The following article by Canon Phil Ashey first appeared in the June 7, 2013 edition of the AAC’s Weekly Email Update. Sign up for this free email here. 

The British Parliament is considering a bill that would allow same-sex marriage. Earlier this week, the House of Lords defeated by a margin of 390-148 an amendment to the Gay Marriage Bill that would have “killed” it.  Of the fourteen Church of England bishops in the House of Lords during the vote, nine voted to defeat the Gay Marriage Bill and 5 abstained. Parliament still has more work to do on The Gay Marriage Bill in committee. Some of that work, we hope, includes adding protections for the religious freedom and conscience of those (like teachers in Christian schools) who would object. But the wide margin of the vote in Lord’s strongly suggests that the bill will be implemented in some form.

During the debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, gave a speech opposing gay “marriage.”  In that speech there are a number of positive things he said for which we can be thankful:

• He reaffirmed “traditional marriage” as a “corner stone of society” and as such is about “the general social good.”

• He criticized gay marriage as undermining the good of traditional marriage because (a) the gay marriage bill effectively abolishes, redefines, and recreates marriage in ways that are unequal and different for different “gender” categories; (b) gay marriage abolishes the concept of marriage as “a normative place for procreation,” (c) gay marriage diminishes “the idea of marriage as covenant,” and (d) it weakens the family “in its normal sense” as our foundation for society.

While we can be thankful for these points, there are several statements ++Justin Welby made that raise serious questions for Christians – and Anglicans – who see the Bible as speaking with authority to every issue of life, including human sexuality and marriage.  Here are three:

1. “The House of Bishops of the Church of England has also expressed a very clear majority view [opposing the bill] – although not unanimous, as has been seen by the strong and welcome contribution by the Bishop of Salisbury.”

Actually, the “contribution by the Bishop of Salisbury” that Archbishop Welby is referring to should not be viewed as welcome because he compared those who oppose gay marriage to those Christians who promoted slavery and apartheid.  (You can read the bishop’s speech here.)  Furthermore, in his remarks from last week, the Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, concluded, “the Biblical texts have not changed; our interpretation [of them] has.”

This is exactly the reasoning employed by the Anglican Communion’s “Bible in the Life of the Church” project which places context over content.  It ignores the plain reading of the Bible’s uniform witness to homosexual practice as intrinsically disordered, contrary to God’s creative will and sinful.  It makes any interpretation of the Biblical texts valid, even where such interpretations ignore and even violate the plain reading and meaning of the text.

By commending as “a strong and welcome contribution” an ad hominemcomparison of those who oppose gay “marriage” to promoters of slavery and apartheid, is Archbishop Welby intending to bless the demonization of those who uphold a plain reading of the text of the Bible as it speaks to issues of sexuality and marriage? We hope not.

2. Archbishop Welby said in his remarks: “It is clearly essential that stable and faithful same sex relationships should, where those involved want it, be recognized and supported with as much dignity and the same legal effect as marriage.”

Archbishop Welby went on to describe how the majority of Church of England bishops in the House of Lords voted in favor of Civil Partnerships, (rather than gay marriage) a few years ago.  While the context of his comments seems restricted to civil partnerships, it makes one wonder whether he is signaling the inevitability of something like civil partnerships coming to the Church of England – perhaps a rite of blessing for same sex relationships that “recognizes and supports” such relationships “with as much dignity” as marriage?  After all, the CofE bishops have already effectively removed being in a civil partnership as an impediment to becoming a bishop.

This would be the same kind of incremental step that we have witnessed so many times in North America by those who champion the gay liberation movement both within The Episcopal Church and the state.  First comes the normalization of homosexual behavior to full parity with heterosexual behavior.  Then comes the suppression and eradication (demonization) of all who think, write or speak negatively about homosexual conduct and issues.  As Bishop David Anderson noted in our most recent issue of Encompass, “Giving an inch isn’t the answer, nor is compromise, when your opponent wants it all and wants you to disappear.”

If in fact the Archbishop is signaling the possibility of blessing civil partnerships in the CofE with equal dignity and effect as traditional marriage, he will have also ignored the warning of Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria – speaking for the largest province of the Anglican Communion (in terms of real people in the pews), and for many in the Global South – in response to the CofE bishops removing civil partnerships as an impediment to becoming a bishop:

“Sadly we must also declare that if the Church of England continues in this contrary direction we must further separate ourselves from it and we are prepared to take the same actions as those prompted by the decisions of The Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada ten years ago.” –Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Anglican Church of Nigeria

3.  Archbishop Welby concluded: “For these and many other reasons, those of us in the churches and faith groups who are extremely hesitant about the Bill in many cases hold that view because we think that traditional marriage is a corner stone of society, and rather than adding a new and valued institution alongside it for same gender relationships, which I would personally strongly support to strengthen us all, this Bill weakens what exists and replaces it with a less good option that is neither equal nor effective. This is not a faith issue, although we are grateful for the attention that government and the other place have paid to issues of religious freedom – deeply grateful. But it is not, at heart, a faith issue; it is about the general social good.”

In claiming that this is not a “faith issue,” the Archbishop was making his appeal on secular grounds, on what is best and for the common good. I understand he was trying not to claim a special “faith right” for the Church of England.  But by failing to articulate what the Bible, and thus the Church of England, teaches about homosexual relationships, he left the door open for misinterpretation as to what the Church believes. Surely this will undermine any subsequent actions he and other bishops may wish to take to protect the religious freedom of those who object to the Gay Marriage Bill.

Coupled with his statement of support for a “new and valued institution alongside (marriage),” it’s easy to see how proponents of unbiblical teaching within the Church of England would be encouraged to press for continued change, inch by inch – including rites for same sex blessings.  We’ve seen it all before.