Rowan Williams says Church should surrender to Gays. He accuses church of being "appallingly violent" towards gays
Gay persecution of Christians reaches epidemic proportions
NEWS ANALYSIS
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
October 18, 2013
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams needs to get a life, better still get his facts correct.He recently opined that the Church is wrong on gays and called on the Church to rethink its views on homosexuality. "I think the church has to put its hands up and say our attitude towards gay people has at times been appallingly violent. Even now it can be unconsciously patronizing and demeaning."
Williams, 63, Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, resigned as leader of the Anglican Communion leaving it in tatters, according to Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, because he failed as leader to address the very issue that now divides the Anglican Communion - homosexual behavior.
So, after a lackluster leadership (he departed nine years before he had to), he now wants the church to raise the white flag of surrender to the most virulent lobby in the history of the church -- namely the gay lobby - a lobby that outshines women for bishops, lobbies for the poor, lobbies for the Prayer Book, lobbies for the disenfranchised et al. As the flag of surrender goes up, Williams wants orthodox Anglicans to grovel on bended knee before the likes of (the Rev.) Colin Coward ofChanging Attitude and beg forgiveness for their alleged homophobia.
It seems that the primary qualification to being Archbishop of Canterbury is a highly developed skill at nailing one's colors to a passing shoal of jelly fish.
Not content with messing up the Anglican Communion under his tenure he recently urged Presbyterians in Scotland not to split over gay ministers. He counseled the Church of Scotland to stay together and no to split over gay ministers. Williams urged evangelical congregations not to "walk away" over the ordination of gay ministers. So, after deepening the divide in the Anglican Communion he now interferes in another denomination in the hope that THEY will listen to him.
Williams, for all his brilliance, is why you should never ever have academics running the church. They live in a disconnected universe. (See the Anglican Communion Institute's (ACI) take on The Episcopal Church's heresies.) It is why, last summer, Rome's Cardinals chose a leader in Pope Francis who is not an academic. He has the remarkable and very humble pastoral ability to say that while the church should show compassion to homosexuals, the church (his church) should not condemn or marginalize them IF THEY ACCEPT THE LORD. Those five words make all the difference between Rome and Canterbury, between TEC/ACoC and ACNA, between revisionism and orthodoxy, and, dare we say it, between the saved and the lost.
Is it any wonder that Pope Francis and Argentine Anglican Bishop Gregory Venables (former Archbishop of the Southern Cone and a Brit) have more in common than Williams and Venables. What a different communion it would have been had Venables been chosen Archbishop of Canterbury. Rome had the good sense to reach outside of Italy to Latin America for a new leader; the Church of England could have done the same.
Williams recently stated, "This is the one area where there is the deepest sense of the church being out of step with what the rest of the culture takes for granted. I think it's quite difficult for some people outside of the church to recognize that there is something in the matter of several thousand years of assumption, reflection and ethical practice here which isn't likely to be overturned in a moment."
Since when? The Early Church was not only counter-cultural, it was underground. It did not sacrifice to the Emperor. It should not do so now. What would Williams say to the Uganda Martyrs, Christian converts, who were murdered for their faith for their resistance to King Mwanga's homosexual practices?
Should the Ugandan Martyrs have waved the flag of surrender to a King who wanted to sodomize them? To Williams' mind, they undoubtedly should have.
What about the Plymouth Brethren couple in England who owned a Bed and Breakfast? They refused to rent a bed to two homosexuals, were sued, and finally forced to sell their home. I suppose if Williams had owned the B&B he would have invited them in, offered them a glass of sherry before they toddled off to bed to do who knows what.
In August, a gay couple announced they were mounting a legal challenge against a state law that allows British churches to opt out of holding gay weddings. Fascism at is best.
And when was the last time you heard of straight white males attacking gays that made the headlines.
We now know that Matt Shepard, the gay poster boy of homophobia, was not killed because he was gay, but because of a drug deal gone wrong. He, we now learn, was a child molester of two eight-year olds, according to a new book written about Shepard's death by gay author Stephen Jimenez in The Book of Matt, Hidden Truths about Shepard's Death. He wrote at length about a "false mythology" surrounding Matthew's life and his suffering.It is precisely this "false mythology" held, encapsulated and mouthed off by Rowan Williams that almost sank the Anglican Communion.
Consider the most recent publicized cases of reverse homophobia. Stephen Beale writing for Crisis Magazine says that gay persecution of Christians is reaching epidemic proportions and cites the following instances.Sweet Cakes, a bakery run by Melissa Klein and her husband in Portland, Oregon, were forced to close their doors at the end of the summer because they were sued for not baking a cake for a lesbian wedding. The couple received death threats. Then, activists broadened the boycott by saying that any wedding vendor that did business with Sweet Cakes would be targeted.
The final nail in the coffin came in August when the slighted lesbian couple filed an anti-discrimination suit with the state. "The LGBT attacks are the reason we are shutting down the shop. They have killed our business through mob tactics," Klein said. His wife added: "I guess in my mind I thought we lived in a lot nicer of a world where everybody tolerated everybody."
Where and why is the "tolerance" Williams wants from heterosexuals to homosexuals not reciprocated?In 2006, a noted advocate for traditional marriage, Maggie Gallagher, warned that the legalization of same-sex marriage would lead to constraints on religious freedom. Writing in the Weekly Standard, Gallagher saw the end of adoptions services by Boston Catholic Charities as a foreshadowing of things to come, noted
This March, after the introduction of gay marriage in America, a number of latent concerns about the impact of this innovation on religious freedom ceased to be theoretical.
Conservatives pleaded that there would negative consequences from gay marriage. They were right.
The fate of Catholic Charities of Boston is now on the line. Is it an aberration or a sign of things to come?
Beale notes the following: "Seven years later, we have the answer. There have been at least 11 instances of wedding vendors and venues facing some form of recrimination-threats, boycotts, protests, and the intervention of state or judicial authorities-because they denied services for gay nuptials because of their faith. Besides Sweet Cakes by Melissa, they are:
■ Masterpiece Cakeshop, Colorado: Owner Jack Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in July. The Lakewood bakery has faced at least two protests, a Facebook-driven boycott, and a discrimination complaint from the state Attorney General that was scheduled for a hearing in September. Phillips has said he would rather close his bakeshop than compromise his Christian beliefs. (Sources: news reports including Washington Times and Huffington Post.)
■ Victoria's Cake Cottage, Iowa: Baker Victoria Childress denied service to a lesbian couple hoping to get married in 2011. The Des Moines baker was called a "bigot" and faced a protest and Facebook boycott but refused to budge, citing her Christian faith. (Sources: news reports including Washington Times and Huffington Post.)
■ Fleur Cakes, Oregon: Pam Regentin, the owner of the Mount Hood-area cake shop, refused to make a cake for a lesbian couple earlier this year, sparking another Facebook boycott in May. (Sources: news reports including local television.)
■ Liberty Ridge Farm, New York: The family-owned farm in mid-state New York is facing a human rights complaint after refusing to host a lesbian wedding in 2012. (Sources: local news sourceshere and here and the Huffington Post.)
■ All Occasion Party Place, Texas: In February, the Fort Worth-based wedding venue declined to host a wedding reception for a gay couple. An online boycott has now been launched against the business. (Sources: local news and the Huffington Post.)
■ Gortz Haus, Iowa: After refusing to host a gay wedding (reported in August), Betty Odgaard, the owner of the business, received threatening calls and e-mails and now must contend with a complaint the couple has filed with the state civil rights commission. (Sources: local news sources here and here and the Huffington Post.)
■
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, New Jersey: In 2012, a state judge ruled that a Methodist-owned events venue in Ocean Grove violated state law when it refused to host a gay wedding in 2007. Also, while the discrimination case was still pending, the facility lost its state tax exemption because it was deemed "no longer met the requirements as a place open to all members of the public," the New York Times reported. (Sources: The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and LifeSiteNews.)■ Elane Photography, New Mexico: The state Supreme Court ruled in August that a New Mexico photography business owned by Elaine Huguenin and her husband Jon could not legally deny services to same-sex couples. The photographer had refused service for a lesbian commitment ceremony in 2006. One of the women had filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Commission, which ruled against the photographers in 2008, prompting an appeals process that led to the high court decision. It's now unclear what will happen to the business. (Sources: press releases and news reports including the Catholic News Agency and the Santa Fe New Mexican. The case is discussed further below.)
■ Arlene's Flowers, Washington: A florist refused to provide flowers to a gay wedding last March and now owner Baronelle Stutzman is facing a lawsuit from the state Attorney General. (Sources: news reports including local television and the Associated Press.)
■ Wildflower Inn, Vermont: A lesbian couple sued the Wildflower Inn under the state public accommodations law in 2011 after being told they could not have their wedding reception there. The owners were reportedly open to holding same-sex ceremonies as long as customers were notified that the events personally violated their Catholic faith. It wasn't enough. The inn had to settle the case in 2012, paying a $10,000 fine and putting double that amount in a charitable trust. Also, the inn is no longer hosting weddings, although the decision reportedly was made before the settlement. (Sources: The New York Times and Huffington Post.)
These cases represent a new battlefield in the clash between the freedoms of Christians and the "radical homosexual agenda," said Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of The Thomas Moore Law Center. "Despite their relatively small numbers, radical homosexuals wield enormous power. They dominate our cultural elite, Hollywood, television, the mainstream news media, public schools, academia, and a significant portion of the judiciary," Thompson said in an e-mail interview. "As a result of their power, homosexual activists are able to intimidate and silence opposition."
What does Williams say about all this? The answer: nothing. He can't because he rolled over to the other side in his book The Body's Grace. He also refused to engage in any meaningful way with Dr. Robert Gagnon's book The Bible and Homosexual Practice, the most comprehensive book on homosexuality ever written, because he was theologically outgunned.
New anti-discrimination laws are being written that will, in time, see Christians going to jail because of their beliefs because THEIR freedoms will be denied. It won't just be Christians in the Middle East and Global South who are persecuted and killed for declaring Christ and Him crucified against Muslim aggressors and crazies. It will be the more subtle, but equally evil driven by pansexual Western gay lobbyists and their sycophantic followers like Rowan Williams (and it would seem Justin Welby) who now demand that orthodox Anglicans roll over and play dead to sodomy.Gays yell and scream for the dignity of a person and their behavior, but if a heterosexual disagrees with the behavior, that person's dignity is suddenly denigrated and they are yelled at for being homophobic.
What we are seeing today is sexual liberty before religious liberty. Christians are being forced to violate their faith, something Williams doesn't seem to care about. It is not just religious freedom but freedom of speech that is being threatened as well.
Williams lost the plot and his beloved Church of England is fast going out of business with little more than one million out of 60 million Brits deigning to darken the doors of a church on any given Sunday. He thinks that because society has changed, the church's attitude towards homosexuality Christians should change to. He lives in the fantasy world that this will suddenly fill churches. It won't. It didn't happen in The Episcopal Church and it won't happen in the Church of England.
He pleads for gays even as they intimidate anyone who reproaches them for their behavior. He should be pleading for their repentance. He should have upheld the Biblical proscription on any form of sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman. He didn't. So now the flame of Anglicanism burns low to the point of being almost extinguished in the West and North even as it glows and grows more brightly in the Global South and for that Rowan Williams must bear a huge amount of responsibility and for which he must one day answer to a higher court.
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