By now we have all heard how this young woman sustained severe brain damage from lack of oxygen after collapsing at home in 1990 with heart failure, due to a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. We know that the many doctors who have examined and treated her have determined that she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery.

Then it happened. "What I had feared has come upon me." (Job 3:25)

On August 5, 2003, the long march of the Episcopal Church's apparent cultural captivity reached its mark. A practicing gay bishop was elected and approved, then consecrated and installed. At that point, a storm did indeed break out, a world-wide storm. We can now, sadly, compare it to a tsunami.

The opposite is also true. Frequently, people do the wrong thing for the right reasons. An impoverished man may steal food in order to provide for a destitute mother. We've all heard of deeply confused teen-agers who commit suicide because they can't imagine going through life as a burden to their parents. Then there is the more complex case of the person who commits perjury to spare a loved one from the consequences of their actions. Stealing, suicide, and perjury are all wrong.

By all accounts, he is a decent man, kind and thoughtful. They say he isn't much of a manager or administrator. He has a scholarly bent. He is obviously drawn to the mystical elements of faith. I could see him a chaplain at a school for boys or a theological college.