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• California's supreme court declares gay marriages void | Ruling pushes issue to front of presidential campaign (Gary Younge, The Guardian, London)

A bit from James E. McGreevey
The resignation of the New Jersey governor is getting, oh, a fair bit of press elsewhere. But is it a religion story? Beliefnet thinks it is—it's currently the lead story on the site, with a standard AP story rounding up the basic facts.

But there really is a religion story here, and that's in the religious references in James McGreevey's resignation speech:

… At my most reflective, maybe even spiritual level, there were points in my life when I began to question what an acceptable reality really meant for me. Were there realities from which I was running? Which master was I trying to serve?

I do not believe that God tortures any person simply for its own sake. I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good. And this, the 47th year of my life, is arguably too late to have this discussion. But it is here, and it is now.

At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is.

McGreevey didn't say anything that those fighting cultural acceptance of homosexuality would argue with. Frankly, it sounds like the beginning of a number of testimonies Weblog has heard. You often have to acknowledge your demons before you can surrender them. Just pray that McGreevey isn't confusing demons with angels.

Oh, and maybe there's another religious angle: McGreevey thinks that breaking your marriage vows to have a homosexual relationship is cause for resigning a governmental post. The Episcopal Church USA apparently believes it's no barrier to becoming a bishop.

Communion controversies
The controversy over whether prochoice Roman Catholic politicians should be barred from receiving the elements is the most prominent Communion controversy, but another tiff over the Lord's Table is making headlines and could become big.

Haley Waldman, age 8, received her First Communion in May. But because she has celiac sprue disease, and could have life-threatening reactions if she ingests even the smallest amount of wheat or gluten, her priest gave her a wafer made from rice, not wheat.

That was inappropriate, says John Smith, bishop of the Diocese of Trenton. The Host must be made at least partly from wheat, so Waldman's Communion was invalid. She didn't receive the Body of Christ after all.

Don't get mad at Smith—he's just following explicit teachings from two Vatican offices: the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote to American bishops about a year ago. Those who suffer from gluten intolerance can have a small part of the wafer, can use a low-gluten host, or can take only wine. But they can't have a rice wafer.

"I don't know that the divinity of Christ depended on wheat," Haley's mother, Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. She also suffers from celiac sprue disease, and has asked the Vatican to change its theology. "I'm not doing this to attack my church," she said. "I want to raise awareness for celiac."

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August (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48