In the March issue of The Atlantic, Paul Elie praises Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, as the only prominent Christian leader who has managed “to have it both ways: affirming traditional Christian notions of marriage and family, love and fidelity, and adapting them to the experiences of gay believers”:

Rowan Williams“Lord, give me chastity and continence, but don’t give them to me yet.” So asked Saint Augustine, writer and bishop. Rowan Williams seems to be asking something similar: he seems to be asking God, or the forces of history and culture, to make straight the paths for gay people in the Anglican Communion—but not yet.

Has he traded truth for unity? I would say no. In keeping the communion together last summer, he actually moved it in a certain direction. True, he asked the gay bishop not to come, but the traditionalist bishops stayed away voluntarily. In doing so, they ceded the center to the progressives, who made clear that the Anglican middle way is still open.

Read the entire article here.