The Living Reconciliation website has published: Anglicans are for the Decriminalization of LGBT People Worldwide.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of consensual same-gender intimacy in England and Wales, and the Church of England played a significant role in that historic achievement.
Maurice Tomlinson writes:
It was a 1955 Church committee report that proposed ending criminal sanctions for same-sex conduct, and this contributed to the government-appointed Wolfenden Committee (largely comprised of Anglicans) recommending decriminalization in 1959.
However, anti-gay laws still exist across the Commonwealth, and 38 of 53 countries maintain these archaic relics of British colonization. Church teaching inspired these dreadful statutes, but our beloved Church also called for their repeal, acting according to guiding tenets of Scripture. Consensus on decriminalization has proven difficult amongst independent Provinces because some senior clerics have argued that anti-sodomy laws are critical bulwarks against marriage-equality.
Yet a significant breakthrough occurred last year when the Primates met at Lambeth. The 38 Province heads agreed to the following statement against criminalization:
The Primates condemned homophobic prejudice and violence and resolved to work together to offer pastoral care and loving service irrespective of sexual orientation. This conviction arises out of our discipleship of Jesus Christ. The Primates reaffirmed their rejection of criminal sanctions against same-sex attracted people.
The Global Anglican Communion opposes criminal sanctions against LGBTI people. [1]
Archbishop Justin Welby stressed that the unanimous view of the Primates is that ‘the criminalization of LGBTIQ people is entirely wrong’ when he confronted President Mugabe of Zimbabwe of on this very issue.
Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, says that for African Anglicans decriminalization is ‘the single most pressing issue around human sexuality’ and went on to say that:
The struggle for the legal, social, spiritual and physical safety of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters is our issue in Nigeria and other places in Africa. The prophetic task for African Anglicans is to denounce violence and civil disabilities that are supported by members of our own communities and leadership.
He rightly says that African Anglicans must take a lead in this urgent task…
[footnote 1]The Primates of the Anglican Communion have consistently condemned ‘the victimisation and diminishment’ of any person due to their sexuality and in 2007 they supported the Don’t Throw Stones Statement. This was endorsed by the ACC in Jamaica in 2009 and confirmed by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion later that year. The time has come to put these fine words into action. The Primates’ Meeting in Dublin in 2011 condemned the homophobic murder of David Kato in Uganda.
The Primate of Wales was unable to attend and the Primate of Uganda had left before the communiqué was issued.
Do read the whole article, which contains a lot more information.
I was recently in Nigeria for 10 days linked to my work. On the Sunday I attended worship in an Anglican church. It included a bible study based on a booklet that was produced centrally by the national Anglican church of Nigeria which contained bible studies for each week of the year. In many of the weeks the focus was on the issue of economic and political corruption which pervades Nigeria. By chance the biblical text for study on the week I was in the church was Lev. 18… which of course includes the bit about men not laying with… Read more »
Sure, what next Marian? Gay sex causes earthquakes as widely believed in the Middle Ages? It’s not at all interesting, useful ‘or perhaps even helpful.’ It is bigoted and superstitious. Same-sex sex does not trigger God’s allowing of corruption in the nation. Indeed, a case could be made that the most repressive nations on that front are also the most corrupt. Nigeria first without any kind of supernatural help for crying out loud.
As one of those folk who lived with being gay before the repeal of the law, I can assure you the church never made a clear statement in favour of its repeal. Those of us who were and are Christians lived our lives in the church, knowing full well we were considered sinners to even think of loving someone of the same sex. It was CONFUSION writ large. It was our QUAKER FRIENDS, and the URC who led the way to the acceptance of gay folk as fellow Christians. My older gay friends even had their own language. Thank God… Read more »
“I did find it useful (and perhaps even helpful) to see the way that these connections were made by people in a church in a country which is wrestling so hard with an appalling level of corruption.”
Presumably if you’re not the person likely to be killed you can regard it as “useful” and “helpful” to hear hate speech being directing at gay people. That’s the thing about bigotry: it’s something you can be relaxed about if you aren’t the target of it.
I read Marian’s comment as it being helpful to understand what was believed by some people in Nigeria, not that she agreed with it in any way.
Readers at Thinking Anglicans may be surprised to know that decrimalisation has been a live topic in GAFCON. The late Michael Ovey gave a frank interview to me last year on this topic, making it clear that key GAFCON leaders argued in favour of decriminalisation. Conservative evangelical Christians are more likely to have an impact in Africa than progressives http://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/christian-oppose-jailing-homosexuality-response/
Sorry, Mr Sandeman, but it’s just Mike Ovey being interviewed by a terribly biased Christian channel. And even then, his interview does not give a single shred of hard evidence for what you claim and ends with; ‘A report by the London School of Economics (LSE) Institute of Public Affairs … identified the Anglican Communion … as a key institution that could drive change against draconian anti-gay laws in Africa. Could be did not. Instead, many of those African prelates actively praised the aforementioned draconian bills. Repeatedly.
The title of the piece is misleading. Parse the language it uses:
“decriminalization of consensual same-gender intimacy”
“anti-gay laws”
“anti-sodomy laws”
“homophobic prejudice”
“same-sex attracted people”
“‘the single most pressing issue around human sexuality’”
“criminal sanctions against same-sex attracted people.”
“physical safety of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters”
“anti-sodomy laws in the Caribbean”
That’s from parsing the first half (which is entirely representative of the whole). The title talks of LGBT people but then fails to mention any of the issues in the context of TIQ.
A truly awful and shameful piece.
Thank you Laurence for your own helpful comment. You understand exactly what I was wanting to say. Even though I don’t agree with the widespread view of the church in Nigeria, I still find it useful to try and understand the underlying causes and connections for the views being propounded in the church. It can perhaps enable a more constructive dialogue of difference at some point in the future.
Marian,
are you saying that you understood Nigerians to say that if it wasn’t for gay people, there would be no corruption in the country? And that the corruption isn’t the fault of those officials who are corrupt, but a direct action of God who is angry with gay people?
In response to Erika’s question… although I don’t think it would be expressed quite as starkly as that… yes, broadly speaking my understanding of what I heard and read in that Sunday service was that there was a direct connection being made between God’s anger at sexual sins (including but not limited to genital homosexual relations … see Lev 18 for other examples and in at least some churches polygamy might be included) and the endemic corruption in Nigeria, which God has allowed to take place as an expression of his anger. Personally I find it very strange. But I… Read more »
Hmmm
If God punishes society with corruption for gay sex, why is corruption so much higher in Nigeria which criminalise homosexuality than in the UK which allows same sex marriage?
Thanks for the robust feedback on this article, which is aimed at building support for decriminalization of same-gender intimacy. Please consider reading, signing and sharing the petition that will be presented to all countries where the Anglican Communion has a witness. The petition can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/governments-anglicans-for-decriminalization-of-private-consensual-same-gender-intimacy Please include your NAME, PARISH & DIOCESE!
Marian, it’s just one of the many ways gay people have been scapegoated. Please open your eyes to what this really is.
My feeling in all of this argumentation is that many Evangelical Christians, whose countries were missionised by Victorian English missionaries, are more prone to preach from the Old Testament than the New. Saint Paul, as a scholar of the Old Testament, in my view, was more prone to retain some of the shibboleths of the O.T. (on some of his ideas about gender and sexuality) than to surrender to the fuller – and more liberated – understanding of the thrust of Jesus’ relative kindness to sexual ‘sins’ compared to his criticism of Pharisaism – which supported the stoning of an… Read more »
‘My feeling in all of this argumentation is that many Evangelical Christians, whose countries were missionised by Victorian English missionaries, are more prone to preach from the Old Testament than the New.’
Ron, my ‘feeling’ (which I admit has no statistical basis – but then, I suspect that yours doesn’t either) is that the vast majority of ‘pocket New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs’ editions are sold to evangelical Christians…
“Saint Paul, as a scholar of the Old Testament, in my view, was more prone to retain some of the shibboleths of the O.T. (on some of his ideas about gender and sexuality) than to surrender to the fuller – and more liberated – understanding of the thrust of Jesus’ relative kindness to sexual ‘sins’ compared to his criticism of Pharisaism – which supported the stoning of an adulteress while not penalising the male involved in her activity.” With the added dimension that letters like Ephesians might well not have been written by St Paul, or even in his lifetime.… Read more »
Surely, signing this petition, is a positive step in the right direction for us ?
‘Please consider reading, signing and sharing the petition that will be presented to all countries where the Anglican Communion has a witness.’
The petition can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/governments-anglicans-for-decriminalization-of-private-consensual-same-gender-intimacy Please include your NAME, PARISH & DIOCESE!
Posted by: Maurice Tomlinson on Tuesday, 7 March 2017 at 7:42pm GMT
“yes, broadly speaking my understanding of what I heard and read in that Sunday service was that there was a direct connection being made between God’s anger at sexual sins … and the endemic corruption in Nigeria” The problem is that this sort of claim, is that it is not even wrong [1] and therefore attempts by the well-intentioned by (I am afraid) naive and credulous to understand these claims are bound to fail. Attempting to reason about things which are not the result of reason is a doomed endeavour. If you had been in Germany in 1937, there would… Read more »
Something happened. It was a bad day. Not enough coffee.
That first sentence should read “The problem with this sort of claim is that it is not even wrong [1], and therefore attempts by the well-intentioned but (I am afraid to say) naive and credulous to understand these claims are bound to fail.” If a moderator would like to edit that in…
I doubt that you will publish this posting. I feel that some of the responses to my original comment in which I tried to open up a serious conversation about the realities of the situation in Nigeria (a country I have visited many times for my work for an international organisation) were not only offensive, patronising and sexist – but actually have turned into being close to racist. I rarely post on TA – largely because when I do I fairly rapidly come to the conclusion that it is one of the least liberal and most bigoted internet communities linked… Read more »
“Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, says that for African Anglicans decriminalization is ‘the single most pressing issue around human sexuality’ and went on to say that: ‘The struggle for the legal, social, spiritual and physical safety of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters is our issue in Nigeria and other places in Africa.’ ” It is precisely because of their reluctance to take on this task, to support decriminalisation of LGBTI people within their own countries, that has motivated the schismatic tendencies of the GAFCON Provinces. Their failure to live up to the pledge… Read more »
“… (T)he Primate of Uganda had left before the communiqué was issued.”
Uganda has done this before, i.e., leave before business is concluded when they see that things aren’t going their way. Righteousness can be very lonely.
“offensive, patronising and sexist”
[citation needed], as Wikipedia would say. Could you point to the sexism in the responses, please? Or is this “I am a woman, and if you disagree with me, it is by definition sexist?”
«[citation needed], as Wikipedia would say. Could you point to the sexism in the responses, please? Or is this “I am a woman, and if you disagree with me, it is by definition sexist?”»
I know several women who would object to Laurence Cunnington (a man) stepping in you explain what Marian (a woman) really meant, and see that intervention as patronising and sexist.
“Surely, signing this petition, is a positive step in the right direction for us ? ‘Please consider reading, signing and sharing the petition that will be presented to all countries where the Anglican Communion has a witness.'” At that point, I think Marion is right to say that this verges on racism. We, in the United Kingdom, still criminalise LGBT+ people and we ought to deal with the plank in our own eye first. Yes, I know we don’t criminalise homosexuality – this is the SilenT like the article. We do criminalise trans people for having sex without disclosing their… Read more »