The Griswold Test
An Episcopal Bishop’s wisdom for today.
Last week, as America heard the volcanic tremors of the anti-abortion militarists yet again. I sought refuge in a reflection on the life of Bishop Frank T. Griswold III, who passed away March 5 and whose obituary, penned by Sam Roberts in the New York Times, appeared March 15. (1)
It was a “what would Bishop Griswold do?” moment.
Where better place to assess the discussion of who controls vita-cum-corpora than with a person of the cloth? After all, I reasoned, we blew it in that Garden of Eden episode so playing God has consequences: forbidden from the Tree of Knowledge, where better to seek guidance than from those who despite our collective reluctance to return there, get this ‘divine thingy’ and share their orientation most Sundays and Saturdays?
Frank Griswold was an Episcopal Bishop and for a nine-year stint was head of the Episcopal Church of America. During his stewardship, Bishop Griswold ordained the first openly gay Bishop in America and then spent a goodly balance of his term and after reconciling the Episcopal Church to what he had just done.
This is where my reflecting on women’s rights is inspired by this story:
Bishop Griswold accepted division. Indeed, he welcomed it. Not in a judgmental or argumentative way, but in a firm, ‘tough-love’ way. This is what guidance is all about, right?
The man embraced a path for others to walk:
Bishop Griswold voted for the appointment of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 “because,” he said at the time, “I see no impediment to assenting to the overwhelming choice” of the diocese’s constituents. Bishop Robinson had been approved by the general convention of the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Griswold presided over the ordination and consecration of Bishop Robinson amid tight security. Both bishops wore bulletproof vests under their robes, and Bishop Robinson’s partner wore one as well.
At the ceremony Bishop Griswold remarked, “As Anglicans we’re learning to live the mystery of communion at a much deeper level.”
And then this caught me up:
In 1994, he was among about 80 bishops who signed a statement declaring that sexual orientation is “morally neutral” and that “faithful, monogamous, committed” gay relationships were worthy of honor.
At his consecration as presiding bishop at Washington National Cathedral in 1998, Bishop Griswold said he wanted to be a unifying figure “to remind the community continually that truth is larger than any one perspective.”
And then this:
In 2006, Bishop Griswold supported a compromise resolution urging dioceses to avoid, at least temporarily, supporting the election of gay bishops as the church explored the issue further. But in 2009, the Episcopal Church eliminated discriminatory barriers to the election of bishops, and in 2015 it provided theological support for same-sex marriage.
In my book that is one helluva journey for a nine-year head Bishop. One may cynically opine that Frank Griswold waffled, retreated, pushed back or was pushed back… whatever.
Or one can suffer suffering.
Anticipating the curdling of anti-abortion forces around the distribution of abortion medication, Griswold proposed thinking through what we seek to control, thusly:
“If we can accept that there are new truths that science brings us, or new discoveries in medicine, why is it when it comes to sexuality there is no new truth?” he asked. “A number of those most upset about our seemingly ignoring scripture, though they are solidly heterosexual, have enjoyed the mercy of the church in the case of their own divorce and remarriage.”
That “if we can accept,” condition applies to women seeking abortion medication: who are we who benefit from life sustaining medication to deny another human being seeking the same?
What does this make us?
Ask ourselves, “what is survival for us? What does health mean to us?
“Are we afraid that if we asked such questions, we might have to modify our position and make room for the ambiguity and paradox another person’s truth might represent?”
The Griswold Test.
One possible answer to these questions was proposed this past week.
Jeannie Suk Gersen writes, March 12 in The New Yorker,
“But, beyond lawsuits and boycotts, the proper target for pro-choice complaints is Congress. It has not managed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a federal statutory abortion right to replace the constitutional right that the Court removed. And it has never repealed the Comstock Act, leaving us in the situation where nineteenth-century sexual morality now shapes the twenty-first-century abortion debate. Still, as the branch constitutionally empowered to make laws for the nation, Congress should, at the very least, amend the statute to make it clear that drugs can be mailed for lawful abortions. Alas, that would resolve but one legal interpretative front in the ongoing war of red versus blue states, and of federal versus state governments.” (2)
There is not much time left, it seems.
There never is.
Bishop Griswold was the first Bishop to serve a nine-year term as Head of the Episcopal. Church of America, a term shortened to 9 from 12 years by a vote of the House of Bishops.
Recall that Bishop Griswold, Bishop Candidate Robinson and his partner wore bullet-proof vests at Robinson’s ordination in 2003.
March 20
Notes
1-https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/us/frank-t-griswold-iii-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Frank T. Griswold III, Bridge-Building Bishop, Dies at 85
