Why inclusivity rules out same-sex marriage.

May 9, 2022 by Jill

by Martin Davie:

According to a recent report from the BBC, the new Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, has said that same-sex weddings could take place in churches of the Church in Wales in five years’ time. The report went on to say that the new Archbishops had said that ‘the church should be inclusive’ and ‘welcome people, where they are, who they are.’ [1]

In this paper I want to argue that a proper Christian understanding of inclusivity rules out the proposal that either the Church in Wales, or any other church, should permit the holding of same-sex weddings.

In order to understand why this is the case, we need first of all to understand that the reason why the Christian Church should be inclusive in the sense of being open to everyone regardless of their sex, race, class, or sexual inclination, is because everyone is subject to the power of sin and in Jesus Christ God has acted to provide a universal remedy for this situation.

Paul sets out this truth in Romans 5:12-21 where he contrasts the result of the sin of Adam which means that all human beings are subject to sin and therefore to death, and the result of the saving work of Jesus Christ which makes it possible for all human beings to receive righteousness and life:

‘Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned— sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

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See also: Church of Scotland poised to back same-sex marriage, from Coalition for Marriage