A sodomist bishop? Why not a sadomasochist bishop?

Among the 300 reporters covering the Episcopal Church's General (national) Convention in Minneapolis, Alan Cooperman of the Washington Post quoted New Hampshire's Bishop-elect Vicky Gene Robinson, age 56, about his 50-year-old homosexual lover Mark Andrew:

I believe that God gave us the gift of sexuality so that we might express with our bodies the love that's in our hearts. I think that's true of marriage and I think that's why we hold marriage to be a sacrament.

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Can we imagine the General Convention of 2006?

The Diocese of New York has elected a new bishop who is an active member of the Eulenspiegle Society, nationally headquartered in Greenwich Village.

This is the national organization for sadomasochists.

The Rev. I.M. DeSade, of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, has left his wife and two children because he realized that he is a sadist – although, he emphasized, that he never beat his wife or children.

In testimony before a General Convention committee – accompanied by his "companionate loved-one" as he described his companion, masochist Payneis Pleasure, age 50 – Fr. DeSade told the committee:

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I believe that God gives us the gift of sadomasochism so that we might express with our bodies the love that's in our hearts. I love to beat Payneis; and Payneis is here to testify that he just loves to be beaten by me. That is a mutual love that is a sacrament, surely, if God is love.

In Minneapolis on Friday, Bishop-elect Robinson went on to declare:

In my relationship with my partner, I am able to express the deep love that's in my heart, and in his unfailing and unquestioning love of me, I experience just a little bit of the kind of never-ending, never-failing love that God has for me. So it's sacramental for me.

In 2006, at the General Convention, Bishop-elect DeSade has a similar statement:

In my relationship with my partner, I am able to express the deep love in my heart for beating, knowing that Payneis' love of being beaten is unfailing and unquestioning – and he loves me for doing it, just as I love him for taking it. So it's sacramental for me.

Bishop-elect DeSade adds: "I know that voting to consecrate a sodomist bishop three years ago has, as Bishop Bana of Albany predicted then, lost the Episcopal Church "vast number of congregations, members and revenues. But it is simply imperative that we avoid the sin of discriminatory sexual orientationalism – by allowing consecration of bishops who are buggers, but refusing to consecrate bishops who are beaters – of masochists who love to be beaten!"