By Canon Phil Ashey
This article first appeared in the August 2, 2013 edition of the AAC’s International Update. Sign up for this free email here.
Last week Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK, speaking at a reception celebrating the passage of the UK’s same sex marriage bill, announced that he wants to export same sex marriage “around the world:”
“Many other countries are going to want to copy this. And, as you know, I talk about the global race, about how we’ve got to export more and sell more so I’m going to export the bill team. I think they can be part of this global race and take it around the world.”
You can read the whole article from the The Telegraph here.
Yesterday, a prominent homosexual couple in England, Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, announced that they are prepared to sue the Church of England for “opting out” of the same sex marriage bill. In the August 2 issue of the Essex Chronicle, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow said:
“It upsets me because I want it so much – a big lavish ceremony, the whole works, I just don’t think it is going to happen straight away.
“As much as people are saying this is a good thing I am still not getting what I want….
“The only way forward for us now is to make a challenge in the courts against the church.”…
You can read the whole article here.
The new same sex marriage bill allows gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales, and couples who had previously entered into a civil partnership can now convert their relationship to a marriage. But religious organizations have to “opt in” to do so, and both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church have refused to do so.
In January of this year a leading lawyer cautioned that the plans left the Church of England open to legal challenge. Prime Minister Cameron was sent a copy of the legal opinion by Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. In June 2012, Crispin Blunt MP, who was then a Justice Minister, admitted that the Government’s plans could lead to legal issues. He said the Government is “seeking to protect, indeed, proscribe religious organisations from offering gay marriage”, but he continued: “That may be problematic legally”.
Despite these concerns, Prime Minister Cameron pushed the bill forward.
The problems for people of faith who object to same sex marriage on biblical grounds have now arrived on the doorstep of the Church of England and the courts.
We have been here before. We should not be surprised.
Behind both Cameron’s public pledge to export same sex marriage around the globe and the impending lawsuit against The Church of England is an aggressive and utopian secularism that rejects any Biblical standards or norms regarding human sexuality – indeed, any human behavior. I have written about this new post-modern, anti-Christian ethic elsewhere. I agree with Marguerite Peeters in her essay “New Global Ethic: Challenges for the Church” (2006, Institute for Intercultural Dialogue Dynamics):
“The ethical system we are facing is new in the sense that it is post-modern and, in its radical aspects, post Judeo-Christian… [this] global ethic hides an anti-christic agenda rooted in Western apostasy and driven by powerful minorities at the rudder of global governance since 1989.”
The Anglican Communion is now being confronted by this new post-modern ethic that substitutes radical gender equality for traditional biblical norms for marriage and family. Right now, the front line is the Church of England. And the assault is coming from political leaders and the courts on the outside, and from theological revisionists within the Anglican church who have embraced the new anti-Christian ethic and rejected the Bible.
We have seen this before here in North America. We should not be surprised. To quote Francis Schaeffer, “How then should we live?”
1. Live in the hope of Jesus Christ and his transforming love. There is no wound Jesus cannot heal, and nothing broken he cannot fix! Preach the word, in season and out. Do the work of an evangelist – don’t let the culture roll over you. Stand your ground and hold out the promise of God’s grace through Jesus Christ – the grace that accepts us as we are but doesn’t leave us there! Accept people where they are, but don’t leave them there. Remind them that Jesus made extraordinary claims about himself that no other religious leader made. Remind them that he alone laid down his life for the sins of the whole world, and that he calls people to follow him – literally, to live their lives as He would. Share how Jesus Christ has changed your life, too – not just your affections, but your whole life, the way you relate to others now, your priorities, aspirations, hopes and dreams. How has Jesus changed you? Tell people about it.
2. Educate yourself on all the issues facing people of faith today – not only issues around human sexuality, but around the assault on marriage and family life and religious freedom. Know what +Michael Nazir Ali describes as the “triple threat” to Christian faith today: “aggressive secularism, religious pluralism and radical Islam.” Understand what these world views have to say, why they say it, and how these world views contrast with biblical faith. Be prepared to give an answer for the hope in Jesus Christ that is in you! (I Peter 3:15)
3. Pray – especially for the clergy and lay leaders in the Church of England who will be facing costs for legal defense, steep fines and even more for refusing to “opt in” to the same sex marriage bill and perform same sex weddings in churches.
4. Support us, the American Anglican Council, as we seek to inform and empower Anglican followers of Jesus Christ everywhere to refute every ideology that exalts itself against the Lordship of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Please help us carry on this good fight.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
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