Go in Peace, Church Dividers

This Anglican says get lost to anti-gay wing.
By Rafe Mair
The Tyee (Canada)
March 3, 2008
…
When I'm asked what my religion is, I borrow a line from the American wit Will Rogers and say, "I belong to no organized church, I'm an Anglican." This branch of the Mairs became Anglican when my Presbyterian great great grandfather, being one of the first white settlers in New Zealand around 1818, and finding no Presbyterian church, hooked up with an Anglican priest named Henry Williams, with whom he also became a business partner. The two of them brought the first two swarms of honey bees to New Zealand. But I digress.

Time and space don't permit a long discourse on how the new church fared under Catherine's daughter Mary I (otherwise known as "Bloody Mary"). Suffice it to say that the unpleasantness between Church of Englanders and Roman Catholics remains to this day and, indeed, no Catholic can be monarch.

The problems of the Church of England, and of the Anglican Church especially, are now internal and involve doctrine. Specifically, the proper interpretation of the Bible with respect to homosexuals.

It’s all here …and on the opposite side...

Gay marriage is taboo to God
Rev. J. Katungwensi
Daily Monitor (Uganda)
March 3, 2008

The human need of man and woman for each other springs from an original relationship embedded in God's creative act. In Christian teaching, three reasons are given as God given purposes for sex, but I will focus on the first one; that marriage is for procreation of children.

Sex, like some many other good things in this world is sometimes corrupted by being misused by men and women. "Physical appetites" which are used as an end in themselves are being abused and they become dangerous. If alcoholic desires become so great that someone cannot function without it, it means one's legitimate thirst has become a temptation to the sin of drunkenness and in some cases it has become a sickness called alcoholism.

Also sex is good because it involves a welcome responsibility under God. But if it is corrupted by being abused by men on same-sex relationship, it becomes the sin of homosexuality thereby violating the scriptures and the entire Christian Church of which Church of Uganda Bishops were put in charge. For this reason, homosexuality in the Episcopal Church of America is a shame and unheard of in the Anglican Communion. It can’t be tolerated.

It’s all here …

Comments

[Ed Clarke]

"This Anglican says 'get lost'------etc. Very good job, Rafe Mair! One of the best articles I've seen so far about the gay controversy in the Anglican/Episcopal churches! Intelligent, well-thought out, well-written. I agree with you that homophobia IS the main reason why some people are leaving the church, despite all their excuses that the Church is "hijacking the Bible" or "trying to invent a new religion" and whatever, whatever, whatever. That's why it's time to END the discussion on the whole issue and let the churches get back to serving society like they're SUPPOSED to be doing. It's time to end all this infighting here and now!