Howay the Toon

Does anyone, particular christians, have any views on the appointment of Canon Jeffery John as a bishop in the Church of England.

Its raised a bit of a kerfuffle over here since he is openly homosexual (albeit currently celibate but still living with his long term partner).

The whole thing has been a lot of fun for us outsiders but many on the inside don't seem to be enjoying it so much.

Diadectes

Isn't it good to know that with all that's happening in the world today the Church of England is getting its ecclesiastical knickers in a twist over something really important :banghead:

safeinacell

The cynic in me says "I would be more impresed if I thought they were not doing this to appear more cosmopolitan."

The atheist in me says "Gay priests, women priests, hell ALIEN priests from Mars,whatever I'm still not going to believe you."

The clown in me says "Hey, they pinched that one off of the Catholics!"

Harpy

He is living with his long term partner and he says he is celibate. Man if he can get the sheep to believe that he can get them to believe anything.

Seriously I love this sort of thing being in the press as it serves to remind people of what a totaly outdated institution the church is. Having said that how does the gay canon get round those parts of the bible that label him as a (refers to annotated bible)


From Leviticus

18:22 Homosexual acts are an abomination to God.

18:25 If you do any of these things, God will cause the land to vomit you out.

18:29, 19:8 "Whosoever shall commit any of these abominations ... shall be cut off from among their people." I'm not sure what being "cut off" means exactly, but I bet it isn't any fun.

annotated bible


Tolerance not a Christians strongest suit.

HelenM

Actually, I was under the impression they are not living together - because I thought it was somewhat of a revelation when he told the press they were still 'together' (i.e. they still had some sort of relationship, which he also said wasn't being 'sexually expressed'). If they were living together everyone would have known they still had a relationship.

Helen

Harpy

Helen I think your right, I checked and nowhere does it say he is living with his partner, my mistake.

Not quite sure how his relationship can be described as gay. No sex, living seperately. How exactly is his homosexuality expressed? Do he and his partner listen to show tunes together?

Darkknight

Hey there. I think those verses are actually referring to sacred prostitution. I believe the evidence supports that view. JFYI, I do not believe in the Bible, and don't understand how anyone could claim to get sex ethics out of the Bible, which condones Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Funny how the church says non-marital sex is wrong. Solomon seemed to think otherwise

I wrote an essay on the OT and gays that you might enjoy reading.

http://www.webspawner.com/users/most...101/index.html

Best wishes,

DarkKnight

Proxima Centauri

Church leaders warn of gay split
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3021754.stm

Williams attacked over gay bishop

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3015210.stm

Williams: 'No objection' to gay bishop

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3013790.stm

Nigerian church slams gay bishop

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3014188.stm

Gay bishop set to be ordained
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3010410.stm

Here’s what the BBC has to say about the matter. The liberal Anglicans are trying to run their Church in a way that makes people happy. The conservative Anglicans insist their “Holy Bible” says gay men must be celibate and miserable. If you believe in something like the alleged “Holy Bible”, what do you do?
I prefer Humanism any time.

Diadectes

Mind you, it is perfectly possible for gay couples to live celibate lives. My partner of fourteen years and I stopped having sex two years ago. No big deal, no great mystery, we just don't feel any great need for it at the moment. Contrary to popular belief, the thing that keeps most long-term homosexual couples together is that odd little thing called love (you know, the real sort, not the ersatz kind popularised by fundamentalists). Not sure how we 'express' our homosexuality now, unless you count going to watch Liverpool FC play or cracking open a bottle of wine on a Saturday night to watch a load of Star Trek videos an expression of homosexuality. But, then again, I wasn't aware that there was any great need to express anything.

HelenM

If you read Diadectes' post right above this one that might shed light on it.

Evidently this was what the bishop said:

Helen