Anglican Head Claims Conservatives Misread Scripture on Homosexuality
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has told a group of theological students that the scriptural text conservatives use to argue against homosexuality is misread.
by Lillian Kwon, Christian Today US Correspondent
Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has told a group of theological students that the scriptural text conservatives use to argue against homosexuality is misread.

The Anglican spiritual leader was speaking in Toronto this week when he examined the practice of reading the Bible. He said the primary point of the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality – for the majority of modern readers – is not actually about homosexuality. Instead, he says it is meant to warn Christians not to be self-righteous when they see others fall into sin.

In the first chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul lists same-sex relationships as "unnatural" relations along with other moral depravities of mankind. The text is "famously" used by conservative Christians to back their argument against homosexuality. But Dr Williams said Paul's rhetorical gambit is not helpful to the conservative "who has been up to this point happily identifying with Paul's castigation of someone else". the rest