Church of Scotland and gay clergy

The BBC are reporting that the Church of Scotland is once again discussing the role of gay clergy. In such reporting I assume we have to include missing words such as "openly" or "out" for them to make sense as in any church there are numbers of clergy who are gay or lesbian but are not able to be open about their sexual orientation. Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13492501

I assume in most Christian churches on what I have come to think of as the 40% rule that  more than a third of clergy are gay and the rest are heterosexual or bisexual. This rule of thumb comes from decades of reading the scientific literature in the field, clinical experience with troubled clergy of many denominations and sexual orientations and personal knowledge of many clergy. Of course, in churches that insist on compulsory celibacy, the percentage increases.

Clergy, in my experience, are more like medical professionals, than other group and often see themselves, and are encouraged by their laity, to see themselves as ontological different from other human beings. This, for some, can come a great cost. I have come to think that where there is a very public rule of compulsory clerical celibacy for entry into the ministerial priesthood some will find it very difficult to say celibate. Once we move away from a Eurocentric position the situation can  get very unclear.

Once again the Church of Scotland, with its heritage in an austere Calvinism that can make Lutheranism almost seem exotic, produces a surprise. Think of the wonderful gift to the wider world of the Iona community and the witness against the huge dumping grounds of weapons of mass destruction in the lochs of the west of Scotland. Thank God for the witness against this blasphemy by the church of John Knox and John Calvin and, in our own day, the prophet, John Bell. My belief is that churches that take both the Hebrew and Greek bibles seriously  are so much better equipped to grapple with the contemporary seemingly irreconcilable issues around justice, mercy, forgiveness and compassion than those that do not see the Jewish patrimony of Christianity. Taking the Hebrew scriptures seriously provides the basic grammar for grappling with issues to do with justice and so we come back to where today's posting started - gay clergy in the Church of Scotland.