april 20, 2007
Anglican World Leader Says that Conservatives Are Misreading Passages on Homosexuality
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, has stated that conservative Christians who cite the Bible to condemn homosexuality are misreading a key passage written by the Apostle Paul. Addressing theology students in Toronto, Williams said an oft-quoted passage in Paul's Epistle to the Romans was meant to warn Christians not to be self-righteous when they see others fall into sin.
Reuters is reporting that Williams' comments were an unusually open rebuff to conservative bishops, many of them from Africa, who have been citing the Bible to demand that pro-homosexual Anglican majorities in the United States and Canada be reined in or forced out of the Communion.
"Many current ways of reading miss the actual direction of the passage," Williams said on Monday, according to a text of his speech posted on the Anglican Church of Canada's Web site.
"Paul is making a primary point not about homosexuality but about the delusions of the supposedly law-abiding."
The worldwide Anglican Communion is near the breaking point over the issue homosexuality, with conservative clerics insisting the Bible forbids gay bishops or blessings for same-sex unions. Its U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church, consecrated an openly-homosexual bishop in 2003.
Williams said that he considered canceling the Anglicans' once-a-decade 2008 Lambeth Conference, which has the potential to become a flashpoint over homosexuality.
"Yes, we've already been considering that and the answer is no," he told the Anglican Church of Canada's Anglican Journal. "We've been looking at whether the timing is right, but if we wait for the ideal time, we will wait more than just 18 months."
The passage that Williams referred to in Monday's speech is from Romans 1:24-27:
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved (Rom. 1:24-27, NLT)
Williams said these lines were "for the majority of modern readers the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality." But right after that passage, Paul warns readers not to condemn those who ignore God's word in Romans 2:1-4:
1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? (Rom. 2:1-4, NLT)
Williams said reinterpreting Paul's epistle as a warning against smug self-righteousness rather than homosexuality would favor neither side over the other in the bitter struggle that threatens to plunge the Anglican Communion into schism.
It would not help pro-gay liberals, he said, because Paul and his readers clearly agreed that homosexuality was "as obviously immoral as idol worship or disobedience to parents."
This reading would also upset anti-gay conservatives, who have been "up to this point happily identifying with Paul's castigation of someone else," and challenge them to ask whether they were right to judge others, he added. "This does nothing to settle the exegetical questions fiercely debated at the moment," Williams said.
But he said a "strictly theological reading of Scripture" would not allow a Christian to denounce others and not ask whether he or she were also somehow at fault.
Williams warned of the danger of schism. "The Communion has to face the fact that there is a division in our Church and it's getting deeper and more bitter," he said. "If the Anglican Church divides, everyone will lose."
On Monday, Williams agreed to an urgent request for a meeting with U.S. church leaders.
"My aim is to try and keep people around the table for as long as possible on this, to understand one another," Williams said at a news conference at the Anglican Church of Canada headquarters.
In March, U.S. Episcopal bishops affirmed their support for homosexuals and rejected a compromise plan that would have required the Americans to give up some authority to theological conservatives outside the U.S. church.
This plan emerged from a February meeting of Anglican leaders in Tanzania, giving U.S. Episcopalians until September 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered homosexual bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.
The AP reports that as part of the Anglicans' demands, Episcopalians were told to accept a "primatial vicar" and special committee that would oversee U.S. dioceses that reject Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships.
Just before Williams traveled to Toronto, the head of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, criticized how Williams had handled the global rift. In an April 10th interview with the London Daily Telegraph, Hutchison called Williams "indecisive" and said he had failed to properly lead the church.
But at Monday's news conference, Hutchison called Williams "a man of deep spirituality."
The Canadian church will hold its national meeting in Winnipeg in June, when they will consider whether to allow priests to conduct blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.
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