Posted on 01/19/2020 6:27:32 PM PST by marshmallow
After the Bishop of Grantham’s sexuality was the subject of media reports, he received about 500 letters and emails. Caroline Starkey and Grace Davie analysed them
IN SEPTEMBER 2016, a Sunday newspaper threatened to “out” the Bishop of Grantham, Dr Nicholas Chamberlain, as gay (although his sexuality was no secret within the Church). In a brave move, the bishop decided to give an exclusive interview to The Guardian, and became the first Church of England bishop to declare publicly that he was gay and in a same-sex relationship (News, 9 September).
In response to the media coverage, some 500 letters and emails were sent to Dr Chamberlain, many arriving within a week. Anticipating such a response, the overwhelming concern of figures in his diocese was that the tone of the correspondence would be critical of the Bishop and damning of his theology and approach. To their great surprise, more than 90 per cent of the letters contained unequivocal support for him, and only a percentage of these letters were from people he knew.
So unexpected were the unsolicited expressions of love and respect that the Bishop’s staff employed us, as sociologists of religion, to analyse the letters with a view to helping them understand better their content and meaning. Our analysis was written into a report for the College of Bishops, as well as for an academic publication, which was launched yesterday in the Goldsmiths Faith and Civil Society Unit seminar programme.
These letters provide a unique glimpse into the struggle of the contemporary Church as it attempts to balance its relationship to the changing ethical mores of wider society while, at the same time, upholding its traditional status as a “guardian of truth”.
(Excerpt) Read more at churchtimes.co.uk ...
Hotty Toddy
A tsunami of semen? Yuk!
Who was that guy who said when He returns will He find faith?
Getting closer...
I wonder how Henry VIII’s wife, Anne Boleyn, would like the fruit of her INSISTENCE on Henry VIII getting a divorce: the abolition of allegiance to Rome and the King/Queen becoming the head of the Church of England...the Pope and Popette of their own faith...a faith founded on the lust of a king and the ambition of a woman...
Most evangelical and independent churches consider homosexuality a sin. Anglicans in the global south often consider it a sin as well. Meanwhile, the Roman Church has a clergy that is disproportionately homosexual: https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Good-Men-Seminaries-Generations/dp/0967637112
It’s raining men, hallelujah.
LOL. Extremely funny. But real life is catching up with comedy.
The devil knows where to attack. The churches that embrace homosexual behavior are not the ones he needs to attack . But the Gates of Hell shall not prevail!
That might have been true in the '60's...but not before that time and not since the seminaries began giving priests psychological testing before they entered the seminaries. Our police department ALSO gives all the wannabes a psychological test as well.
Large Catholic families usually had ONE son who became a priest or ONE daughter who entered the convent. It sure isn't that way any more.
AND homosexuals didn't become "out" and accepted until the 60's so it's not such a LONG time problem as you might think.
However, if you don't believe me you can go on-line and check it out for yourself.
I live not so far from a seminary and we've always prayed for the men who were accepted into the university and seminary. Of course, the seminaries near you might do things differently. It's a lengthy and VERY expensive process. Men don't take their final vows to the priesthood until they are at least 38 years old. It's not a promotional tool for young men...not with almost 20 years of education (18-38) ahead of them.
Also, older men, widowed or whatever, are joining the priesthood. Our pastor was an attorney until he became a priest at almost 50 years old.
The older priests bring a lifetime of experience.
The first priest I got a blessing from had been a CPA. He and his wife had had no children. She died in her thirties and he became a priest.
The priesthood is not an easy process or a short one.
Your information is outdated for many seminaries but for those who detest the Catholic Church anything negative is believed and promoted as The Truth.
I do NOT include you into that category...I was generalizing from past experience.
Satan always looks for the weakest link...and that can be anywhere.
And you know this because? Did he not tempt our LOrd in the desert? Was JEsus the weakest link? It’s easy to use a glib comeback but it doesn’t stand up. The devil is not afraid of those who can’t harm him.
1. I DON'T know this for sure. It's not a tenet of my faith. Satan tempted Eve. Maybe she was the "weak link." Maybe Satan knew she was weaker. Who knows. You sure don't either.
2. Yes, he did. But Satan HAD to know that Jesus, the Son of God, would never give into him. God made Lucifer and God knew that Lucifer would betray Him. God knows everything. Yet, God still created Lucifer. Lucifer-turned-Satan was pretty arrogant to think that he could tempt JESUS.
3. My answer wasn't "glib." The meaning of glib is: voluble but insincere and shallow. My answer was sincere and if you thought it was shallow then that's your problem. There is NOTHING glib about Jesus or Satan.
4. I never said that Satan was afraid of anything. He is simply the personification of evil.
I know that I can't harm an angel, evil or not. And how do YOU know what Satan is or is not afraid of? You sound sure of what Lucifer-turned-Satan ISN'T afraid of. Did he tell you that or did you make that up?
Actually it was Adam’s sin that caused the fall . He could have told Eve to Chuck her “Apple” but he was week and we all suffer from the original sin of pride. So in recapping, it was not Eve who caused the fall, it was Adam as the head of the family.
1 But it was Adam’s that damned us.
2 What makes you think that Satan knew who Jesus is? I do agree that Satan is arrogant and not nearly as smart as He thinks he is. But I still contend that Satan does not have to work hard on those who either don’t believe in him or don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who believe will be attacked as Jesus said we would.
4 Intellect, simple as that. Evil people dont waste time on some one or thing that is not a real threat? Evil always opposes good. It is the absence of goodness and is therefore threatened by God’s Grace.
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