Church of England unable to answer if homosexuality is a sin?
The senior bishop of the Church of England appeared rattled and said he is unable to give a “straight answer” when asked in a recent interview with GQ magazine about the morality of homosexual sodomy.
Justin Welby, the Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, was asked point-blank, “Is gay sex sinful?” by GQ on Monday.
“You know very well that is a question I can’t give a straight answer to,” Welby answered, then added, “Sorry, badly phrased there. I should have thought that one through.”
According to GQ, Welby paused and looked “mildly embarrassed” after his response.
Asked why he couldn’t answer the question, Welby responded: “Because I don’t do blanket condemnation and I haven’t got a good answer to the question. I’ll be really honest about that. I know I haven’t got a good answer to the question.”
Welby then appeared to waffle more, saying vaguely positive things about homosexual relationships while acknowledging that most Christians, including most Anglicans, regard them as sinful.
“Inherently, within myself, the things that seem to me to be absolutely central are around faithfulness, stability of relationships and loving relationships,” Welby said. Asked if that applied to same-sex relationships, the archbishop said, “I know it could be,” but added that the traditional Christian view is that marriage is exclusively “between a man and a woman.”
“I know that the Church around the world is deeply divided on this in some places, including the Anglicans and other Churches, not just us, and we are – the vast majority of the Church is – deeply against gay sex,” Welby said.
GQ pointed out that Welby is “having to be a politician,” to which he responded, “Yes, I am having to struggle to be faithful to the tradition, faithful to the scripture, to understand what the call and will of God is in the 21st century and to respond appropriately with an answer for all people – not condemning them, whether I agree with them or not – that covers both sides of the argument.”
Welby recognized that the two sides of the argument are “irreconcilable” and confessed, “I haven’t got a good answer, and I am not doing that bit of work as well as I would like,” and even went so far as to admit to GQ, “I am copping out because I am struggling with the issue.”
Welby’s remarks follow his statements last month in an interview with LBC radio endorsing the practice of boys wearing girls’ clothing to school.
Asked how he would address the case of a couple that pulled their six-year-old out of an Anglican school because of a boy who was wearing girl’s clothing, Welby said he would tell the parents that “they should help their child ‘understand,’” in the words of the Telegraph newspaper.
"I would say to them, I don't think that's a problem,” the archbishop said.
Welby’s uncertainties are in sharp contrast with the sacred Scriptures historically accepted by Christians, which repeatedly condemn the sin of same-sex fornication or “sodomy” in no uncertain terms. The Scriptures also condemn the practice of transvestism, which they call an “abomination.”
As Archbishop of Canterbury, Welby is the senior cleric of the Church of England, whose Supreme Governor is Queen Elizabeth II. He is also regarded as the “first among equals” among the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is the third largest grouping of Christians in the world, with an estimated 70-million-80 million members.
The Church of England was first separated from the Catholic Church in 1534 to secure clerical approval for an illicit annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, whom he subsequently executed. Although it reunited with the Catholic Church for a brief period, it was again separated by Henry and Boleyn’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I. The Anglican Communion later began to permit divorce and remarriage, artificial contraception, abortion, and the ordination of priestesses and female bishops. In recent decades, it has begun to ordain bishops who are openly living in homosexual relationships, to the great consternation of many members, particularly Africans.
