Bishop who claimed gay parents raise ‘delinquent’ children to speak at UKIP conference
A former Church of England bishop who has defended gay ‘cure’ therapy is set to speak at UKIP conference this weekend.
The UK Independence Party is getting ready for its party conference which is set to take place in Torquay this weekend.
The conference will be centre stage as the party seeks to elect its sixth leader in 18 months, with hardline candidate Anne Marie Waters and London AM Peter Whittle both in contention, alongside anti-LGBT candidate David Kurten.
But the event will also feature a number of guest speakers, including from a representative of Germany’s far-right party Alternative für Deutschland
It will also feature a speech from former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir Ali.
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
The bishop, who retired in 2009, is a notorious opponent of LGBT rights.
He has said of gay people: “We welcome homosexuals, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
He has also defended gay ‘cure’ therapy.
In 2012 the bishop signed a letter to back a therapist who was found guilty of professional malpractice last year after offering ‘gay cure’ therapy.
He said of gay cure therapy: “We believe that people who seek, freely, to resolve unwanted same-sex attractions hold the moral right to receive professional assistance.
“Whether motivated by Christian conscience or other values, clients, not practitioners, have the prerogative to choose the yardstick by which to define themselves.”
He claimed of same-sex parenting: “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.
“The results of ‘father-hunger’ can be seen in [lack of] educational achievement and on our streets, where it contributes to delinquency.”
He also criticised Sir Elton John for raising children with his husband David Furnish.
The bishop told the Daily Telegraph that surrogacy introduces a “third party” which will “affect the welfare of the child, psychologically and in other ways”.
He added that parents should be of an age that “provides the child with a fair chance of being brought up by them without unnecessary disruption” and said that all evidence shows that children are best brought up in a heterosexual “stable” marriage in order to have “healthy relationships”.
The bishop recently backed threats to form a breakaway church if the Church of England relaxes its official anti-LGBT teachings.
The retired bishop signed a letter that threatened a split, noting a similar split in the US and Canada, where a number of parishes severed ties with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada over LGBT-friendly reforms.
The letter says: “We note the results of this same conflict in North America, even as we look for and pray for a similar renewal of orthodox Anglicanism and of Anglican structures in these islands.”
UKIP said it would roll out “a bright and forward looking approach” at its new conference.
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is heading to the US this week, to rally for a notoriously homophobic Republican candidate.
