Please can the archbishop clarify his answer?
by Martin Davie:
According to a report in the Church Times, during the Religion Media Festival on Monday this week the Archbishop of Canterbury responded to a question about whether the Church of England was ‘ too apologetic about its positions on sexual morality.’ His answer was to say that he entirely agreed with the questioner’s concern and that:
‘We were talking about it in the College of Bishops last week and I think we do need to be more open about the basic rules, the basic understanding of sexual morality within Christian thinking. Without sounding as though we are lecturing, but just to be unapologetic about saying . . . sexual activity should be within permanent, stable and faithful relationships of marriage as that is understood in each society.’[1]
At first sight the archbishop’s answer could appear completely anodyne, since he might seem to be saying what the Church of England and the Christian Church has always said, namely that sex should be confined to marriage.
However, on closer inspection his final words, ‘as that is understood in each society,’ make his answer anything but anodyne. This is because they would seem to say that the Church is willing to endorse any and every understanding of marriage that society may accept at any given time and to say that it is fine for sexual activity to take place within them.
This would mean for example that the Church would be willing to endorse:
- Forced marriages
- Polyamorous marriages
- Marriages between adults and children
- Marriages between humans and sex robots
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