The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England accepting gay marriage could be “catastrophic” for Christians in other parts of the world.
The Most Rev Justin Welby told LBC that hundreds of Christians in Africa had been killed by people who associated Christianity with homosexuality.
He warned the same could happen if the Church of England backed gay unions.
Same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales last week, but is not supported by the Church.
I always welcome such reminders of the grim reality of the deadly persecution of Christians that’s going on in many parts of the world today. I’m glad that ++Welby took the opportunity to drive that fact home.
But his lame attempt to appear even-handed, and to pacify the pro-gay activists and the large number of poorly-informed folks in the general population who wonder why the Church is so slow to jump on this bandwagon doesn’t help. To suggest that there is any kind of moral equivalence between the suffering of large numbers of Christians who are being killed for their faith around the globe and the inner pain experienced by the tiny number of gay people in the Global North is terribly misleading and inaccurate. The situations aren’t comparable in the least.
But there’s still the problem that homosexual behavior is an issue on which the Church can’t and shouldn’t compromise, no matter the cynical, secularized, antinomian culture all around us does. We need leaders who have the courage and integrity to call the faithful to make a clear choice for truth and against the error that is so prevalent now, a clear stand for righteousness and against sin in all its many deceitful forms, including sexual sin, an unambiguous decision to uphold the true liberation, healing, and transformation that only Christ can bring us and against the false gospel of mere “affirmation” of people as they are that is all our foes can offer. But I’m not at all sure that ++Welby has it in him to play that polarizing role (as Moses did in Deut. 30, or Joshua did in Josh. 24, or Elijah did in 1 Kings 18).
There will be a time for making peace and pursuing reconciliation, but that if AFTER the Culture War has been fought and won, not before. Any reconciliation worthy of the name and the effort has to be based on truth and reality, and involves genuine repentance on all sides.
David Handy+