Guardian Article accompanying Jeffrey John’s newly edited Book Backing Same Sex Unions

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The most senior openly gay cleric in Britain has accused the Church of England of pursuing a "morally contemptible" policy on same-sex marriage, denouncing it for moving "in the opposite direction" to society and criticising Rowan Williams for changing his "public position" on the issue as soon as he was made Archbishop of Canterbury.

In a new preface to his 1990 booklet on gay relationships, Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, writes that, by setting themselves against same-sex marriage, the bishops of the Church have prioritised the union of the Anglican communion over the rights of gay Christians.

"This policy may be institutionally expedient, but it is morally contemptible," he writes in an abridged extract of the preface published in the Guardian. "Worst of all, by appeasing their persecutors it betrays the truly heroic gay Christians of Africa who stand up for justice and truth at risk of their lives. For the mission of the Church of England the present policy is a disaster."

Read it all.

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4 Comments
Posted August 15, 2012 at 6:16 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. dwstroudmd+ wrote:

Camembert to go with that whine, Dean?

August 15, 10:52 am | [comment link]
2. Milton wrote:

What is morally contemptible is preferring the corrupt appetites of man over the will and word of God.
“Their god is their appetite, and their glory is their shame.”

August 15, 11:54 am | [comment link]
3. upnorfjoel wrote:

So the COE is “...moving in the opposite direction to society…”?
I don’t think that standing firm on two millennia of historic teachings of the church is moving in any direction!  But that language is the best way to try and paint conservatives as radical.  It does get old.

August 15, 7:53 pm | [comment link]
4. drummie wrote:

Jeffery John comes across as morally contemptable. Since when is God supposed to conform to human desires? John is trying to impose his agenda through smearinging the very Church that has protected him. He plays the role of a Christian priest while mocking God. That seems just a bit morally wrong to me. When there is any credible evidence that homosexuality is an unresistable force and that man is powerless to resist it, then I might start to think differently. Whinning becuase you don’t get your way isn’t very becoming of a so called member of the clergy. What I really wonder is what he is a priest of.

August 16, 6:55 pm | [comment link]
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