The spin, the spin...

I note with interest this report in the Irish Times which deals with a Church of Ireland group which is supportive of Civil Partnerships for homosexual couples. Now, I don't have the time or inclination to moderate a debate about that particular issue. However, I think that it's important that we look at what one preacher is supposed to have said.

In a sermon at the chapel yesterday Rev Sharon Ferguson, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church in London, said “those who are called by God to be our religious leaders are exhorted to remember that they are no different from the rest of us and consequently deal gently with all people”.She said: “Jesus spent his whole ministry reaching out to those rejected by the Jewish faith – lepers, tax collectors, women, gentiles, the sick and disabled, prostitutes – and he showed God’s all encompassing love for all people.“He didn’t judge them and insist that they changed their ways before sharing God’s love with them, for he knew that none of these things matter.”

Now, I don't know whether that's an accurate account of what she said, or the context in which she said it, but taking it at face value, it's applying a huge amount of spin to the Gospel itself.

Certainly, religious leaders are called to be gentle and to remember that they're made of the same flesh as everyone else. And Christ certainly spent his ministry reaching out to those on the margins.

However, it's somewhat disingenuous to suggest that lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, gentiles and the disabled are somehow interchangeable. All received healing and forgiveness from Christ, but their situations were not identical. The woman caught in adultery was urged to go and sin no more, whilst I don't ever recall Christ telling anyone go and don't be a gentile or a woman any more.

Yes, Christ showed God's all encompassing love for everyone, regardless of what their situation was. I truly hope that the Church can continue to do that. However, He also called those He touched to a new and challenging way of life. Some took up the challenge; others, like the rich young man, turned away. Christ brought God's forgiveness and mercy because they are so needed. Whether one needs to turn to God and take up the challenge of conversion is not a matter of indifference. Christ was continually calling people to conversion - the pharisees, the tax collectors, those who hate, those who refuse to forgive, and, yes, adulterers and prostitutes. That's not a denial of God's all-encompassing love. It's a sign that God loves us too much to leave us in a state of slavery.

So, unless Rev Ferguson wants to suggest that ministers of religion should stop speaking out against financial corruption, war, thief, ingratitude and all those other ways in which we give evidence of our fallen nature, then she can't really argue that the example of Christ means that the Church shouldn't speak out against Civil Partnerships. If she wanted to argue that homosexual relations were holy and blessed, and that the Church should therefore support civil partnerships, well, I could respect her. I wouldn't agree with her, but I would respect her reasoning to a point, because it would not be denying the fact that Christianity has something to say about right and wrong.

However, the road she's taking at the moment suggests that God doesn't care about anything and that therefore the Church shouldn't take a position on any moral issue. Anyone who knows even a little about the Gospel and the history of Christianity will know that line of reasoning is bunkum.