Only by embracing all of His works can we truly celebrate God's creation

Immense awe and joy arise from the mystical approach. In fact, it is full of fun. Mysticism has been described as having fun with God, with all the passion of a child at play. It empowers, liberates and unites people in all their diversity. We begin to know ourselves as part of the entire global - even cosmic - ecosystem. It is the same awareness that drives the groundswell of the world-wide green movement today.

Perhaps that is why so many Church authorities like Dr Jensen aggressively assert that the Bible - or at least their literal and selective reading of it - must be the sole authority. The literalists can't bear the idea of having a playful religion. They are truly frightened by the possibility of so much diversity in behaviour, belief and even sexuality being unleashed. To bolster their fundamental insecurity they must justify their fears and prejudices, and the Bible is their weapon. The written word therein is a sword to wield against enemies - and they must always have enemies - such as atheists, "liberals" within their own church or some other incarnation of evil such as feminists and adherents of other faiths. They use the black type of the Bible as the bars of a cage to separate them from their enemies.

And their enemies, in the current debate, are homosexuals. Ignore the cant about loving the sinner but hating the sin. It just doesn't wash. To denigrate homosexuality is to denigrate homosexuals, because the sexuality is their being. When we can treat the various sexual types as colours of a rainbow, when gay and lesbian people are allowed to become deacons, priests and bishops as easily as heterosexuals can, when we hear behind the words of the Bible a song of joy over this wonderful diversity, then we will have taken a great step along the road of cultural and spiritual evolution.

As I write it seems that an openly gay priest is about to become a bishop in the U.S. Episcopal (Anglican) Church. May the move come to fruition and may other dioceses quickly follow suit. The literalists can cry horror that the church is changing its teaching and they can threaten schism. Let Christianity evolve along the path of love mapped out by its founder.