C of E — Church of Everybody?

June 17, 2012
By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

The article is interesting and well written. It explains the tensions that have arisen due to the homosexualist’s pressure for “equality.” The core of the argument is that up until now the way the state defined marriage was the same as the Christian definition. Marriage is for life and between one man and one woman. The demand for homosexuals to marry in church means that the state is imposing on the church a new definition of marriage. The church may do this for so called civil partnerships, but for the state to impose a new definition of a basic belief on a religious group is outrageous. What the British government doesn’t seem to understand is that marriage for Christians–even for Protestants with a watered down view of sacraments–is not only a civil agreement, but also a theological and spiritual issue.

For Christians, marriage is linked with a Christian anthropology, Christian ecclesiology and Christian cosmology and theology. What we do with our bodies affects what happens to our souls. For any state to barge in and impose a new definition of marriage is as outrageous an infringement on religious freedom as it would be, for example, to make Christian ministers endorse and bless abortion and say that abortion was not only a civil right, but a religious responsibility. British Christians are right to stand their ground. They do not wish to impose heterosexuality on those who make other moral choices, but they also insist that homosexuality should not be imposed on them.

For any other church the decision is clear. We are separate from the state. We will not be forced to conform to the civil rules. If a law violates our conscience then we must violate the law. For members of the Church of England it is not so easy. Their privilege, their wealth, their property, their position in society is all bound up with being a state church. Disestablishment of the Church of England would be painful, but there seem to be few options as the secular state advances it’s reach.

What complicates the matter further is that there are plenty of members of the Church of England who have no problem with homosexual marriage. Opposition to the innovation is by no means universal, and it may be that the Church of England submits to the law of the land and embraces the innovation by arguing for “equality.” the rest