Bishop: Church of Ireland can never accept gay relationships
by Jennifer Gold
Posted: Friday, August 8, 2008, 14:38 (BST)
One of the foremost evangelical bishops in the Church of Ireland, Bishop Harold Miller, says that the Church can never support homosexual relationships, even if science later proves them to be "natural".
Speaking in an interview with Northern Irish publication News Letter this week, Bishop Miller said that the head of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Alan Harper, had been wrong to assert that the Church may have to re-think its position on same-sex relationships if science proves that homosexuality is "natural" for some men and women.
"If you say that because you are born with a certain inclination then it is God-given and you should be free to follow that through in your life, it doesn't make any logical sense whatever," Bishop told the newspaper.
"You would then have to say that there are many different inclinations with which people are born - even if it is true that this is an inherent thing - and which people spend their lifetime trying to subdue.
"The fact that you are born with it doesn't make any moral judgement on the inclination. People fight to subdue inherently bad tempers, depressive streaks or lots of sexual inclinations. Some inclinations are good, some are not good and some are mixed."
Archbishop Harper said in an address at a conference of the mission organisation USPG, ""It has not yet been conclusively shown that for some males and some females homosexuality and homosexual acts are natural rather than unnatural.
"If such comes to be shown, it will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth, and that insight applied to establish and acknowledge what may be a new status for homosexual relationships within the church."
Bishop Miller warned that if the Church did a U-turn on the issue of homosexuality, it would lead to compromise in other contested aspects of human sexuality.
"I stood at the front gate of a Cathedral in America last month and read a notice saying 'Anybody going on the LGBT parade come to the Cathedral first and have your relationship blessed by the bishop'," he said.
"There's no doubt about it - it's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered for a start - so the thing has widened already and you have to ask: what does it mean for someone who's born bisexual to follow their inclination or inclinations?" he said.
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Added: Sunday, August 31, 2008, 6:05 (BST)
The Bishop can say what he wants. But in due time he will find that good hearted people, who understand the true meaning of Jesus Life, will come to understand the hypocrisy, and backwardness of the church. They have been guilty of many crimes, and will do and say anything to keep their lies intact, lest people begin to question all the other elements of their "faith".
And The bishop will find himself preaching only to the dust in the pews, and the dust of the departed, from the crumbling remains of his 15th century church.
As someone once said, "oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive".
And, as someone said once, "The arc of the moral universe is long, But it bends toward justice. That man died for his beliefs, at the hands of a maniac imbued with religious hatred toward Black people, who had decided they would no longer be, if not slaves in name, slaves in continuing fact through the institution of Segregation.
I'm talking of Dr. Martin Luther King. And this November it appears that America will finally have elected it's first Black President. Glory to God! What a distance our nation will have come.
ps - I am white, nominally Jewish, and married 40 years to a woman.
Steve
SteveMD2, Annapolis, MD, USA
Added: Friday, August 15, 2008, 10:48 (BST)
LGBT is like all other inclinations, lying, unforgiving, snobbishness, unbelieving, bad and hot temper, fornication, adultery, murder, jealousy and the list goes on... They all need to be reined in and that is why "All have sinned and have fallen short of God's glory"... and THAT"S THE TRUTH!!!
..and that's why we ALL need Jesus and His wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit from our loving Father.. and that's why He died on the cross.
Just know this and how serious this is because it is your eternal fate you are playing with.
Jesus said: " If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."
..and we better take that advice seriously [I'm sure many won't], because this IS the Truth..
ong siong kai, Jakarta, Indonesia
Added: Friday, August 8, 2008, 18:13 (BST)
However it is not insignificant that the Irish will never be fully devoted to the Church which has been party to more of the miseries of their lives than any other institution. Ask any Irish citizen which threatens your liberty more, LGBT people or the church, and then you shall know the truth that sets Ireland free.
revtj, Atlanta GA USA
