My call to God is genuine, weighed against Scripture and life.

In 1972, during worship in a New Jersey Episcopal Church I was visiting, God called me to the ordained ministry. In an instant I was changed. At the beginning of the sermon I was on my way to a doctorate in comparative literature at New York University. By its end, a whole new course for my life had been revealed.

This was the second time God changed me instantaneously. The first could be called the “born-again” experience. These two moments, at ages 16 and 23, were – of all the moments of my young life – by far the most “real.”

Through seminary and the ordination process in the United Methodist Church, the path into ministry was paved with grace. Myriad personal issues that made my life difficult didn’t keep me from meeting the goals one by one. Not a flicker of doubt of my call ever rose in my mind.

So, of course, I had to dialogue very seriously with my favorite theological mentor, St. Paul, about his rule in scripture that women shouldn’t speak up during worship. “Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church” (1 Corinthians 14:34-35).

It was as if he were saying “Sorry, Julia, but your call can’t be genuine” when I knew more than anything else it was genuine indeed.

My call is genuine. I weigh it against the verse in Scripture that tells me to be quiet in worship. In this particular instance, my experience takes precedence. I imagine Paul responding: “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree until we meet in heaven to work it out. In the meantime, may God bless your ministry.”

Cal Thomas, in his Jun 26 column, painted a ludicrous image of the newly elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church huffing and puffing to catch up to our secular world’s acceptance of homosexuality because she’s afraid of offending anyone. Although I don’t know Bishop Schori personally, I do know she has had to weigh her experience of call to ministry against Paul’s proscription of female participation in worship. I’m guessing she took that contradiction no more lightly than I did. I would guess, as well, she takes the scriptural condemnation of homosexual behavior no less seriously than I do.

Perhaps she has found herself pastoring the woman who married a man in denial of his sexual orientation. What would she say to her after 20 years of unconsummated marriage blessed with 3 children, artificially conceived, a technique the woman says she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy? Will Schori say to her that it was all for the children, that one’s own fulfillment is irrelevant as long as we procreate? Will Schori say that the failure to consummate the marriage was her partner’s lifestyle choice? Will she say that it’s God’s will that this be the experience of the one in 10 men who happens to be gay and this needs to be the frustration of the one in 10 women they marry? Will she say “Good for you, you two followed the rules that say everyone has to pretend to be heterosexual or be celibate.”?

On some occasions, Christian Scripture misses the mark: the earth moves around the sun; slavery is not OK; God doesn’t bless genocide; women can be called to ordained ministry; and there is such a thing as a natural homosexual orientation that does not preclude leading full and loving lives of Christian discipleship and service.

Christians are all called to emulate Jesus. I am sure that being a follower of Jesus, Cal Thomas somehow believes it’s within the rules to ridicule publicly a fellow believer and misrepresent her motivations. As a Christian he would, if called to do so, lay down his life for her which is, after all, what following Jesus is all about.

Rev. Julia R. Wilson is pastor of the Lisbon United Methodist Church in Lisbon Falls.