Of God and Gays and Humility

What the Episcopal Church's handling of same-sex unions can teach the rest of us

Tim Dominick/The State/MCT via Getty Images

An imposition of ashes and the Holy Eucharist service was held at St. Martin's-In-The-Fields Episcopal Church at noon, Wednesday, February 22, 2012, in Columbia, South Carolina. Members came forward for the Rector to bless them and put ashes on their forehead in the shape of a cross.

Two years ago, the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Texas, Andrew Doyle, was troubled. His chief worry: that the Episcopal Church's war over homosexuality was fated to distract the faithful from the missions of preaching the Gospel and helping the poor. So Doyle turned to someone who knew more than a little about how to deal with the apparently intractable: former Secretary of State James Baker, an Episcopalian and communicant, with Barbara and George H.W. Bush, of St. Martin's Church in Houston.

In a conversation at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Doyle and...

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