What same-sex marriage brings with it

May 30, 2016 by Jill

by Ian Paul, Psephizo:

Earlier this week, the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland decided to recognise and accept the ministry of clergy in same-sex marriages, as a logical extension to its previous decision to accept those in civil partnerships. (A rather odd article in the Telegraph followed, which suggested this was a ‘model’ for the C of E, as if there were a connection between the C of E and the non-episcopal Church of Scotland, and as if this was the first Christian church to recognise and affirm same-sex marriages).

David Robertson, current Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, used the Church’s own language of ‘crossing a Rubicon’ to describe the move. I suppose many readers would see his reaction as predictable, since he is coming from a much more conservative position theologically. But he highlights some important issues in the debate. He argues that ‘The Church of Scotland has removed itself from the Bible’ but also that ‘The Church of Scotland has cut itself of from most of the worldwide church’:

The Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical churches are opposed to SSM. Both the Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the Australian Presbyterian Church warned there would be consequences, but to no avail.

But he also pointed out the inconsistency of the decision in relation to the definition of marriage itself. On the one hand, the clerk to the General Assembly, Very Rev John Chalmers, said:

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Read also: “Gay Christianity”: A Fatal Theological Oxymoron by Dr Peter Jones, TruthXchange