"The Archbishop of Canterbury has continued his quest for Anglican unity with a strong statement against living in sin and gay sex.
"Dr Williams said: "I do not believe that sex outside marriage is as God purposes it."
"And he said he remained "committed" to the Church's official stance against gay sex, which aims to preserve Biblical norms."
[For the full article, see here.]
Harry Truman once said about a politician, "He tried to buy his enemies and took his friends for granted." Archbishop Rowan Williams has done just that!
He has thrown his humane and "liberal" instincts along with Gay people under the bus to preserve unity with those with whom unity is impossible! He seems to assume that those who are homophobic (in the name of the Bible, of course) are people of good will who just differ with his "liberalism," so he is apparently trying to mollify them by succumbing to their homophobic point of view by mouthing rhetoric that he has traditionally not mouthed before, to the best of my knowledge.
Williams is blatantly trying to buy off his enemies, and the enemies of justice for all of God's children, by sacrificing justice at the feet of unity! He, like virtually all of his "liberal" cohorts who at bottom are servants of political expediency, along with homophobic "traditionalists" fail to heed Cicero's injunction:
"Of all these things respecting which learned men dispute there is none more important than clearly to understand that we are born for justice, and that right is founded not in opinion but in nature."
If one wants to make the case against sex outside of marriage from reading the Bible texts, then he or she should be among the first to advance justice for Gay people by strong and vehement affirmation of same-sex marriage. However, we don't see Williams doing that!
Rather, he's undoubtedly trying to appeal for unity with those with whom unity is impossible for any Christian who sees unity as being one with those who love God and who do not commit the sin of idolatry by equating the Bible with God, and further compounding that sin by spewing hate and/or exclusionary rhetoric against God's Gay children.
To seek unity with such as these is a sin in and of itself! As the Apostle Paul wrote, "And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2Corinthians 6:15)
Williams is trying to have unity with "unbelievers," those who elevate their own fallible interpretations of the Bible over and above God's clear call for justice; he seeks unity with those who would allow the Anglican communion to fracture because of the need for Gay people to have the same civil and sacramental rights as possessed by Straight people; he seeks to have unity with those who accept Gay people who live lives of quiet and not so quiet lives of desperation in the Anglican closet, and who serve in all aspects of that church (as they do in virtually all other churches throughout the world), but refuses to embrace those honest Gay people such as Bishop Gene Robinson who courageously chooses to live the authentic life that God ordained for him.
Why would any Christian want to have or maintain consort with those who would seek to deny any of God's children, and who show their disdain for God's Gay children (as, unsurprisingly, many of those same people do in regard to women regarding their ordination as Bishops in the Anglican communion) by rhetoric and/or actions that cause untold suffering to countless LGBT people?
All of us, Christian or not, are entitled to our views about a whole host of issues, and we all can have unity in spite of our differences! However, when it comes to the issue of the advocacy of exclusion regarding such groups as women and Gay people, or any other of God's non-predatory children, there can be no common ground that can or should be sought.
What seems to rule the day (at least for the present) with Archbishop Williams is political expediency's need to trump Christian love and Godly justice! Archbishop Williams, as has those with whom he seeks unity at the expense of love and justice, has shown what god he has currently chosen to worship.
One can only hold out hope that he will one day see the tragedy to which he has contributed, and that he lives long enough to offer the same kind of apology that he offered for the Church of England's advocacy of, and participation in, the slave trade.
At that time, in 2006, almost two centuries after the slave trade was abolished, due in large part to the tireless work of the courageous Christian, William Wilberforce, Rowan Williams said the following, which I hope he lives long enough to say regarding the institutionalized and grinding oppression of Gay people:
"The body of Christ is not just a body that exists at any one time, it exists across history and we therefore share the shame and the sinfulness of our predecessors and part of what we can do, with them and for them in the body of Christ, is prayer for acknowledgement of the failure that is part of us not just of some distant 'them'."
However, I sincerely doubt that Williams will have the chance he once had to go down in history as that courageous Christian, William Wilberforce, who serves as a role model for all who strive for justice in the name of God!
No comments:
Post a Comment