There’s no pride in bashing gays, Bishop
If you’re reading, Bishop Michael, I really didn’t want to have another pop at you about your trenchant and sometimes bizarre views about what constitutes Christian truth. As to the rest of you reading this, I’m sorry if it looks as if whenever Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who retires as Bishop of Rochester in September, makes a public statement I launch an attack on him. Believe me, the routine is tiresome for me, too.
But his comments in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, which he is expected to repeat today, that homosexuals should “repent and be changed” cannot pass unchallenged. Or rather, they should not go challenged only by homosexual rights campaigners, such as Peter Tatchell, who you would expect to be somewhat antipathetic to the expressed view.
Because Dr Nazir-Ali is wrong in the eyes of a broad swath of kind and tolerant people of differing sexualities, social mores and of the Christian faith, other faiths and no faith at all. Badly, badly wrong.
I say that I didn’t want to have another fight with him because such fights polarise Anglicans, and we’re at our best when we’re talking. I went to a private lunch recently, to which Dr Nazir-Ali was also invited. He didn’t show. The seat next to me went empty. I do hope he didn’t bottle it; it’s important that religious leaders don’t just inhabit comfort zones with friends who share their views.
Dr Nazir-Ali’s friends are the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca), who this week will try to get the Anglican schism over homosexuality going again, while denying that they are doing any such thing. Had he turned up to our lunch, I would have asked him why he and Foca are so convinced that they know the mind of God better than those who disagree with them and that their interpretation of scripture is with absolute certainty the one and only true one.
When I write about the Church and homosexuality, inevitably I receive messages that read simply “Romans 1:26-27″ or “1 Corinthians 6:9″, as if that settles something. We can argue scripture until we’re at the pearly gates. But the essential difference between Dr Nazir-Ali and me is this: I accept, disappointing as I would find it in my fiery furnace, that he might be right. By contrast, he and his friends cannot accept that I might be right, claim that I can’t be a proper Christian, and some of them go so far as to suggest that I’ll burn in hell for all eternity.
And there’s the real problem: it’s an issue of intolerance. Anglicanism has long been characterised by a broad tolerance. But my tolerance of Dr Nazir-Ali and his friends, that they are Anglicans with whom I happen vehemently to disagree, doesn’t seem to be reciprocated.
See There’s no pride in bashing gays, Bishop Telegraph.co.uk
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Miss California defends nude pics
Miss California Carrie Prejean, who sparked a gay rights outcry following an outburst at the Miss USA pageant, has defended a series of raunchy snaps that have hit the internet.
A photo of Prejean topless and in lacy pink underwear surfaced on websites such as www.perezhilton.com and spread quickly. Five other photos are rumoured to be hitting the internet soon.
Miss California officials are investigating whether the snaps violate her contract as a beauty pageant winner.
Prejean, 21, said the photos were taken when she was a teenager and their release was designed to “mock” her religion.
“I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos,” she said in a statement.
“Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be.
“But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive.”
Miss California defends nude pics
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Carrie Prejean reacts to racy photos on Web
A photo of Prejean wearing only pink panties with her back turned to the camera appeared Monday on the gossip blog theDirty.com. Miss California says a Web site has posted racy photos of her in an attempt to belittle her Christianity.
Carrie Prejean says photos taken of her as a teenager had been released “surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.”
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Miss Calif. denounces racy pic posting
(San Diego, California) Miss California Carrie Prejean says a Web site has posted racy photos of her in an attempt to belittle her Christianity.
“Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith,” Prejean said …
