Sky News recently featured an interview with an Anglican minister on the subject of the appointing of a gay bishop. His message, although not put quite so bluntly, was that while it’s okay to be gay, it’s not okay for two men to have sex.
On the BBC’s Talking Point page on the subject, Paul, UK agrees with him. “It’s not gay people that the Bible teaches against, it’s the homosexual act. Celibacy is the best option – both for gays and for unmarried heterosexuals – who want to take holy orders. In this case, as Dr John has stated that he is, and will remain, celibate, surely the issue is more one of non-repentance for what the Bible teaches is a sin.”
But this is intellectually dishonest. How can anything as harmless as two consenting men having sex be wrong? Making people choose between acting against their nature or feeling perpetually guilty, when there is a harmless alternative, is not moral, it is cruel. It simply doesn’t make sense to suggest otherwise and it’s hard to see how one can do so without abandoning reason and taking the bible literally.
Despite assertions to the contrary, the bible does have plenty to say about homosexuality. Richard Murray, UK, a conservative Christian, demonstrates where a literal interpretation leads when he writes, “To all you “Christians” who say being gay is okay, I suggest you read your bibles. This is a case in which the Word of God is shouted down by the liberal mob.”
So what do the liberal mob have to say? John M, Lyne Meads, UK writes, “The church is a reflection of society. The Bible reflects the society of the times in which it was written. There are as many interpretations of the scriptures as there are people, each person accepting or rejecting passages according to need or circumstance. Churches which don’t adapt decay. A church which reflects the current needs of its people may thrive.”
In other words, the bible is irrelevant. If we are free to pick and choose the bits we like and ignore or re-interpret the bits we don’t like, then there doesn’t seem to be much point in reading it at all. This doesn’t sound very Christian to me. And yet it’s exactly the right way to go about things. You have to think for yourself. How right or wrong something is can be measured directly by the amount of harm it would do to others. It cannot be measured in terms of thousand-year-old literature.
That so many are taking seriously a discussion about whether or not God wants there to be gay bishops suggests that they are not thinking for themselves.
To be honest, this has been rumbling on for too long. I don’t see the debate here: Either you take on a life dictated by a fictional book and abide by the guidelines therein, or you don’t. What next – women clergy???
Episcopals have a history of bending Christ’s teachings. This so-called “church” was started by a mass wife-murdering king, who cut off the heads of his wives. Then he decided to start his own church. It was all downhill from there.
The queer bishop who holds his “partner’s” hands on TV comes from a long line of Anglican bullshit.
God is not mocked. Hopefully, this house of cards “church” will have members come back to THEE ONE & ONLY HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.