More Anglican Anti-Gay Rhetoric - Australian Style

It is bad enough that leaders in the Anglican Church in Africa are publicly bashing gays and directly or indirectly encouraging anti-gay violence, but one would expect something more enlightened from Anglican leaders in Australia. Apparently, such is not the case based on the recent statements of the rector of Sydney's St Stephen's Church in Bellevue Hill, the Reverend Richard Lane. Mr. Lane verbally attacked High Court judge Michael Kirby (pictured at left) who is gay and said that Justice Kirby that he would be facing the wrath of God if he did not repent. In my view, it is Lane who should be worried about the wrath of God, both for his un-Christian attitude and also for his blasphemy of second guessing God's purposes in making some of us humans homosexual, particularly in the face of modern science's view that sexual orientation is not chaneable or a choice. Here are highlights from the Sydney Morning Herald's take on the situation:

A SENIOR minister of a Sydney Anglican parish has made an extraordinary attack on the High Court judge Michael Kirby, warning he would face the wrath of God if he remained unrepentant as a gay man.

The rector of St Stephen's Church in Bellevue Hill, the Reverend Richard Lane, denounced the judge for calling himself a Christian Anglican while living in an openly gay relationship and warned as a "messenger, watchman and steward of the Lord in the Anglican Church of Australia", he faced God's judgment.

The attack came in an exchange of letters between the priest and the judge which was cited during a forum organised by St James Institute on Tuesday night to encourage a "public conversation" about religious tolerance and homosexuality. Justice Kirby shared the stage with the Herald's David Marr. The letters prompted a complaint from Justice Kirby to the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, who also asserts that homosexual practices are sinful.

In reply he argued Mr Lane's interpretation of biblical injunctions against homosexuality was not a universal one, and the biblical quotations used were unreliable mid-19th century translations. Mr Lane appeared to have turned a blind eye to the "central loving message of Jesus of the gospels".

"To defy modern knowledge and to stick to uninformed interpretations is truly irrational. To do so selectively is specially so. It is a reason why the churches are losing rational adherents."