Shrine Mont, the Orkney Springs resort owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, is again hosting the Shenandoah Valley Festival. This year’s line-up includes country group The Oak Ridge Boys, which in the past has opposed marriage equality.
Joe Bonsall, the Oak Ridge Boys’ late tenor who toured with the group for more than 50 years, was highly critical of the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that the Fourteenth Amendment required states to recognize same-sex marriage:
It’s a sad day for those that care about spirituality and principles based on the Bible! Move on and join the 21st Century? I choose Jesus!
At the time, Bonsall served as lead for the band. Neither Bonsall nor the band have repudiated his remarks.
The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival is co-sponsored by various groups, including Shenandoah County, Virginia Tourism Corporation, Virginia Commission for the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Shrine Mont provides the venue.
The move follows the consecration of current Virginia Bishop E. Mark Stevensen at a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) church in Richmond. The SBC actively opposes same-sex marriage, denies LGBTQ+ couples the right to marry in its churches, and is currently being investigated by the FBI for ongoing issues with child sex abuse.
An earlier move under Ecclesiastical Authority Susan Goff to sell the Truro parish property to ACNA, which was part of the property recovery litigation, was quietly dropped after opponents objected to the sale on the basis that ACNA opposes same-sex marriage.
Relatedly, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington faced strenuous criticism from LGBTQ+ church members after it invited anti-gay evangelical preacher Max Lucado to speak at the Washington National Cathedral. In rejecting requests from LGBTQ+ persons to reconsider, Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith told LGBTQ+ members that they needed to be open to new ideas.
Hollerith and Bishop Diocesan Mariann Budde later apologized for the decision to invite Lucado, with Hollerith saying:
In my first sermon at the Cathedral in 2016, I preached on Isaiah’s call to be repairers of the breach. That mandate has been the guiding principle of my tenure as dean and remains so.
I am committed to that work, but I regret the pain, hurt and disappointment I have caused during this misguided attempt to do that work. It is important that we seek reconciliation and relationship with those with whom we disagree, but not at the expense of the sacred dignity and worth of our LGBTQ friends and families.
Budde and Hollerith later held listening sessions to learn from the conflict related to Lucado, and developed plans to more carefully vet future guest preachers at the National Cathedral. And while the Episcopal Diocese of Washington later hired Michelle Dibblee as Interim Missioner for Equity and Justice, whose responsibilities include working with the LGBTQ+ community, many LGBTQ+ advocates, including Anglican Watch, believe these changes are too little, too late.
A 2022 study reveals that LGB members of the Episcopal Church experience sexual abuse within the denomination at more than twice the rate of their cisgender, heterosexual peers. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that LGBTQ+ church members fare worse than others in the already catastrophically flawed church Title IV clergy disciplinary process. In addition, LGBTQ+ church members complain of experiencing a high rate of tokenism, where they are recruited for key vestry and other slots, only to be ignored or face open hostility if they actually act as servant leaders.
That’s so typically leftist, silence any opinion that disagrees with your own!
Actually, we prefer to call the Diocese out. Nor is it a matter of left or right, so you will leave politics out of any future discussion. It is a matter of insisting that, if the Diocese says it supports the LGBTQ+ community, the Diocese act in a manner consistent with its claims.