Timmyhawk

WELCOME GENE ROBINSON Although I remain a little anxious about the consequences for the Church I was genuinly pleased to see Gene Robinson become the first openly gay bishop. While it would be a shame if the African and Asian parts would decide to split off we shouldn’t be too disturbed. Being open to and accepting of homosexuals is genuinly Christian whatever detractors may try to interpret into vague passages in the bible. It is also a misunderstanding of what the injunctions against gay sex were really about at the time they were formulated. Gay sex was seen as something that was practised by a decadent and morally bankrupt governing class that was in decline. It is this original aversion against sex as mere entertainment, an entertainment that ultimately would have to become more and more extreme, and not as an expression of love or for procreation that the Biblical opposition towards homosexuality had its beginning. That it would ultimately morph into a fetish for homophobes was probably unavoidable, but that’s even more reason for the Church to change its position now. Of course the Church should retain the original moral argument about sex, in that it should stand its ground and argue against demeaning forms of sexuality.
As for those parts of the Church that are in missionary competition with Islam, particularly in Africa, for them it may not be a wholly wrong decision to split. As soon as Islam and Christianity have settled their turf wars in Africa, the schism could be reversed and the progressive message spread.