XPost: alt.religion.christian.episcopal, sac.politics, alt.polit   
   cs.homosexuality   
   XPost: md.politics   
   From: rhett@shaw.ca   
      
   You'd think the Episcopalians could come up with a better gay   
   scumbag to represent them..   
      
   A top Episcopal bishop turned herself in to Baltimore police   
   Friday after being charged in the death of a bicyclist with   
   manslaughter, leaving the scene, driving under the influence of   
   alcohol and texting while driving.   
      
   Heather Elizabeth Cook, 58, was driving her 2001 Subaru on   
   Roland Avenue in Baltimore on the afternoon of Dec. 27 when she   
   veered into the bike lane where Thomas Palermo, a father of two,   
   was riding, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said   
   in a statement Friday.   
      
   Cook struck “Palermo from the rear,” Mosby statement’s said,   
   “which caused Palermo to strike the hood and windshield” of   
   Cook’s car.   
      
   The statement said Cook left the scene for 30 minutes before   
   returning, and she was given a breath test that “resulted in a   
   .22 reading,” according to the statement, well over the legal   
   blood alcohol limit of 0.08.   
      
   The accident has drawn national interest because Cook is the No.   
   2 official in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and its first   
   female bishop, and because she was charged in a dramatic drunken   
   driving case in 2010 at her previous assignment, in the Diocese   
   of Easton on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, before becoming bishop.   
   In that case, an officer found Cook in the middle of the night   
   driving on three tires, with vomit on her shirt and too   
   intoxicated to complete a sobriety test, according to the police   
   report.   
      
   Officials from the Diocese of Easton and the Diocese of Maryland   
   have been under fire from some local Episcopal leaders who want   
   to know more about how the first incident was handled by church   
   officials and why Cook was picked to be a bishop considering the   
   extreme nature of that arrest. Questions have also been raised   
   as to why the search committee, and not the full voting   
   convention, was told about the earlier charge when Cook was   
   elected bishop last spring.   
      
   The incident is also prompting discussion about how addiction   
   and forgiveness are handled in churches — particularly in   
   situations involving top clergy. In a statement, Palermo’s   
   family praised Mosby, who took office this month.   
      
   “We are deeply saddened to learn of the events leading up to the   
   senseless hit-and-run accident that claimed Tom’s life, and   
   support the prosecutor’s efforts to hold Bishop Heather Cook   
   accountable for her actions to the fullest extent of the law,”   
   the statement said.   
      
   Cook’s attorney, David Irwin, declined to comment beyond   
   confirming that she had turned herself in. Baltimore police   
   would not release more details about the day of the accident,   
   including where Cook was going and what or to whom she was   
   texting.   
      
   Diocese spokeswoman Sharon Tillman said only that the bishop was   
   on her own time and “not conducting church business.” Cook has   
   history in the area. According to the Baltimore Sun, her father   
   became known as a “national leader” in the Episcopal Church for   
   working to fight alcoholism in the ministry — including his own.   
      
   The late Rev. Halsey Cook, who at one time was rector of the   
   well-known St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore — informally   
   known as Old St. Paul’s — spoke from the pulpit about his   
   disease. In a 1977 Sun article, Cook told his parishioners that   
   he was “a sheep, and this place and you people have often   
   shepherded me. I am an alcoholic.”   
      
   Officials with the small Diocese of Easton have declined for   
   days to say anything about what they did — if anything — in 2010   
   after Cook was charged with drunken driving and possession of   
   marijuana, referring questions to the Diocese of Maryland, where   
   Cook came from last year. The diocese includes 21,500 households   
   in the western and central parts of the state, as well as   
   Southern Maryland.   
      
   On Friday, Henry Parsley, who is serving as temporary bishop in   
   Easton, said he had been there only since this summer and did   
   not know Cook, who had been a top administrator there for eight   
   years. He did not confirm if officials even knew of her   
   arrest.“I can say that those who worked with Heather here speak   
   well of her, especially of her many gifts for ministry, her   
   compassion, and her dedication to the church,” he said in an e-   
   mail.   
      
   On Friday, Tillman would not say how much detail of the 2010   
   arrest was known to the small search committee that picked Cook   
   last year. The details were part of the public record and were   
   covered at the time by the Eastern Shore media.   
      
   Clergy who last week were at a closed-door meeting with Bishop   
   Eugene Sutton said some of the 70 or so clergy attending were   
   angry that the diocese had not shared more details about Cook   
   when she was elected. Clergy at the meeting were told that the   
   search committee could not tell anyone about the 2010 incident   
   because it was confidential, and that Cook “was encouraged at   
   least twice” to share it, Tillman said.   
      
   She could not explain whether it was civil or church law that   
   inhibited the search committee from sharing what happened in   
   2010.   
      
   Episcopal leaders have been speaking out, demanding more details.   
      
   “Was she in recovery and was this a terrible relapse .?.?. or   
   was it a situation that no one knew was an ongoing situation? I   
   think those are fair questions to be asking,” said the Rev.   
   Megan E. Stewart-Sicking of Immanuel Episcopal Church in   
   Glencoe, Md.   
      
   Diana Butler Bass, a prominent progressive church historian and   
   Episcopalian who lives in Northern Virginia, said she wondered   
   if the denomination’s liberal tendencies had been harmful in   
   this case.   
      
   “We love to give people the benefit of doubt, ‘There but for the   
   grace of God,’ and all that. We’re not the church that likes to   
   condemn people,” she said. “In this case it worked in the wrong   
   direction.”   
      
   Butler Bass also commented on the role of forgiveness.   
      
   “I don’t always think church people understand the depth and   
   complexity of addiction. Forgiveness isn’t the solution to   
   addiction. And people in leadership should know that,” she said.   
   “The question is, does forgiveness qualify someone to be a   
   bishop and an example in the church? She supposedly represents   
   all Episcopalians. When his kids grow up, their narrative will   
   be that this church killed my father. This is why leaders are   
   held to a higher standard. Because they represent something   
   that’s bigger than just their own problems.”   
      
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maryland-bishop-charged-with-   
   manslaugther-for-killing-cyclist/2015/01/09/6d420b1e-981c-11e4-   
   8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html?tid=hybrid_sidebar_alt1_strip_3   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)