Category Archives: Homosexuality and the church

It doesn’t get dafter than this

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I’ve been waiting to say that for some time.

It will, of course, but we have to draw the line of irredeemable idiocy somewhere, so here it is. Most of us have not come to terms with the angst caused by our white privilege, and now we have that most heinous of all privileges to cope with: straight privilege.

Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith have apologised for letting Max Lucado speak at the cathedral. The devil didn’t make them do it, straight privilege did. Much the same thing, I suppose; at least they were not personally responsible, that’s the main thing.

The problem is, Max Lucado does not insist that homosexual acts and same sex marriage are in accord with Christian beliefs. This is not only unAnglican but it has caused pain. I know it has caused me pain: mostly from laughing too hard at the absurdity of it all.

From here:

Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith issued parallel apologies late Feb. 10 for allowing popular evangelical pastor Max Lucado to preach during the cathedral’s Sunday service, despite facing outrage in advance over Lucado’s past statements against homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

Budde and Hollerith both spoke of the pain the decision had caused many members of the LGBTQ community. Budde, in her statement, quoted with permission from a dozen of the people who wrote to her in protest. Hollerith said people had reached out to him as well, and he acknowledged he had erred in not listening to their calls to rescind the invitation to Lucado.

“In my straight privilege I failed to see and fully understand the pain he has caused,” Hollerith said. “I failed to appreciate the depth of injury his words have had on many in the LGBTQ community. I failed to see the pain I was continuing. I was wrong and I am sorry.”

Anglicans: the view from outside

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This evening I watched a couple of episodes of a BBC murder/mystery/spy series call “Collateral”. It was well done and entertaining but, since it was produced by the BBC, it was laced with the usual generous lashings of political correctness. I’ll confine myself to commenting on the antics of an Anglican priest who made her first appearance in episode 1.

We first see her when she enters her church, sits in an empty pew, looks up and says “God, I’m a mess”. “Fair enough”, I thought, it’s a fallen word, we are all a mess: at least she believes God exists, a major concession in the BBC’s portrayal of Church of England vicars. I was fully prepared for her to be the villain of the piece, but it was not to be.

She was a kind and generous lady vicar, a daring, outrageous scripting mistake for the BBC, I thought. However, my pessimism was soon rewarded. The reason for her being portrayed sympathetically became clear: she was a lesbian in an open sexual relationship with a young girl. Not only that, her bishop couldn’t censure her because he had a male lover. She had “come out”, he had not, so she occupied the high moral ground.

For those of us who labour under the delusion that the Church of England can’t  succeed at anything: we are wrong, and I apologise for my part in propagating this error. The Anglican church has made tremendous strides in convincing the world that humanity’s chief virtue lies in being not just homosexual, but openly homosexual.

Justin Welby would be proud.

Remember That You Are Glitter, And To Glitter You Shall Return

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If, as I did, you attended an Ash Wednesday service, you will have received a sombre reminder that the day will come when mortality’s grip will cause you to breathe your last and your mortal frame will return to the dust from whence it came.

Unless you are gay, in which case you will return to glitter:

What is Glitter+Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is a day when Christians receive the mark of the cross on their foreheads to begin the 40 days of reflection and repentance in preparation for Easter.

Glitter Ashes lets the world know that we are progressive, queer-positive Christians. We are in the pews, in the pulpits and giving glitter ashes in the street to those who either may not have time to go to a church—or may have been rejected by a church.

To complete the illusion, you can bury your glittering remains in a glitter coffin supplied by the Glitter Coffin Company. Here is a tasteful example:

It’s glitter all the way to the glitter encrusted pearly gates.

Affirming homosexuality for Lent

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If you are looking for something to give up for Lent, Generous Space Ministries has a suggestion:

This Lent we are inviting church people to give up the comfort of silence and speak up in support of their LGBTQ+ siblings in Christ. The challenge is to tell your pastor that you affirm LGBTQ+ people in the church!

For those who might be a little unclear as to the exact meaning of this, let me explain: it is not enough to affirm the presence of an LGBTQ+ person in your church, something I presume we would all do.

We have to understand that Christianity has left behind outdated ideas like denying yourself, laying aside your old self, crucifying the flesh, putting off your former way of life, and being dead to immorality, impurity, passion and evil desires. We are far too enlightened to fall for that medieval self-flagellating claptrap – unless, of course, you are a BDSM+ person, in which case, we affirm your pain.

Now we affirm everything a person is, does and thinks. Otherwise ze will feel excluded. And since exclusion is the only sin left to the church, the full measure of the church’s wrath is visited on its practitioners.

If you are wondering what all this has to do with repentance, it’s really quite simple: this Lent you must repent of your odious, outdated and, quite frankly, phobic view of homosexuality and all its scintillating and inspiring variations, expressions and activities.

Anglican priest declares Bible is just some “silly words”

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Most Anglican clergy go to enormous lengths to torture the plain language of Scripture until it concedes that there really is nothing wrong with homosexual activity.

Rev Clifford Hall in Barbados has taken a different approach: he told marchers in the local pride parade that what the Bible says is irrelevant because it is just some “silly words written in a book thousands of years ago”.

Clifford has come out of the closet and openly stated what most of his fellow clergy secretly think of the Bible.

From here:

At a gay pride parade last week, Father Clifford Hall told marchers that nothing can stop their movement, “…legions of Pharisees won’t stop it… the roaring lion won’t stop it. And some silly words written in a book thousands of years ago won’t stop it.”

His words were met by loud applause from parade attendees. Hall also told them they were accepted into the “flock of Christ” and that God is willing to give them the Kingdom.

He also claimed that homosexuality has “always been part of the natural order of things.”

Praying away the straight

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I expect that anyone at all interested in the implosion of Western Anglicanism is aware that Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth, a homosexual Scottish vicar, has caused ripples of discontent in non-liberal Anglican circles – although, at this point there can only be one non-liberal Anglican circle left in the UK; perhaps only a semi-circle – by suggesting we pray that Prince George become gay. Or perhaps that he is already gay, since we are told, incessantly, that the condition is genetic. Come to think of it, the latest fad is that gender is fluid so Holdsworth must be exhorting us to pray for a homoerotic congealing.

Now Holdsworth has come up with a clarification. He tells us:

The debate about the church and sexuality will go on. I’m not interested in continuing it through a conversation about Prince George. I would urge others, those who agree with me strongly and those who disagree with me strongly to turn our attentions to the actual matter at hand.

Utter twaddle.

First of all, if he isn’t interested in continuing talking about Prince George, why drag him into the arena of his erotic yearnings in the first place? Holdsworth, suddenly overcome with pious concern for the prince, has, in reality, been forced by over-exposure to curtail furthering his grubby schemes through the sexualising of a four-year-old.

Secondly, the post was not about “LGBT inclusion” at all because most gender confused individuals are completely antipathetic to the Anglican church and its desperate attempts to project an aura of relevance to the indifferent. It is, was and always will be about legitimising the lifestyles of the increasingly high percentage of homosexual Anglican clergy, in particular Kelvin Holdsworth who, it would appear, craves ecclesiastical approval of his own domestic living arrangements.

Thirdly, “the actual matter at hand” is not going to end with same-sex marriage: it will get much worse. Same-sex marriage, after all, represents just the first two letters of the LGBTetc litany; we have polyamory, bisexuality, pansexuality, demisexualty and transsexuality still to go; and we haven’t even scratched the surface of bondage and sadomasochism. Our only consolation is that the Anglican Church is liable to run out of steam well before it runs out of alphabet.

The Church of the Immaculate Condom

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It was over 50 years ago that Malcolm Muggeridge wrote:

The orgasm has replaced the Cross as the focus of longing and the image of fulfilment.

He was correct, of course, and nowhere is it more applicable than in the Anglican Church of Canada, The United Church and TEC, where the imaginary freedom of unfettered gay sex has been set at a higher priority than inconvenient Biblical truth.

The Chicago Theological Seminary, affiliated with the United Church, is in full agreement:

Condom

From here:

It may take you a moment to understand what you’re seeing here.

This is a condom that was given out last week at the 2015 Wild Goose Festival, an annual progressive Christian hootenanny. Chicago Theological Seminary is a left-wing seminary affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The rainbow fire logo is an LGBT-friendly version of the UCC’s own logo seminary’s logo.

The text advises takers to grab two condoms in case of two orgasms.

It likens the Second Coming of Christ to sex, in particular gay sex.

The coming out of Vicky Beeching

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Vicky Beeching is a Christian celebrity, singer, and more recently media commentator; she has just announced that she is a lesbian. What makes this interesting – and, since I am firmly convinced that celebrities’ opinions are rarely sensible, the only thing that does – is that for a number of months prior to her unburdening herself, Beeching has been promoting same sex marriage in her blog, giving Biblical references as reasons for her support of same sex marriage. She urges us to have good disagreements: I can see her becoming a mouthpiece for Justin – it’s all about relationship – Welby.

As it turns out, though, the more probable reason for her view is an entirely personal one: she is attracted to other women. As so often seems to be the case, the Biblical texts are being read in the light of subjectivity, in this case because the reader is herself gay or, in other instances, because someone close to the reader is.

From here:

“I’m gay,” she says, confirming what is written. She has never said this publicly before – a handful of people in her private life know. She has only just told one her closest friends, Katherine, and Katherine’s father, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The enormity of the political ramifications of this disclosure scarcely have a second to sink in – a theologian who spends holy days with the Archbishop, whose God-fearing lyrics are sung by millions in America’s Bible Belt, coming out as a lesbian – before I begin to reflect on the implications for her personally.

The Bible, Belief and Human Sexuality

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Bishop Michael Burrows and Professor Robert Gagnon discuss what the Bible has to say about human sexuality, particularly homosexuality, and what the church should do about it.

The video is over one and a half hours but it’s well worth a listen; I am left with an enduring impression that the only participant to resort to logic was Robert Gagnon.

Anglicans can’t afford a float in Toronto’s World Pride Parade

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I imagine you are pretty upset about that; I know I am.

From the Proud Anglicans Facebook page:

As midnight May 2nd approaches Proud Anglicans have been registered in the World Pride Parade. We are “marching contingent” only. I know this is not perfect and we have had a float for the past few years but due to rising costs and less money available to us this is the best we can do.

In past years the float has been a tourist bus:

Bus

The cost of participating with the bus would amount to about $3000, apparently. I find it extraordinary that a church that has done so much to attract Proud Anglicans has not managed to attract enough of them to contribute a trifling $3000 to an event that is evidently so dear to their hearts.