Last week, the Mexican bishop of Santillo,Bishop Raul Vera, criticized homophobia as illness. In related news, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury has labelled the traditional Christian attitude to homosexuality as “wicked” - and urged Christians to repent.

(In doing so, he also defended his opposition to gay marriage, while accepting that his opposition could also be seen as wicked - but we must always remember that opposition to gay marriage is not in itself necessarily a sign of homophobia. All depends on the motivation for that opposition, and the language in which it is couched).

It is particularly worth noting that he made these observations not to an audience of flaming liberals, but to the Evangelical Alliance - precisely the kind of Christians who have historically been most vocal in their opposition to gay people, gay bishops, and gay marriage.

Archbishop urges Christians to ‘repent’ over ‘wicked’ attitude to homosexuality

The vast majority of people under 35 think that the Christian attitude to gay people is “wicked” and “incomprehensible”, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told an audience of traditional born-again Christians that they must “repent” over the way gay and lesbian people have been treated in the past and said most young people viewed Christians as no better than racists on the issue. Archbishop Welby, who as a young priest once opposed allowing gay couples to adopt children, said the church now had to face up to what amounted to one of the most rapid changes in public attitudes ever. While insisting that he did not regret voting against same-sex marriage in the House of Lords, he admitted that his own mind was not yet “clear” on the wider issues which he was continuing to think about. And he admitted that, despite its strong official opposition to allowing same-sex couples to marry, the Church is still “deeply and profoundly divided” over gay marriage. The Archbishop, who comes from the evangelical wing of the Church, which takes a more traditional interpretation of the Bible, publicly opposed the Government’s Same-sex Marriage Act while it was being debated earlier this year.

via - Telegraph.

 

Related articles

• Archbishop urges Christians to ‘repent’ over ‘wicked’ attitude to homosexuality (telegraph.co.uk)
• Young people think opposition to gay marriage is wicked, says archbishop (theguardian.com)
• Archbishop of Canterbury: ignoring views on gay marriage is ‘foolish’ (news.queerchurch.com)