Q: Some people have reacted strongly to your statements about the issue of gay marriage in your interview with LBC radio.
A: Lots of people have.
Q: Were you in fact blaming the death of Christians in parts of Africa on the acceptance of gay marriage in America?
A: I was careful not to be too specific because that would pin down where that happened and that would put the community back at risk. I wouldn’t use the word “blame””” that’s a misuse of words in the context. One of the things that’s most depressing about the response to that interview is that almost nobody listened to what I said; they mostly imagined what they thought I said…It was not only imagination, it was a million miles away from what I said.
Q: So what exactly were you saying?
A: What I was saying is that when we take actions in one part of the church, particularly actions that are controversial, that they are heard and felt not only in that part of the church but around the world.
It seems to me that an even more pertinent snippet is this:
[blockquote]Q: In 2016, the church’s General Synod will be presented with a resolution changing the marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage. Is this a cause for concern?
A: That’s a really tough question. Well, it’s got to be a cause for concern because this is a particularly tough issue to deal with… [/blockquote]
In the rather rambling reply, Abp. Welby mentions “listening†multiple times. He mentions the diversity of views across the Communion (again). What he does not do is: a) give a principled defence of marriage as a God-ordained estate for a man and a woman (something he at least weakly argued before the House of Lords last June); b) refer to Lambeth I.10 (that seems to be so ’Nineties); or c) warn the ACoC that revising the Prayer Book to include same-sex marriage will be at least as divisive to Anglicanism as the consecration of Gene Robinson was ten years ago.
You put your left foot in
You put your left foot out
In out in out
You wobble it all about
You do the hokey-cokey
and you turn around
…. That’s what its all about!
Funny, Pageantmaster! Even the hokey-pokey is slightly different on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
You put your left foot in
You put your left foot out
You put your left foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about!
+Welby needs to turn himself towards the Scripture and stay there.