Thinking Anglicans

reports of Bishop of Salisbury interviews

There have been several recent reports of an interview in The Times given by the Bishop of Salisbury, Nick Holtam. The original newspaper articles remain behind a paywall. The bishop also spoke on the BBC radio programme Sunday yesterday.

The BBC programme can be found here (available on iPlayer or as podcast).

The Diocese of Salisbury has these reports:
Briefing note following the interview published in The Times on Friday 3 February
Bishop urges open debate – Bishop Nicholas said on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Sunday’ programme this week that there are more views on civil partnerships in the church than have been expressed officially.

Changing Attitude has The Bishop of Salisbury first to make public his support for gay marriage and Pete Broadbent predicts Synod will be talking about gay marriage in the tea room this week

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Father Ron Smith
Father Ron Smith
12 years ago

Excellent interview by Bishop Nicholas Holtham. He places clearly the case for Same-Sex partnership to receive the blessing of the Church – perhaps even in Marriage, if that’s what the government decrees is a possibility for faithful monogamous Gay relationships.

Pete Broadbent’s contribution rather predictable. Less encouraging for Gays and more careful for tradition than pastoral concern.

David Shepherd
12 years ago

The Bishop of Salisbury states: ‘Not all heterosexual marriages produce, or even have the potential for, children, so that can’t be the single defining criteria setting them apart from same-sex partnerships.’ This is a classic example of the converse accident fallacy: applying an exception (allowed for another reason, protecting privacy by not legislating over contraception or offspring) as a basis for varying the general rule. Other examples include: If we allow people with glaucoma to use medical marijuana, then everyone should be allowed to use marijuana. As Wikipedia states: ‘The two arguments imply there is no difference between the exception… Read more »

Ian Arch
Ian Arch
12 years ago

A good point David Shepherd. It’s great to hear +Nicholas’ voice on this, but I think it important that “equality” need not be understood as “identity”. Marriage and civil partnerships are not yet equal, but it is possible to make them equal without necessarily making them identical. ++York’s recent contribution might have opened that conversation up had it come from another mouth.

JCF
JCF
12 years ago

Oh poppycock, DavidS. You’re the one going straight (!) for the Slippery Slope: Specific Variance -> Universal Chaos.

NO ONE is saying “everyone” should be permitted to marry. Simply two consenting adults w/o regards to their biological sex.

In a Christian context, we’re told “In Christ, there is no male or female.” We’re NOT told “there is no difference in age of consent” or “there is no difference in species” or “there is no difference in marital status” (to quickly dispel the pedophilia, bestiality and polygamy/polyamory canards!)

Fr Mark
Fr Mark
12 years ago

David S: if it’s alright with you, I’d like those who seek to deny me the right to civil marriage on the mere basis of ancient Israelite religious prejudice not also to compare me with drug users.

Nat
Nat
12 years ago

The procreation argument against marriage equality is being used here in Washington by religious conservatives. No matter how limited and short-sighted the argument, it is a weapon that seems to come to hand far too often among the non-thinking. So it is good to hear the bishop eliminate it as a consideration.

Tobias Haller
12 years ago

David S. has once again misapplied the converse accident fallacy. In this case there is no “rule” that marriage must produce children. No “exception” is granted to those who do not, or cannot, produce children. To say that “marriage requires procreation” is not a fallacy; it is false. The bishop is challenging those who employ this false premise to make the claim that because this is the “purpose” of marriage (asserting a rule where none exists) a same-sex couple, who cannot procreate, are forbidden to marry. This well-worn conservative argument is not a case of logical fallacy, but reliance on… Read more »

David Shepherd
12 years ago

JCF: I defined the fallacy as: ‘applying an exception…as a basis for varying the general rule’ I never stated that the attempted variation was that “‘everyone’ would be permitted to marry”. That inference was yours alone. Your interpretation of Galatians 3:28 also forces a contradiction of Paul’s injunctions elsewhere to slaves and slave-owners. The actual context Of Galatians 3 is in respect of the common requirement of justification by faith (not Christian marital requirements), as the preceding verses of that passage make clear. Fr Mark: The example that I gave was quoted from Wikipedia entry, rather than my own. I’ll… Read more »

David Shepherd
12 years ago

I have not stated that marriage requires procreation. Once again, Tobias Haller treats marriage like a substance, rather than a collective of substances. As one writer put it: ‘Collectives inherit some, but not all, of the ontological marks of substances. they may undergo other sorts of changes through time.’ A watch can be disassembled into its constituent parts. This does not mean that a watch should be reductively defined as a number of discrete unassembled mechanical and electrical parts that only could be assembled together to tell the time. That a football team can have players sent off or retired… Read more »

evensongjunkie
evensongjunkie
12 years ago

Uh, David Shepherd, don’t clerics in the CofE still interview prospective marriage candidates? Find out if they are truly meant for one another? So where does this sweeping fallacy apply?

MarkBrunson
12 years ago

It’s a well-worn-*out* conservative argument.

Hardly surprising, though still, poignantly, disappointing. How in the world can they claim to see us as human beings when making such specious arguments?

Rosemary Hannah
Rosemary Hannah
12 years ago

It is one thing to say that men and women can marry to procreate, and quite another to say that the ability to procreate is a necessary condition for marriage – when it not only is not, but never has been. Even in the Prayer Book, even in the most strict of traditions, procreation is only one of the possible MOTIVES for marriage, and never a condition of it.

JCF
JCF
12 years ago

“That marriage can be non-procreative does not mean that the laws of marriage should be re-defined in terms of organic union, what constitutes consummation…”

Good googly-moogly. When you’re in a hole, DavidS, stop digging!

We GET it, that you demand a TabA/SlotB lowest common-denominator for marriage. Prettying it up w/ terms like “organic union” (re what “constitutes consummation”) really isn’t going to help your argument though. It’s transparent you’re reaching to CYA due to your own Ick. Let it go!

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

“That marriage can be non-procreative does not mean that the laws of marriage should be re-defined” This is absolutely true. But neither does it mean that they cannot be re-defined. All it comes down to is words: If you define marriage as something between a man and a woman, then obviously, nothing else will ever make the grade. But if you definte marriage as something between two people, then same sex couples fit in neatly, into exactly the same parameters. Those who wish to deny same sex couples marriage have to do more than insist on their definition of marriage.… Read more »

Rosemary Hannah
Rosemary Hannah
12 years ago

Nor can arguments be reversed. ‘Marriage is traditionally seen as a condition for procreation’ cannot be turned on its head to read ‘Procreation is a necessary condition for marriage.’ Otherwise ‘It is necessary to use my car in order to get the dog to the beach’ becomes ‘It is necessary to take the dog to the beach if I use my car.’

Tobias Haller
12 years ago

David, this has nothing to do with substance, and I’m not sure I even follow what you mean, and it seems a distraction from what is under discussion. I’m simply addressing your assertion that there is some “law of marriage” to which exceptions are being granted. You have the law wrong, that’s all. In fact the “law of marriage” is that fertility is not required for marriage; that marriages do not end with menopause; that the use of birth control is permitted — natural or artificial depending on sect; that this is not a question of defect, discovered post facto;… Read more »

Ian Arch
Ian Arch
12 years ago

I honestly think there is an issue here that should be properly discussed, which I think David S was trying to get at.

Marriage could be redefined in law to grant full equality to same-sex relationships. Or, civil partnerships could be redefined in law (and perhaps renamed) to be equal, but slightly different to marriage as traditionally understood. Both options have merits. Is no one interested in the creative possibilities for interpreting the meaning and purposes of same sex relationships in our society?

Tobias Haller
12 years ago

Mr. Shepherd, this has nothing to do with substances as far as I can see. I’m simply addressing your assertion that there is some “law of marriage” to which exceptions are being granted. You have the law wrong. In fact the “law of marriage” states that it does not require fertility; that marriages do not end with menopause; that the use of birth control is permitted — natural or artificial depending on sect; that this is not a question of defect, discovered post facto; i.e., that infertility is not grounds for divorce (unless concealed); that couples who know themselves to… Read more »

David Shepherd
12 years ago

A marriage is distinct from, but cannot exist without the parties to it. I repeat that pro-creation is not a condition of marriage. A marriage is both a collective of substances and a state (in philosophical terms, an accident) with a specific dependence on both parties to it. It is distinct from the substance of the individuals so joined. Nevertheless, marriage is not a relational accident. Relational accidents (e.g. a dance, a conversation, a kiss) can be described as existing in their own right, with qualities and changes being completely un-related to the properties of the individuals involved. The state… Read more »

David Shepherd
12 years ago

I will wait and respect the moderator. Perhaps, I’ll re-post. However, the issues cannot be debated because my reply (the only voice contrary to the SSM litany) wasn’t published.

The thread will descend into yet another ‘armchair martyr’ rant-fest.

Robert ian Williams
Robert ian Williams
12 years ago

It amazes me when opponents of gay marriage, desert the exclusive claims of Christian marriage and try and say that one man, one woman has always been the usual practice with all types of historical Marriage. In fact polygamy and concubinage have been the order of the day for centuries.Even the Utah Mormon Church bankrolling the California referendum, belives that in Heaven, polygamy will be the divine Order.

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

Ian, I am in a civil partnership. I do not need a creative interpretation of my life. If other people wish to indulge themselves, by all means. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m married and my relationship is absolutely not one bit different to that of a straight couple. We bring up children, we have grandchildren, we go to parent evenings (last night’s was tedious!), we take the dogs for a walk, we try to remember to put the bins out. The interesting question for me is that countless of gay couples tell you the same thing, that’s why… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

Ian, unless you also want to creatively engage with the various forms of marriage at the same time and give them different names depending on their actual status? Childless couples could be one kind of “married” (you might need to find a creative other word for it), people who adopt children or have them following fertility treatment could be another kind of “married”. You might need to ask a few questions, but we could even separate out celibate marrieds from those who are not. It all depends on where your particular interpretation of “difference that needs to be creatively engaged… Read more »

Simon Sarmiento
12 years ago

David
I found two of your comments (one on another thread) in the Junk file, and have now published them both. I have no idea why the software rejected them originally.

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

Simon,
this seems to be happening increasingly lately. A large number of my comments was not published recently and only a minority was possibly inflamatory and could have attracted censorship.
Are there any particular keywords that your SPAM filter doesn’t like?

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

David, unless they transition, uncles cannot be females for biological reasons. The definition of marriage, on the other hand, is purely man made and it’s not helpful to suggest them people cannot expand it. They’ve changed it in the past, they can change it again. The jump from “between a man and a woman” to “between to people” really isn’t so impossible that it cannot contemplated. Especially considering that this is not a mere theoretical issue but that the Government is already actively contemplating it, with huge support from the majority of people. I know you don’t like it. But… Read more »

Simon Sarmiento
12 years ago

Erika I just searched and found two recent comments of yours in Junk. I have now published them.
Please, anyone who thinks this has happened to them, let me know and I can look.
I have no idea why any of them happen.

Tobias Haller
12 years ago

I too seem to have fallen victim to the Junk Folder, as I attempted to post an earlier response to David. It now appears to me that the base of the problem is in fact philosophical. David sees marriage as an entity the substance of which must consist of a man and a woman. He sees it in ontological terms. I, and I assume others, see it as a relationship between entities, and argue that the entities involved need not be a man and a woman. I see marriage in active, rather than essential, terms. Marriage, for me, is not… Read more »

David Shepherd
12 years ago

Erika: ‘I know you don’t like it. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen’. Of course, it can. It just contradicts reality. Let’s see. Society already reduces the Lord’s declared ground for divorce, adultery, to a mere finding of fact in the no-fault ground of irretrievable breakdown. The casualty is the parent that has loses custody, in spite of being, by biblical standards, the innocent cheated party. Of course, for obvious reasons, the fact of adultery doesn’t apply to civil partnerships. That would require a complex re-definition, so you’d have to ‘streamline’ the existing matrimonial causes by eliminating it completely… Read more »

David Shepherd
David Shepherd
12 years ago

Erika:

‘The definition of marriage, on the other hand, is purely man made’

Considering the theology that you recommended to Ian, I’m surprised at this statement.

If the definition of marriagr is purely man-made, it is not informed by the God. Yet, there are clear biblical precedents within the definition of marriage. The prohibitions on adultery may agree with most human consciences, but the laws are derived from God in the Ten Commandments. This understanding is basic to our Christian theology of marriage.

JCF
JCF
12 years ago

“The jump from “between a man and a woman” to “between t[w]o people” really isn’t so impossible that it cannot contemplated.”

Basically, we’re left w/ DavidS (et al) *repeating* (w/ an added dollop of philosophical terminology) that it isn’t. More heat, no further light.

David Shepherd
12 years ago

Simon,

Thanks for retrieving previous post, but it may have happened again.

ED NOTE: found another one!

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

David “‘The definition of marriage, on the other hand, is purely man made’ Considering the theology that you recommended to Ian, I’m surprised at this statement.” Man gets it wrong. But God knows the truth and that truth is not based on externals but on what a relationship is about. Jesus has never been fixed on externals but has always seen the core of what people are about and has addressed that. Which is why interracial marriages are perfectly possibly and have always been welcomed in the eyes of God, even though human societies haven’t always understood that and have… Read more »

Simon Sarmiento
12 years ago

Tobias, several of your posts found and published. Sorry, again no idea why.

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
12 years ago

“The thread will descend into yet another ‘armchair martyr’ rant-fest.” Who are the armchair martyrs? I presume they’re not those who actually have a stake in this because their very lives are being affected. You must mean the ones for whom this is a purely theoretical debate, the outcome of which affects them not one little bit. But let me assure you that I don’t think many of them “rant”, just like the others don’t “rant” either but post carefully thought through arguments. There are, fortunately, very very few people here who show genuine contempt for those they don’t agree… Read more »

Tobias Haller
12 years ago

Thanks, Simon. The mysteries of the ‘net!

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
12 years ago

I though this extract from an Anglican Mainstream release from October last year was pertinent: “AMIE insists that it is determined to remain Anglican. But it has its own panel of bishops, ready to provide alternative episcopal supervision to parishes which disagree with their diocesan bishop. One, Michael Nazir-Ali, former bishop of Rochester, has said: “Only a few will need such oversight at the moment. “There may be others if bishops… teach that same-sex relations are equivalent to marriage or are in same-sex civil partnerships themselves, and if no provision is made for those who in conscience cannot accept women… Read more »

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