Posted on 04/17/2007 10:11:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (Reuters) - The spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans has said conservative Christians who cite the Bible to condemn homosexuality are misreading a key passage written by Saint Paul almost 2,000 years ago.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, addressing theology students in Toronto, said an oft-quoted passage in Paul's Epistle to the Romans meant to warn Christians not to be self-righteous when they see others fall into sin.
His comments were an unusually open rebuff to conservative bishops, many of them from Africa, who have been citing the Bible to demand that pro-gay Anglican majorities in the United States and Canada be reined in or forced out of the Communion.
"Many current ways of reading miss the actual direction of the passage," Williams said on Monday, according to a text of his speech posted on the Anglican Church of Canada's Web site.
"Paul is making a primary point not about homosexuality but about the delusions of the supposedly law-abiding."
The worldwide Anglican Communion is near breaking point over homosexuality, with conservative clerics insisting the Bible forbids gay bishops or blessings for same-sex unions. Its U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church, named a gay bishop in 2003.
In fact, Williams also revealed on Tuesday that he had considered canceling the Anglicans' once-a-decade 2008 Lambeth Conference, which has the potential to become a flashpoint over homosexuality.
"Yes, we've already been considering that and the answer is no," he told the Anglican Church of Canada's Anglican Journal.
"We've been looking at whether the timing is right, but if we wait for the ideal time, we will wait more than just 18 months."
In the passage of Romans that Williams referred to in Monday's speech, Paul said people who forgot God's words fell into sin. "Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion," Paul wrote.
Williams said these lines were "for the majority of modern readers the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality." But right after that passage, Paul warns readers not to condemn those who ignore God's word.
"At whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself," wrote Paul, the first-century apostle whose epistles, or letters, to early Christian communities elaborated many Church teachings.
NEITHER SIDE WINS
Williams said reinterpreting Paul's epistle as a warning against smug self-righteousness rather than homosexuality would favor neither side over the other in the bitter struggle that threatens to plunge the Anglican Communion into schism.
It would not help pro-gay liberals, he said, because Paul and his readers clearly agreed that homosexuality was "as obviously immoral as idol worship or disobedience to parents."
This reading would also upset anti-gay conservatives, who have been "up to this point happily identifying with Paul's castigation of someone else," and challenge them to ask whether they were right to judge others, he added.
"This does nothing to settle the exegetical questions fiercely debated at the moment," Williams said.
But he said a "strictly theological reading of Scripture" would not allow a Christian to denounce others and not ask whether he or she were also somehow at fault.
Williams warned of the danger of schism.
"The Communion has to face the fact that there is a division in our Church and it's getting deeper and more bitter," he said. "If the Anglican Church divides, everyone will lose."
(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa)
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams listens to a question at a news conference in Toronto April 16, 2007. The spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans has said conservative Christians who cite the Bible to condemn homosexuality are misreading a key passage written by Saint Paul almost 2,000 years ago. REUTERS/ Mike Cassese
Huh? Oh, blame the Africans. I get it.
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There has been a long and often close relationship between
the Anglican and Catholic Churches. In certain situations
there remains a mutual recognition of the validity of key
doctrines, liturgies, and practices. And the Catholic
Church continues to hold the faith and moral teachings as
taught by the Apostles.
I understand that there is also an Anglican Use liturgy
within the Catholic Church, wherein the Book of Common Prayer
is used for the Mass (with minor updates). So there is no need
to lose the liturgy Anglicans may be familiar with.
Resources for those interested in the Catholic faith:
Catholic Answers
www.catholic.com
A superb site for clearing away the myths propagated by too many.
Offers free on-line library that examines all the major issues,
free on-line archive of over 1,500 hours of radio/audio material,
plus magazines, books, pamphlets, tracts, videos, and more.
Coming Home Network
www.chnetwork.org
Provides fellowship, encouragement and support for Protestant
pastors and laymen who are somewhere along the journey or
have already been received into the Catholic Church.
Biblical Evidence for Catholicism
www.biblicalcatholic.com
Dave Armstrong's monster site. Eclectic, fun, exhaustingly
detailed, personal, moving, and more.
And may God bless your journey where ever it takes you.
posted on 08/05/2003 5:19 PM PDT by polemikos
Talk about the “wrong man for the times”.
“If the Anglican Church divides, everyone will lose.”
No Mr. Williams. It’s not about your “church” anad whether it stays united, but rather about infallibility the The Lord’s Word.
But later on he says, “It would not help pro-gay liberals, he said, because Paul and his readers clearly agreed that homosexuality was “as obviously immoral as idol worship or disobedience to parents.”
Deceptive article. The author seems trying to leave the impression that Williams thinks “anti-gay” Christians are wrong. Homosexuality and Idol worship both lead to spiritual death.
I think lots of people have misread the Bible.
It clearly says, “... and He gave them up to the lusts of their flesh ...”
In other words, the men were already lusting after other men and women were lusting for other women. It was not God’s plan for man .. but they pleaded with God and he stopped fighting with them about it.
Some may try to say that because of that .. God was not punishing them. But .. I contend that living that lifestyle is punishment enough. It is a life of misery.
BUT .. GOD GAVE TO EVERY MAN THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE - and the homosexuals have made their choice.
"This does nothing to settle the exegetical questions fiercely debated at the moment," Williams said.
So Paul and the early Christians opposed homosexuality. That would seem to settle the fiercely debated question of homosexuality in the church.
Or is the good bishop saying that Christians must also accept idol worship and disobedience to parents?
That’s laughable. The writings of the earliest Christians all agree that homosexual acts are sin.
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.What's so hard to comprehend about that?Leviticus 18:22
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It’s a good thing Rowan Williams has come along to save humanity. Apparently for over 2,000 years, all of Christianity has misunderstood the condemnation of homosexuality. Thank goodness that the current Archbishop of Canterbury is the smartest man since Jesus.
Homosexuality is condemned in Scripture. Period.
What puzzles me is how people miss the point where such a sin begins its domination of a decaying culture: “They did not give thanks.” It begins in ungratefulness to God and proceeds through idol worship on to a giving up of natural relations. A moment’s reflection leads me to believe, along the way to ruin, that this includes unbiblical divorce/remarriage, and all the hostility this engenders among the sexes and the bent offspring of broken families.
The world, the flesh and the devil move quickly into the vacuum left by abandonment of God’s intended roles for man and woman.
Exactly, it’s condemned over and over again in the Bible. If the Anglican Chruch ever hopes to regain its fromer glory, it won’t listen to this Williams person, he’s just another liberal Christian that twists the Bible PC.
Sounds like he thinks what matters is the church and not the truth. What a charlatan.
I don't know if Williams is trying to do his level-best prevent what he knows is an inevitable schism (if current trends continue) or if he actually believes his own compost. He adds himself to the increasing number of ear-ticklers (2 Timothy 4:3,4) who parse every word of Paul's letters desperately trying to find a way to shoehorn homosexuality into divine approval.
Romans Chapter 1
22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27 and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.
29 They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips
30 and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.
31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans Chapter 2
1 Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things.
2 We know that the judgment of God on those who do such things is true.
3 Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God would lead you to repentance?
5 By your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God,
6 who will repay everyone according to his works:
A Christian believes and follows the teachings of the Bible. Rowan ain’t a Christian, he’s just dressed up like a primate, or whatever he’s dressed up like.
Pingout tomorrow.
I think this was confusing, too. While I believe we are not to judge others, which is clearly taught in Scripture, and I am a firm supporter of that, we are also to guard the Truth. To allow anyone in as a church leader who does not hold to the Truth is to allow Satan in. When he gets a toehold, it is over for that church. Besides, listen to the admonishing of gay pastors towards non-gays. Not exactly non-judgmental, either. They clearly misinterpret Scripture to hold their lifestyle as being a saintly one. Salvation is more than showing love towards others. I know some wonderful people who are gay, and I am friendly with them. If they ever asked how I feel about their lifestyle, I would have to be honest that I don’t feel that God sanctions that lifestyle. But I do feel that God is the One who must convict them in their heart of right or wrong. But to hold up gays in the clergy is to openly say that homosexuality is okay, according to Scripture, and that is not possible.
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