Former Bishop of Rochester: Lesbians raising children leads to ‘delinquency’

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A retired Church of England bishop has claimed that lesbians raising children without a father figure will lead to “delinquency”.

Michael Nazir-Ali – who sat in the House of Lords as the Bishop of Rochester until 2009 – previously chaired the ethics committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which deals with fertility issues.

He told the Mail of lesbians raising children together: “This is social experimentation. It’s one thing for a child not to have a mother or father through tragedy but it is another to plan children to come into the world without a father.

“Research tells us that children relate to their fathers differently than to their mothers, and this is important in developing a sense of their own identity.

“In particular, boys need closeness to their fathers for a sense of security and developing their own identity, including appropriate patterns of masculine behaviour.

“The results of ‘father-hunger’ can be seen in [lack of] educational achievement and on our streets, where it contributes to delinquency.”

Dr Nazir-Ali said previously: “The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.

“We welcome homosexuals, we donā€™t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”

The Mail on Sunday was mocked for a front page headline claiming the NHS is funding a sperm bank “for lesbians”.

The sperm bank is open to people who want to conceive, and will be available to straight couples, same-sex couples and single women.