I think I liked the Church of England better some twenty years ago. Back then, and there — though I'd better not say exactly where, for fear that in the present climate someone might be hounded — there was a nearby parish where the vicar was an unmarried male priest. In his vicarage there lived another man, a friend or lodger. There was a fairly general opinion locally that they might be what would nowadays be called 'gay partners'. But — here's the point — nobody was insisting on knowing or finding out. There were no complaining letters to the Bishop, or journalists camped out on the front lawn. All that mattered was that he was an excellent parish priest, his people loved him, and there was no need to pry into what went on in the privacy of his own home.
How different things are today! Nowadays there are accusers in the Church who, throwing over all considerations of respect, trust or modesty, are hell-bent on shining a bright light into the bedrooms of the clergy. Nowadays the appointment of a new Bishop is greeted with inquisitions into his sexual history. Nowadays, if he has been honest about that, and if at any time he has expressed personal views of a particular kind, there will be people who will refuse to accept his word, and the undertaking he has given to uphold the teaching of the House of Bishops. Yes, I liked things better twenty years ago.
No doubt we can never go back to an earlier time of innocence and Christian courtesy. Our whole culture has become horribly sexualised, from the way even very young children are encouraged to dress, through the way goods are advertised, into every aspect of life. It's almost impossible to imagine any kind of relationship which is not felt to have sexual overtones, and this not in the general sense that every one of us is a sexual being, because we are created that way, (in the image of God, male and female), but rather as if sexual intercourse was the primary goal and expression — if not the only one — of a relationship.
Along with this sexualisation of culture, and the accompanying hysteria about forms of sexuality which depart from the heterosexual 'norm', the response to Jeffrey John's appointment gives a very clear message to lesbian and gay Christians: You are not welcome here in the Church of England. If you dare to be out, you can't be in with us.
Is this really the message we want to give? What can it possibly mean, if the principal test of Christian authenticity and orthodoxy in the Anglican Church today, is where a person stands on issues of sexual orientation and practice? How have we come to stray so very far from the spirit and teaching of Jesus? Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus, who welcomed every kind of person whom the society of his day rejected. Jesus, who never once asked anyone about their sex life — another ghastly modern expression which makes it sound as if this part of our nature is something you can just separate from the whole of who we are. Certainly Jesus knew about it, as we see in some of his encounters with women in John's Gospel. But even with the woman taken in the act of adultery, he refused to condemn her, said "Go, and sin no more," and certainly did not heap up other requirements, that would have made 'sinning no more' impossible for her. For Jesus, the radical test was a Love that would include everyone, even those whom society and religion excluded.
The worst kinds of sexual sin are those which exploit and abuse another person, or inflict violence or damage, or indulge in the rampant promiscuity which are characteristic not only of some kinds of in-your-face gay culture, but also of the heterosexual clubbing scene that so many young people are caught up in. Anything which helps people escape from those temptations and genuinely offer their sexuality to God and sin no more, must be welcomed. For heterosexuals, there is always marriage. For others, we should at least consider the question: If we offer no way of encouraging stability and faithfulness in relationship, what alternative is there for this person but to be thrown back into the sea of temptations to promiscuity?
Jeffrey John has promised not to act in any way contrary to the mind of the House of Bishops. But surely one of the needs of the Church of England today, will be that when we have moved on from our present hysterical homophobia, there should be Christian leaders who will at least be ready to help us consider questions of this sort, with sensitivity, theological honesty, and above all charity.
Published in the MarstonTimes, July 2003