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.”
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.
