On the other hand, the overwhelming third ballot election of Alabama's Suffragan (assistant) Bishop Mark Andrus, while relieving in that he has a wife and two daughters rather than a live-in lover (like all of the Big Three), has some distinct drawbacks.

Bishop Andrus was one of those who voted to approve the election of New Hampshire's homosexual bishop Vicki Gene Robinson, whose election and consecration has torn apart much of the world's second largest Christian denomination, the Anglican Communion of more than 70 million.

After he was elected, Andrus declared:

"We must all understand, and here I address the Diocese of California and those listening from elsewhere, that your vote today remains a vote for inclusion and communion ? of gay and lesbian people in their full lives as single or partnered people, of women, of all ethnic minorities, and all people.

"My commitment to Jesus Christ's own mission of inclusion is resolute."

And that commitment to "Christ's own mission of inclusion" inevitably raises serious questions:

1. What was "Christ's own mission" to those to whom he said: "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea"? (Matthew 18:6)

Since this was what Jesus said about those who "offend one of these little ones," it is horrendous to imagine that Bishop Andrus' "mission of inclusion" will include the Bay Area's pedophiles, whose offense to little ones is horrible.

2. Will the Diocese of California under Bishop Andrus deem "Christ's own mission of inclusion" to mean either tolerance or acceptance of San Francisco's AIDS and syphilis-spreading ? in gay bars and other institutions that accommodate those who often boast of hundreds of different oral and anal sex partners?

3. Does Bishop Andrus' "mission of inclusion" include ordination and consecration of clergy who are sado-masochists? And if not, why not? The Pain-Is-Pleasure People have no reported rate of either AIDS or syphilis.

4. If Bishop Andrus' "mission of inclusion" is to include the nation's leading spreader of AIDS and syphilis, why not inclusion of those whose sexual orientation is to sheep and other animals ? providing they are freely consenting beasts?

The Rev. David Anderson of the American Anglican Council (300 traditional U.S. Episcopal parishes) noted that the primates or chief bishops of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces have declared "broken" or "impaired" relations with the Episcopal Church since the consecration of New Hampshire's homosexual Episcopal bishop.

Had California elected one of its three homosexual clergy candidates as bishop, Anderson predicted that the Archbishop of Canterbury would have disinvited the Episcopal Church from the communion's meetings ? or else a huge majority of the other provinces would have stayed away, producing a full-blown schism.

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---Les Kinsolving is WorldNetDaily's White House correspondent and a talk-show host for WCBM in Baltimore. His show can be heard on the Internet 8-10 p.m. Eastern each weekday.