An Interesting Day

What an interesting day of headlines. Two major news stories have been reported with regards to the relationship between the Church and the homosexual community.

Firstly, I was delighted to read that the Catholic Church has, at long last, praised the work of the late and truly great Oscar Wilde. One of the true literary geniuses, and indeed prominent characters in all of time, Wilde has long been 'taboo' for the Catholic Church - for he was, as most will know, also a notorious homosexual. Being gay even now is a rather dodgy issue for many - but in the nineteenth century it was literally criminal.

The Catholic Church have applied reason and have clearly agreed that maybe praising a man's genius isn't condoning his lifestyle after all. Irrespective of Catholic doctrine on homosexuality, the man contributed much to the world and actually converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. Had Shakespeare been gay, would the Catholic Church have harboured the same attitude towards him?

And the second item of news is, rather surprisingly, that at the Episcopal convention of Bishops in Anaheim, California, the US bishops' vote was an astonishing 104-30 in favour of the proposition to "collect and develop theological resources and liturgies" for blessing same-gender relationships, to be considered at the next convention in 2012. This will inevitably widen the gap between conservative Christians and liberal Christians. Will it inevitably lead to schism?

To me, we are already dividing ourselves by insisting on calling ourselves 'conservative' and 'liberal'. Why can't we find a middle ground? Why do conservatives have to be Bible-bashing anti-rationalists who interpret the entire Bible literally, and liberals be wishy-washy intellectuals who believe the entire thing is a metaphor? Can it not be that the Bible, being a complex library of 66 books crafted by numerous different authors across hundreds of years, is in fact an intricate combination of literal doctrine, cultural laws, allegory and historical accounts?

It is such a shame that we cannot simply agree as a Church that our centre is Jesus Christ, and that interpretations of other matters will inevitably differ - that is a fact of life. It is a shame also that we cannot focus on more pressing issues. The Bible is far more vocal in its commands to love others and feed the poor than it is on whether two people of the same gender can love one another. Jesus himself seems to be silent on the matter of homosexuality, and yet talks repeatedly about loving and serving others. If as a Church we began to focus more on such issues and less on comparatively insignificant matters, there might in fact be little to divide us after all.

Not worthy of funding

A report endorsed by Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York and co-written by the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, Bishop for Urban Life and Faith, has accused the government of an unjustified prejudice against Christianity when considering funding applications.

I'm glad that, finally, someone has spoken out.

The prejudice here is not just a financial issue - it represents a far deeper issue. The issue that Christianity, being a majority, is left to struggle on its own with no defence, whilst the government bends over backwards to support and defend 'minorities', is an issue which has been present for decades.

It is the issue of a lack of equality among faiths. A century ago Christianity would have been considered more important than other faiths. This, of course, is wrong.

However, what the powers that be seem infinitely incapable of comprehending is that the way to gain equality isn't by making the former majority subordinate. All one achieves then is shifting the balance - so that the majority becomes the least important, whilst, conversely, the minority becomes the priority when giving support and protection.

Prejudice of all kinds is wrong. But it does not become resolved when the former advocates of such prejudice become the victims. Christianity has the right to be treated equally with other religions: not with favour, nor with disregard. Similarly, all races should be treated equally: the horrors of apartheid were not resolved by treating white citizens as inferior but by treating all citizens as equal. Genders ought to be equal; feminists cannot resolve decades of female subordination by turning the tables and making men subordinate, but by ensuring society accepts total equality. And the LGBT community must not aim to make such people take priority over heterosexual people, but instead to aim for the equal rights of people of all sexual orientations.

However, the government prefer instead to pussyfoot around with political correctness. It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly intelligent people with superb educations end up in the cabinet, and yet end up behaving like buffoons.

Maybe one day they'll get it.