Church Appoints Gay Bishops

The Church of England has this week appointed the first openly gay man as the new Bishop of Reading, Canon Dr Jeffrey John.

Not a fortnight ago, the Anglican Episcopalians in the US state of New Hampshire also appointed their first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson.

It's An Outrage!!

Let's get this straight right from the start; I do not consider myself to be homophobic in any way. I don't believe that homosexuals should be prevented from holding positions in the Church, and the actual fact of their appointment is not what's outrageous to me.

Both men are said to be more than qualified to perform the role of bishop, and are highly recommended and supported by their appointers; their suitability per se to do the role is not in question here.

What is outrageous to me is that the Church has a definite, vociferously held and age old standpoint on homosexual men, and the Bible lays it out fairly clearly;

• Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

It would therefore appear that the Anglican Church on both sides of the Atlantic has happily appointed a pair of 'abominations' to look after their flocks.

I'm wary that this will sound all wrong, that I will look like I'm aiming this at the bishops themsleves, but I'm not; let's take another analogy to try and set this straight.

The rules that the police govern themselves by and are employed to uphold for the public ("the Law") says that murder is very wrong. You're therefore never going to see a murderer appointed as a Chief Constable, as this would undermine the very foundation of the police, and anarchy would rule.
However the rules that the Church govern themselves by and are employed to uphold for the public ("the Bible") says that homosexuality is very wrong, but they've appointed anyway with no heed or creedance to those rules.

So what I just can't understand is what that means to the establishment of the Church itself, the faith its followers put in the Bible (which is after all the word of our Lord), and the centuries-old underpinning principles of Christianity. I can't accept that these appointments have been made without any attempt to justify how this can be. To my mind, the Church is saying either the Bible is irrelevant, or God was wrong. Both of which are fairly earth-shattering (and humanly arrogant) statements that shouldn't just be side-stepped.

I really hope we're moving towards a more enlightened religious philosophy, but at the minute it seems like a hell of a contradiction. Can we now decide, with the approval of the Church, which of the teachings of the Bible we live by or disregard? And can we soon expect to see an adulterer, a murderer and a Buddhist taking up senior positions within the Church?