I Can't Believe It's Not Roman Catholicism gets into the pilgrimage business.
Twenty years after the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard sparked national outrage, his ashes will be interred at Washington National Cathedral following a public service of remembrance.
The Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for Matthew Shepard on Oct. 26 will be led by Washington Bishop Marian Budde and retired New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop and an acquaintance of the Shepard family. Until now, Shepard’s parents had not settled on a final resting place for his remains out of concern the site would be vandalized. As they approached 20 years since their son’s death, Robinson helped the family make arrangements at Washington National Cathedral.
I fully realize that there are considerable questions about the circumstances of this murder. And I don't really care about any of them. Whatever he was in life, Matt Shepard was somebody's son, his mother loved him very much and nobody deserves to get beaten to death.
I don't care who you are.
That said, I find it interesting that the Episcopalians want to turn this Dead Gay Guy into an Episcopalian saint.
“Matt loved the Episcopal Church and felt welcomed by his church in Wyoming,” his mother, Judy Shepard, said in a cathedral news release. “For the past 20 years, we have shared Matt’s story with the world. It’s reassuring to know he now will rest in a sacred spot where folks can come to reflect on creating a safer, kinder world.”
And if the NatCat can make some money off of him...
The site may become something of a pilgrimage stop within the LGBTQ community, Eckstrom said.
Johnson's First Law of Episcopal Thermodynamics states that every joke about the Episcopal Organization eventually comes true. So I hesitate to insert a crack about the NatCat becoming the Episcopalian Lourdes with "miraculous cures" and all the rest of it.
Granted, miraculous cures, to an Episcopalian, might mean something along the lines of your traditionalist Christian relative suddenly and miraculously seeing how right and how prophetic the Episcopal Organization is and votes straight Democrat in the midterms.
But you have to start somewhere.
2 comments:
Well, the National Cathedral has made itself into anything but a Christian religious site, so why not? This will last until it is turned into a mosque, and then Shepard's grave will be erased. I do think they could have buried his ashes somewhere closer to home without fanfare and he and his mom could have been at peace.
I long ago reached the point where I will not willingly enter an Episcopal Church. It is possible that I may have to make a one time exception at some point in the coming years for a funeral. But that would be it.
Post a Comment