Do Anglican bishops really want their own clergy to end up in jail?
by Matthew Roberts, Christian Today:
Christian denominations have not always found it easy to agree about things. But when it comes to sexual ethics, they have been remarkably unified: God made us male and female with the intention that one man should marry one woman, and outside of that lifelong bond sex is to be abstained from.
It is a profoundly countercultural, and powerfully life-giving, vision of human life: one in which, with God’s help, loving commitment trumps individual satisfaction, self-control conquers self-indulgence, children are loved and nurtured by their natural father and mother, women are honoured, the vulnerable are protected.
Eastern Orthodox and Coptic, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Presbyterian and Pentecostal may differ profoundly on other things, but on this they have all agreed. It is only in the last few decades that a small number of mainly Western denominations have diverged from this ecumenical consensus, and they have not carried the vast majority with them.
So when the government issued its consultation on banning so-called ‘conversion therapy’, Christians across these denominations noticed a problem. Not that anyone (that I’m aware of, anyway) has any interest in defending any kind of ‘gay cure’; that was never a Christian idea, and such pseudo-therapies when tried have ranged from deeply distressing to wickedly immoral.
But the legislation as proposed would apparently ban something totally different. It would make it illegal in some cases to teach people, or to help people, to follow the standard, mainstream Christian teaching on marriage. Whether through ignorance of Christianity or merely through sloppy drafting is irrelevant; probably it was both. What matters was that this would be a flagrant breach of Christians’ right to manifest their religion.
See also:
Sheffield bishop berates his clergy for backing scripture and science over progressive politics, by Julian Mann, Anglican Ink: The Bishop of Sheffield has accused evangelical clergy worried about the UK government’s upcoming ban on gay conversion therapy of causing ‘unnecessary anguish’ to LGBT people.
See our list of articles on the Conversion Therapy ban here.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
