Updated Sunday morning
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports that:
…In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: “We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
“People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
“The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
“We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
Read the whole report at Change and repent, bishop tells gays.
…Derek Munn, the director of public affairs for Stonewall, the homosexual campaign group, criticised Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments.
“It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance,” he said.
“Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf.”
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the president of the Inclusive Church, a liberal grouping in the Church of England, said: “Homosexuality is not a sin. It is the way many people love each other and is a gift from God. Ordinary people in the pews know this. And they are a lot more theologically aware than the handful of narrow- minded bishops who want to play politics with the Anglican Communion.”
This story has been commented on by Damian Thompson of the Telegraph with the headline ‘Repent!’ Rochester tells gays as Synod starts. ‘No, you repent’, snap other bishops. ‘You’re spoiling everything!’ .
The BBC has Gay row ‘may cause Church split’.
And from the USA, where there is another Bishop of Rochester, comes TWO BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER OFFER DIFFERENT MESSAGES TO THE CHURCH.
Religious Intelligence has Bishop warns of liberal threat to faith.
“The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Well, he’s *almost* right, in that the Bible’s pattern of marriage seems to be that of a man and *at least one* woman.
Face it, My Lord – even in the Bible, what constitutes a marriage shows considerable change and development.
Hear, hear, Billy D! So bizarre to read this after I posted something in response to this argument on my own blog this morning.
To quote a past Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church: “Fast on fear and feast on faith!” Quit being so scared of gay people.
For those seeking clarification, here is a YouTube explanation of traditional Biblical marriage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
What BillyD said!
I remain to be convinced that Islamaphobia is any sort of advance on homophobia.
Susan’s quote has it right – fast on fear.
I think we need an exorcist!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGGkQ0Ir1Q&feature=related
For those seeking clarification, here is a YouTube explanation of traditional Biblical marriage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
peterpi
Most enlightening; Thank you peterpi I enjoyed it.
Interesting that BOTH of the (very) differing Bishops of Rochester are of South Asian ethnicity (Just in case, y’know, the UK +Rochester tried to make Biblically-based LGBT-inclusion into some sort of decadent Western and/or white thing. +Prince Singh, Rochester/USA, you ROCK! :-D)
Well, I have no intention of repenting or changing.
But doesn’t his quote make it clear that for him, holding a different view on the gay issue means you have an entirely different faith
Yes, Billy D, and then there is that unchanging part about no divorce. Nice to know that all biblical laws are being observed.
There is one thing that I can agree with Bishop Nazir-Ali about. He writes, ““We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
Absolutely. Repentance and change are important parts of an encounter with Jesus Christ. I think homosexuals do need to repent and be changed. As do bisexuals, asexuals, and heterosexuals. I just don’t think that their sexuality is one of the things that they need to change.
The Betty Bowers video is fantastic.
The “entirely different faith” language is part of what the Duncan crowd have come up with to hide their homophobia. I gather that the resigned Bp of Rochester (UK) is campaigning to be the Bob Duncan of the UK.
The interesting thing is that these people still expect others to believe that they have “listened” to gay people, that they understand homosexuality, and that they actually ARE acting in good faith. What is it that blinds them to their outward appearance? It is so obvious to anyone with even the basic level of literacy that these people know practically nothing about homosexuality, have never listened to us, and wouldn’t recognize a homosexual who was not a walking stereotype. Yet they get all incensed and scream oppression and the hostility of the world when that ignorance is cast in their… Read more »
“What is wrong with these people?”
Yup, Ford, the perennial question: is homophobia a sin or a sickness?
[In all honesty, I think it’s a bit of both]
Funny BBowers vid, thanks. When listening to preachers like NA, I play the game: Who is the audience? I also add in the game, What unconscious motives can possibly be happening? In both we use the clues gained, from the likely real world effects the preaching causes. Many would agree that NA’s conscious aims are not likely to be achieved. Even if all Christians everywhere proclaimed with one loud voice that queer folks needed to be categorically celibate to improve daily life; the traditional message heard would still be the one about not being gay any more. The real world… Read more »
“Yup, Ford, the perennial question: is homophobia a sin or a sickness? [In all honesty, I think it’s a bit of both]” Well, I think it’s a consequence of the Fall, but then, I would. So it’s both a sickness and a sin, in that sense. Sickness because it is part of our damaged human nature. Sin because it reflects at best an incomplete “metanoia”. These are people who have not fully “changed their mind”. But many of them don’t even know what metanoia is. But, more importantly, this isn’t about homophobia at all. That, like small ‘s’ sin, is… Read more »