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Loading ...Archbishop’s letters contradict current gay position
08.07.2008 10:00am EDT
(London) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ current call for a moratorium on both consecrating gay bishops and holding blessings for same-sex unions appears to belie his earlier writings on the subject, and both conservatives and liberals in the simmering Anglican feud are accusing him of being twofaced.
Last weekend Williams called for the moratorium at the conclusion of the once-a-decade meeting of worldwide bishops called the Lambeth Conference. But in letters from 2000 and 2001 obtained and published by two British newspapers on Thursday, Williams was supportive of gay relationships, writing in one that faithful same-sex relationships are “comparable to marriage” in the eyes of God.Williams, the leader of the world’s Anglicans, wrote the private letters to Deborah Pitt, a psychiatrist and evangelical Christian, when he was still archbishop of Wales and before he was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican church.
In the letters, obtained by The Times and The Daily Telegraph, Williams argues that that biblical prohibitions on homosexuality were not aimed at gays but at “heterosexuals looking for sexual variety in their experience.”
“I concluded that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness,” Williams wrote in one letter.
In the other letter he argued that abandoning condemnations of homosexuals was no different that the discarding of other Biblical prohibitions.
He wrote that the church “has shifted its stance on several matters – notably the rightness of lending money at interest and the moral admissibility of contraception, so I am bound to ask if this is another such issue.”
A spokesperson for Williams did not dispute the authenticity of the letters, issuing a statement quoting remarks recently made by Williams to the Church of England Newspaper: “When I teach as a bishop I teach what the church teaches. In controverted areas it is my responsibility to teach what the church has said and why.”
The issue of gays in the Anglican Church has roiled the worldwide denomination since the election of Gene Robinson to be Bishop of New Hampshire in the U.S. and blessings of gay unions by the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada.
Mikefromoakville: The church has had a couple of thousand years to get its act together and still the Anglicans are fretting about women clergy and (horror!) women bishops. Leaving aside the self-evident monstrosities of the foul paedophiliac nest that is the Catholic church, isn’t it time Xtians – indeed, all “believers” – grew up and got over their “faith” in a non-existent sky-god whose “revelations” emerge from within the psycho-emotional arena wherein dwells human need and fear, not from a divinity. I was raised an Anglican in suburban England, saw my mother fall prey to the greedy deceits of pentecostal evangelicalism, and watched (literally, watched) her die of the diabetes she refused to have treated because “Jesus healed me” at the revival meeting she’d been to a couple of weeks before – a revival ministry whose preacher had no recollection of who she was when I called to try and understand why a “healing” “ministry” would con people to death. My mother was 44. I was 16. I leave you to draw your conclusions about the madness of religion. So, Mikefromoakville, the hell with your idea that the church will “come around”. It won’t. Nor will Radical Islam. Religion is an institutionalized lie, and the suffering it causes is individual (hello) and societal (9/11, the Crusades, Gaza, the Inquisition). And as for this gay man, I can tell you that the agony I endured, wanting Jesus to make me “not-gay” (before I found my best friend at school was gay and I had a moral supporter), the aagony I endured, should not be inflicted on ANYONE. let alone a child. But the churches do it every second of every day. Isn’t it interesting, that when I realized (age 16) that my mother had been killed by a vile lie posing as the “word of god”, I also began the long process of accepting myself. It is such a relief, finally, after decades, to realize: There Is No God. Or Gods. Get over it, and free the world from this nightmare called “religion”.
I have to agree with Mike. The Archbishop, like most moderate English bishops, is playing for time. He is convinced that the ‘centre ground’ will shift towards the liberals over the coming years, but that it is important not to force the issue now in a way that could damage the Church irreparably. Moreover, if the issue were to be forced now – as some here appear to wish – it would be liberals and gay and lesbian Anglicans who would be the losers. The majority of the Communion, and the vast majority of its bishops, come from countries culturally hostile to homosexuality. If there were a split, the American and Canadian churches (and parts of the churches in Australia, New Zealand and Britain) and LGBT Christians in Africa and Asia would be left out in the cold. The situation in the Anglican world is changing, but it will require time. Patience and tolerance are needed in the interim.
Williams is not, as some here claim, a hypocrite. He is a deeply sincere and honest man, whose personal views are very well-known. But he feels the need to sacrifice his own convictions to his position, in which his main responsibility is to ensure the continued unity of the Church. I have it from close friends of the Archbishop that he is personally very unhappy with the demands his position places on him, and it is difficult not to feel sorry for him. But I think he is doing the right thing, even if it looks, from the outside, as though he has abandoned his liberal principles.
SteveMD2, I think comparing the Anglican Church to the Catholic Church is an apples to oranges thing. You are right that the Catholic Church has no intention of changing but the Anglican Church IS changing, right before our eyes. It just can’t happen as quickly as we’d like. Rowan Williams’ mandate is to keep the Anglican communion together, to find the common ground for harmony through understanding and accepting the differences within the diverse cultures that make up the Anglican communion… To clarify, I am not against the Church moving forward. I am a member at a local Anglican Church. I came out late in life and some of the most genuine support I have received has been from the members and clergy of my Church. I would like nothing more than to see my Church officially accept me and my choice of a life partner the same as they do for heterosexual partners. I believe it will happen and I believe it will happen within a relatively short period of time.
Sincerely, Mikefromoakville
MikefromOakville made an interesting comment about Rowan Williams “giving the church time to adjust”. I’d like to disagree. The history of churches – take the Catholic church as an example, is that they never want to change, for to admit they were wrong calls the whole meaning of (blind, non thinking) faith into question. While they ponder these questions for a millenia, good people suffer.
Sorry, Mike, I see your point, but I think you missed the key issue, or you’re really against the church moving forward. And let’s not fear breakup of the Anglican communion. The Anglican church was a breakaway from the Catholic Church – was it about 500 years ago. And maybe it needs to split off it’s group of people living in the dark ages and practice the golden rule, which in this writer’s opinion is all that religion has to be.
It would be nice if he stood up for what is right, and told those living in the past to go away, the world will be better for it. He doesn’t deserve his position, maybe the church could keep him as a choir boy.
Rowan Williams did the right thing for the situation as it is today. Had he made a definitive statement either way it most certainly would have caused a split within the worldwide Anglican community. By continuing the status quo he is giving the conservative members of the community time that is needed to adjust to the concept of change. I understand the gay community’s desire to have their rights immediately granted (as they should be) but the reality of it is, that will take time. You can’t expect that drastic of a change to happen overnight. Relatively speaking the Anglican Church is changing rapidly. Look at where the Church was five years ago, or ten years ago. The Anglican Church has come a long way in a short period of time. Give it more time and it’ll get there.
Rowan Williams is a hypocrite, but that’s common with people infected with the disease of superstition.
Superstition is what religion is called when it’s all gussied up and trying to look respectable. After disease, it’s humankind’s greatest tragedy.
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The howling madness that produced witch burnings, the Inquisition, anti-Semitism, the Crusades and a century of genocides against Armenians, European Jews, Russians, muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and non-muslims in Drafur also produced the murders of unknown tens of thousands of GLBT folk by christist and islamic thugs. That’s all the proof we’ll ever need to be the implacable enemies of superstition.
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
Desmond Tutu
Religious/superstitious people display symptoms of severe mental illness (hallucinations, conversing with invisible creatures), sociopathology (their penchant for killing people not similarly afflicted) and criminality (child rape and fraud). There is no reason why they should be permitted to have any voice in the affairs of sane people.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
Robert A. Heinlein
Rowan Williams stated: ‘When I teach as a bishop I teach what the church teaches. In controverted areas it is my responsibility to teach what the church has said and why.’
Nonsense. Bishops formulate church law and policies on numerous issues. They are called to be boldly prophetic rather than merely juridical.
Williams chooses instead to be a protectionist executive in an ecclesiastical corporation. He is no Desmond Tutu. He is a hypocrite. The Church of England deserves to be relegated to the dustbin of religious history.
If Rowan Willams had any true personal convictions, he would quit the Church in order to preserve his personal integrity. Instead, he has chosen to be a prostitute of Church doctrine in order to have position and power. The soles of his shoes are muddied with the souls he has trampled upon.
Why am I just not surprised at another example of hypocrisy from mainstream organized religion?