God, Gays and the Church

Unfortunately, it appears that U.S. based anti-gay Christianists are now in league with some of their bigoted brethren in the Church of England based on the new book being released through Anglican Mainstream (http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/index.php/2008/02/11/god-gays-and-the-church/), which describes itself as a “community within the Anglican Communion committed to promote, teach and maintain the Scriptural truths on which the Anglican Church was founded and which guarantee its catholicity.” Not surprisingly, one of the contributing authors is Joseph Nicolosi, former President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (“NARTH”) who has literally made a career out of peddling the anti-gay “cure” myth to the unwary and gullible and who likewise is often used as a supposed “expert” by anti-gay Christianist organizations. Faced with the possibility that the APA may ban the use of reparative therapy in the USA, it appears Nicolosi and similar (in my opinion) quackes are seeking new markets for their snake oil. I hope that those in the UK and elsewhere do not fall for this garbage.

Anglican Mainstream has the following to say about the new book – which ironically will be launched at a fringe meeting:

The book, God, Gays and the Church: Human Sexuality and Experience in Christian Thinking, published by the Latimer Trust, will be launched at a special fringe meeting at the General Synod of the Church of England on Wednesday 13 February . . . The editors seek to put into the public domain not only the views of Christians who first thought themselves homosexual, and then chose to follow Biblical teaching, but also the expert evidence and research of psychologists, counsellors and theologians in the field. Further sections analyse the impact of the gay agenda on our culture.

In his Foreword to the book, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, writes: . . . Our integrity, as a Church that is properly serious about doctrine and discipline, was gravely undermined. … every Christian is called to have her or his ‘experience’ conformed to the teachings of Scripture, and then to those of the ‘great tradition’ of the Church down the centuries …”

I wonder whether the cited “great traditions” of the Church include heresy trials, the stoning of adulterers and other “Christian” conduct. Wouldn't feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and treating other with love and respect be a more worthwhile use of time and energy?