Church of England Synod member: Gays must ‘repent’ their homosexuality
A member of the Church of England’s governing body wants the Church to teach that homosexuals must ‘repent’ their sexuality.
The group weighed in after the Church’s leaders responded to an open letter from Jayne Ozanne, who heads pro-gay group Accepting Evangelicals and urged the C of E to drop its remaining anti-LGBT stances.
In the response, Church leaders signalled that ‘conversations’ on LGBT equality were still ongoing – though the Archbishop of York ruled out it a change of policy on same-sex marriage.
In her own open letter, Andrea Williams, who sits on the Church’s General Synod and heads anti-gay group Christian Concern – criticized the church’s response for not going far enough.
She wrote: “The role of the Archbishops is not to facilitate conversation but to teach the truth, refute error and discipline those who depart from God’s pattern in either teaching or lifestyle.
“Yet not once did the Archbishops speak of the need for repentance of homosexual practice.
“This was a missed opportunity to reaffirm gospel truth.
“Creating such ambiguity is profoundly unloving, especially to those who experience same-sex attraction but want to live in accordance with God’s teaching.”
Williams refers to homosexuality as ‘same-sex attraction’ (SSA) – a term most commonly used by controversial ‘gay cure’ practitioners in the US.
Elsewhere in the letter, she savaged the Church’s refusal to outright condemn homosexuality in their response.
She wrote: “The letter seems to indicate that there is already acceptance of homosexuality within the Anglican Church.
“The matter, then, is already decided, and the ‘conversation’ is merely a matter of persuading those defending ‘tradition’ to either concede or be isolated – in the name of ‘unity’.
“Through capitulation to the surrounding culture, the church is being reduced to a social institution whose greatest priority is remaining ‘intact’.
“Yet the teaching of God’s Word and the faithful administration of the sacrament involves the loving discipline of unrepentant habitual offenders.
“There can be no true preaching of the Gospel when the message is corrupted by compromise through efforts to appease secular culture.
“The Church must stand firm on its teaching on marriage, not capitulate further to pressure in order to maintain a forced ‘unity’.
“The disobedience of LGBTI activists within the church, we must remember, does not mean the irrelevance or impotence of God.
“The sovereign Lord’s purposes will be accomplished, and this crisis may well be His way to clear the debris of man’s disobedience in order to rebuild His Church, with a people who will bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.”
Ms Williams was re-elected to the Church’s General Synod last year despite her overtly anti-LGBT comments in the past.
A column posted on the Christian Concern website last year compared same-sex marriage to the massacre of British tourists in Tunisia.
The column says there are many reason for Christians to ‘despair’ – citing the murder of innocent Christians in Nigeria, the massacre of 38 people in Tunisia, and the US Supreme Court bringing same-sex marriage to all 50 states.
It says: “Given the events of recent days, with Boko Haram slitting the throats of Christians in Nigeria, Islamic jihadists murdering dozens of Britons as they sat with their children by the sea in Tunisia, and as the Humpty Dumpty logic of the US Supreme Court led to a decision legalising same-sex ‘marriage’ in America – an act far more destructive of truth and liberty than a terrorist bomb – it would be easy to be utterly despondent as a Christian.
“However, the truth of the gospel means we must not – indeed, cannot – give in to fear, doubt or despair.”
38 people were murdered by the gunman in Tunisia, including 30 British holidaymakers. No people have died as a result of same-sex marriage that PinkNews is aware of.
Ms Williams previously called on Prime Minister David Cameron to apologise for introducing “destructive” same-sex marriage.
Referring to calls from a backbench MP, she said: “[He] is right to call for a sincere apology from the Conservative leadership over same-sex ‘marriage’ but it shouldn’t just be concerned with the way in which it was introduced but the very fact that it was pursued at all.
“David Cameron’s determination to push through such revolutionary and destructive legislation with no warning has caused a huge breach of trust with voters. It will have kept many from voting Conservative last week and it is hard to see how trust will ever be restored with this Prime Minister.”
She said: “It is not apparent from Mr Cameron’s comments that he recognises there has been a huge breach of trust between the Christian community and this government because of such actions as the introduction of same-sex marriage; the restriction of freedom of speech in banning a Christian conference discussing same-sex ‘marriage’ from taking place in a government building, and the opposition by government-appointed lawyers to Christians fighting against discrimination in cases before the European Court of Human Rights.”
