Heaping Coals. Again.

Sigh . . .

The Bible teaches that when your "enemy" mistreats you or offends you, you should offer him blessing upon blessing, which, "as coals heaped upon him," the Lord uses to spur his repentance. The idea here is that hot coals are uncomfortable; when heaped on by a believer, the coal-recipient might stop to ponder the situation. They might see the contrast between good and not-good conduct, what's pleasing to the Lord and what's not.

Or they might just laugh at the person earnestly heaping the coals, which I imagine is the response here. Still, one of them might become bothersome enough for the target to adjust his conduct. I can hope, can't I?

And so another coal for the author of Blog and Mablog, who today posts that Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson will, along with evangelical Pastor Rick Warren, offer an invocation at Obama's inauguration. Robinson is a homosexual man, which Wilson clearly finds distasteful, so he describes him as a "poofter," and mocks the inauguration's prayer ceremony as "queer eye for the straight guy."

"Poofter"?

A lot of Christians, even those who find homosexual behavior to be uniformly condemned in Scripture, are able to discuss gay men without resorting to epithets. A lot of Christians, even those who are disappointed in Robinson for his insistence on non-Christian-God-specific prayer, are able to discuss that position without seeing his sexual orientation first, foremost, front, center, all around and through everything he does, says, or writes. That Robinson is a bishop might concern Wilson, but perhaps he could levy his criticism toward the man as a bishop and not as a gay man. He's intemperate and unkind, but he's also a little hung up on the idea that one's homosexuality is about all you need to know of someone before you attack them. Most people, after all, are more than their sexual orientation.

On the other hand, Robinson's being homosexual does offer Wilson a chance to break into his vault of epithets and pejoratives for gays, and it's been, like, a whole month since he's pried it open.

And so I pray that Moscow's own would-be bishop might find the epithet vault forever unnecessary as he finds more Christlike ways to address fellow human beings -- even the ones he clearly hates.