Church of England blesses same-sex couples for the first time, but they still can’t wed in church
“The church’s national assembly voted in February to allow clergy to bless the unions of same-sex couples who have had civil weddings or partnerships. … used for the first time on Sunday.” - AP
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....as of this morning, so have the Catholics.
I really didn’t think RCC was going to go that far.. but I see the story is up at RNS now. Posting in Filings also.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
OK, I know the Anglicans and Catholics are a lot bigger on tradition than we are, but....I dare say that this is going to force a lot of evangelical and traditional members of those churches to consider whether their bishops are really conversant in God's Word and Will.
And I have to wonder what's next, because what's been decided, more or less, is that the Bible's testimony, and history's, about sexual ethics is a dead letter, if you can convince a few politically correct classicists that there was an ancient practice that wasn't abusive. That least opens up polygamy, mistresses, and perhaps even prostitution. (I don't have to agree with the classicists, but if they miss the part about the ancient Greeks making fun of each other for pederasty, they can just as easily miss the horrors of mistresses and prostitution)
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
The need here is for the church to go a lot deeper than “responding to the issue of the day.” From where I sit, the crises of the last several years have exposed some large gaps in how we process new ethical challenges. Currently, we’re rightly concerned about challenges in sexual ethics. But there are always going to be new challenges. Artificial intelligence and various kinds of bioengineering/new medical possibilities, and civil disobedience/revolution are among the emerging challenges.
So the question is, are believers equipped to understand and apply Scripture to new, often complex cultural/social issues? In many cases, the way to handle these is really pretty old, but we’ve forgotten all that. So biblical ethics and anthropology (and I mean biblical anthropology, not reactionary proof-texting anthropology) are a huge, huge need.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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