Nick Knisely Addresses "The Issue"

I don’t personally know the physicist–turned-priest & GC Deputy Nick Knisely. But I wish I did. He seems to be a genuine middle-of-the-roader. And I like how his middle-of-the-road instincts are heading in his The Michelson-Morley Experiment and the Experience of Gay and Lesbian Christians.

Here's an excerpt from early in his essay:

Einstein decided to trust in the report of the observer and by making that decision he was able to gain a radical new insight into the nature of reality.

He did the same sort of thing when considering the Eotvos experiment. He began by taking at face value the experimental result that inertial and gravitational mass were exactly the same. And from that he reasoned his way through the Principle of
Equivalence - that is the idea that underlies all of the mind-bending thinking of General Relativity.

Now – as to the experience of GLBT Christians:

I believe that people come into the Church by the graceful gift of faith and in entering the Church, the Holy Spirit begins a process of regeneration and transformation.

I believe that all Christians are being transformed into the people God wants us to become.

I believe that gay and lesbian people come into the Church as fully and as totally as I do through a relationship with the Risen Lord Jesus.

Gay and lesbian people report that they find themselves transformed by their encounters with the Risen Christ. But they do not uniformly find that their sexuality or sexual orientation is transformed.

If we believe this report, then what does this tell us about God's desires for them?

Knisely then argues that it's time for people in The Episcopal Church -- and folks throughout the Anglican Communion -- to enter into the kind of "listening" that Einstein brought to his explorations.

His essay is way too intelligent to get traction throughout our Church! But ... wouldn't it be nice?