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Counter Reformation by James Holland
Reform, the conservative evangelical pressure group within the Church of England have hit the headlines recently with their assertion that the LGCM thanksgiving service at Southwark Cathedral is a "day-long festival of gay sex"! The situation arose when the wife of a Reform member, a certain Anne Atkins, appeared on Radio 4's Thought for the Day. On the programme she condemned the LGCM's 20th anniversary service as "celebrating 20 years of gay sex". She said: "Soon we will have an adulterers' Christian fellowship, a sex before marriage Christian fellowship. I see no reason why the list should ever end." The Daily Telegraph reports a parishioner at a church in the City continuing this line of thinking saying "Next we will be told there ought to be a service in Southwark Cathedral for a paedophile Christian fellowship." These are totally appalling and extremely homophobic attitudes and Mrs. Atkins should be ashamed of herself for promoting them. Comparing gays & lesbians to paedophiles is thoroughly reprehensible. Here follows a response in the form of a letter to Church Times, printed with permission from the author: "Whilst I don't hold to the views of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, as a gay Christian man I am deeply offended by Mrs. Atkins outburst and the views and actions of Reform towards gay Christians. One wonders if she or her husband have any gay friends? I doubt it. LGCM exists because gay Christians have been sidelined, marginalised and in many cases thrown out of their churches. Surely a better way would be to accept gay people in churches and leave it up to God to tell them whether they need to change their lifestyle or not. This is the approach quoted by George Carey in Holy Trinity Brompton's Focus newspaper this month. Reform should try and reach out in love and compassion to those who find themselves both gay and Christian rather than trying to alienate us even further. Homosexuality, like the ordination of women, is a secondary issue - a grey area. If Reform had existed 150 years ago they would probably have been castigating Wilberforce for attempting to abolish slavery. Reform's attitudes and actions only go towards reinforcing the view that God and the church hates us. Jesus, on the other hand, condemned the pharisees and welcomed the sinner. Reform would do well to follow his example." Reform is a organisation of dry conservative non-charismatic evangelicals within the Church of England who met together in February 1993 to discuss issues in the church and nation. Out of that meeting Reform was birthed. They believe that they represent the true Church of England and that the rest of us are leaning towards apostasy! They are known mainly for their anti-gay stance but they've also played a leading role in fighting the ordination of women and are now campaigning against women bishops. In the Sunday Times last week, a Reform member is quoted as saying: "We should not have women at the top of the church. As St Paul said in a letter to Timothy: 'I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man.' " At least we can be thankful that Reform, unlike most evangelicals, are consistent; they hate women as well as homosexuals! The rest of the evangelical movement seems hell bent on going against tradition and scripture when it comes to women in authority. Why don't they do the same for us? Ichthus, my previous church, had no problems whatsoever about women in leadership - it was a total non-issue and quite rightly so, I thought at the time. At Spring Harvest this year I went to a seminar with Rob Warner and Elaine Storkey. While Elaine stuck to the seminar title, Rob delivered a long rebuke to all those against women in leadership and then tagged an anti-gays-in-the-church piece onto the end. Are evangelicals blind? Do they not see the contradictions in their arguments? Earlier in the year Reform wrote to all the Bishops in England saying that they'd be disfellowshipped unless they sign a three pronged declaration of Christian morality. The main thrust of this said that all Church members were to "abstain from sexual relations outside holy (heterosexual) matrimony" and all dissenters are to be excommunicated. David Holloway, in the same issue of Church Times, writes that LGCM promotes Terry Sanderson whose theology is as follows: "Who says that human beings are supposed to be monogamous, anyway? Why, some boring old fart in the Bible, that's who!" This sort of behaviour is just plainly silly. It is akin to me saying that Philip Hacking bears a passing resemblance to Gerry Adams therefore... Mind you, I shouldn't joke; Reform's military wing may still blow up Southwark Cathedral on the 16th just like their counterparts in the States who blow up abortion clinics! In the States everything is taken to the extreme. Let's pray that Reform doesn't turn out as bad as the Westboro Baptist Church who picket Pride marches and gay funerals displaying their placards of hate. This is from their web page on the internet at: http://www.godhatesfags.com/ Integrity hopes that no offence will be caused by reprinting this here. "The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, engages in daily peaceful sidewalk demonstrations opposing the homosexual lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth. We display large, colorful signs containing Bible words and sentiments, including: GOD HATES FAGS, FAGS HATE GOD, AIDS CURES FAGS, THANK GOD FOR AIDS, FAGS BURN IN HELL, NO TEARS FOR QUEERS, SIN & SHAME NOT PRIDE, FAG=ANAL SEX=DEATH, FAG=AIDS=DEATH, GOD IS NOT MOCKED, FAGS ARE NATURE FREAKS, GOD GAVE FAGS UP, NO SPECIAL LAWS FOR FAGS, etc." Their web site has to be seen to be believed; there are full colour pictures of the church picketing funerals of gay men and women who've died of AIDS related illnesses. Unbelievable! I think what gets people is not that they disagree fundamententally with some of the things Reform are saying; its just the way Reform say and go about things which make people angry, which is perhaps why the majority of bishops have refused to sign Reform's ultimatum. In a recent mailing Reform enclosed a photocopy of questionable books that can be purchased from LGCM and in this case I think that perhaps Reform is right to condemn LGCM's shameless promotion of gay-sex literature. Surely it isn't right for us, as gay Christians, to take on the morality of the gay scene and just add a Christian veneer. Perhaps the time has come for LGCM to stand up for the ideal of monogamy regardless of how unpopular this maybe to the rest of gay culture. In this highly polarised debate it is easy to resort to sound-bites and I was particularly convicted myself after having written to Church Times in anger about the Anne Atkins episode. One of my friends said to me that instead of sticking the V's up at Reform supporters, should there be any who dare to come to Southwark, perhaps we should ask if we can pray with them or at least turn the other cheek rather than responding in kind. Another of my friends quoted Romans 12 saying that this will bring down burning coals onto them - though this shouldn't be our primary motivation!! Reform's parishes are reportedly having a national day of prayer against the LGCM service. This article is reprinted from an Integrity newsletter
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