The rupture over ordaining homosexual clergy and homosexual marriages in the Anglican Church became acute last week after Richard Harries, the bishop of Oxford, said traditionalists in the church needed to be “converted” to see that the Scriptures approve such moves.

How does the Anglican Church find itself debating the homosexual cause when the Bible clearly condemns it?

Examining plummeting church attendance against changing norms against traditional teachings, something had to give: Either the Anglican Church had to change with the times, or the times would pass the Anglican Church. So the Anglican Church has brought itself right up to date.

Some call abandoning your morals “selling out.” The Anglican Church prefers to see it as reaching out to a new generation. And reaching out to this generation means reaching out to homosexuals.

Prior to this generation, an Anglican reaching out to homosexuals meant trying to save them from a life of misery and public ostracism. It was egalitarianism based on the belief that God made male and female for a monogamous, heterosexual relationship, and that homosexuality was condemned by God’s Word, the Bible. It was a case of heterosexuals reaching out from offices of authority and prestige to help a portion of society they felt had lost its way and needed guidance.

Now the debate has been flipped on its ear to the point where homosexuals, in offices of authority and prestige, are persuading society to accept the homosexual lifestyle—trying to convince the public that homosexuals live lives of faithfulness and stability. The clergy is on the vanguard of this push, and a small group of powerful and radical Anglican clergy are among them.

Harries stated last week that the Anglican Church needed to realize “that gay partnerships are not contrary to biblical truth” but rather “are congruous with the deepest biblical truths, about faithfulness and stability” (Telegraph,May 28). Evidence points to the contrary. Of nearly 8,000 homosexuals surveyed in the 2003-2004 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census, only 15 percent of those in a current relationship described it as having lasted 12 years or longer. Sociologist Edward Laumann argues that “typical gay city inhabitants spend most of their adult lives in ‘transactional’ relationships, or short-term commitments of less than six months” (The Sexual Organization of the City). A study of homosexual men in the Netherlands published in the journal AIDS found that the “duration of steady partnerships” was 1.5 years (May 2, 2003). A 2003 study of homosexual men in Canada who had been in “committed relationships” lasting more than one year found that only 25 percent said they were monogamous. Faithfulness and stability are simply not hallmarks of the homosexual lifestyle.

But despite the hard evidence, Harries feels, according to David Banting, the chairman of an influential evangelical group, that “he has the weight of culture and the weight of the majority of the church in the West behind him, which convinces him that he’s right” (Telegraph, op. cit.).

Harries’s statements follow a long line of “trial balloons” released by the Anglican Church’s ruling elite. In May 2003, Harries himself appointed homosexual bishop Jeffrey John, who supports the campaign for the Anglican Church to bless same-sex marriage. (The appointment created such a row among Anglicans that, finally, after six weeks, the archbishop of Canterbury, a personal friend of Mr. John’s for 30 years, asked that he resign.)

Soon after, the Episcopalian Church in New Hampshire elected Gene Robinson, its first openly homosexual bishop. The Episcopalians are also facing a decision as to whether or not to bless same-sex marriages.

In June 2003, the moderator of the Church of Scotland announced he would be “utterly untroubled” by the appointment of homosexual ministers. Last month the church agreed in principle that individual ministers should have the right to decide whether or not to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies.

In 2003, the Uniting Church in Australia passed a resolution to accept openly homosexual ministers, with more than 75 percent of its national assembly supporting the measure. One voting minister of the Uniting Church explained, “The Catholic Church has ordained homosexuals, the Anglican Church has ordained homosexuals, they’re just not honest about it. We’ve struggled with this reality for many years and here we are” (Heidelberger Leader, Australia, July 30, 2003). Essentially, that is making societal norms the standard rather than the Bible—something Christ specifically condemned (Mark 7:9).

These religious leaders claim they get their religion from the Bible. Many are not entirely comfortable with the push toward homosexuality. But they have realized they simply do not have enough power to resist it.

Thus we have among many high-level religionists the need to somehow explain how God does not condemn homosexuality—when an unbiased reading of Scripture plainly shows that He does condemn it.

Homosexuality is opposite what God wants for mankind. It is the antithesis of true hope! But if you don’t understand the God Family, you can’t understand why that is so.

Our free booklet Why Marriage!—Soon Obsolete? gives a stirring explanation of the true reasons for marriage and family. The Missing Dimension in Sex goes further into the God-ordained purposes for sex. The Incredible Human Potential explains in hope-filled detail the inspiring future these institutions are intended to prepare us for. You need this knowledge, and the genuine hope that comes from a deep understanding of the beautiful, inspiring vision of the God Family.