Reverend McGreevey.
About the Author
Jeff Walton directs the Anglican program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.
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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