From here:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he has “no problem” with gay people being bishops but they must remain celibate.
In his first explicit declaration on the subject since taking office in 2002, Dr Rowan Williams signalled his personal support for the consecration of gay bishops in the Church of England but said he would never endorse gay clergy in relationships because of tradition and historical “standards” .
His comments, in an interview in the Times, risk deepening divisions within the church and the wider Anglican communion. Liberals will be angered by his explicit acknowledgement that celibacy must be compulsory for homosexual clergy but not for heterosexuals. While conservative ire will be fuelled by his stance which puts him at odds with church teaching.
In the interview, Williams explained why he has stood with conservatives against homosexuality when it came to official church policy.
He said that he could not endorse gay relationships for clergy and bishops because “the cost to the church overall was too great to be borne at that point”.
And the problem with this is in the last three words. Williams has made it clear that this is a move to soften up the recalcitrant conservative opposition in preparation for the time when non-celibate homosexual bishops won’t be a cost “too great to be borne.”
This has been the liberal strategy all along and, by and large, conservative Anglicans have fallen for it.
Sure looks like most Anglicans have swallowed the ‘gay/straight’ fallacy and all the rest of the agenda invented propaganda words/concepts like ‘sexual identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ along with the rest of Western civilization.
Scripture does support this view as a thoughtful careful reading of I Corinthians 6:9-20 and Romans 1:18-32 and on into Romans 2 would reveal. God is very inclusive. Nowhere in Scripture does God create or offer exclusions or exemptions on the basis of desires, wishes, conditioned physical or emotional responses, self-concept or perceived identity.
Besides, research, statistics, medical and mental health evidence shows these self-concepts, behaviors and lifestyles are not holy, happy, healthy or stable. There is a great deal of psychic pain beneath these feelings and a great deal more pain, physical, emotional and relational that comes from following or acting on them.
We cannot know and be in union with God if we are not living according to God’s Word and Will, and not being in communion with God is truly death itself.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (remember those?), allowing same sex attracted people to be bishops is not against church teaching. Allowing gay people who aren’t celibate to be bishops is.
Btw, I agree completely with your analysis, David.