The good, the bad, and the ironic

The good:

New US church leader says homosexuality no sin

Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.

The bad:

Pentagon lists homosexuality as disorder

A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.

The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon’s failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.

And the ironic? At a time when the cynical and near-desperate politicians of the far right are pandering to the Religious Wrong Right with an attempt to codify bigotry, it is a church doing what is right while the government “of the people” is still mired in what is wrong.