"'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free...we'll come round right!" Archbishop Rowan Williams Coming "Round Right" on LGBTQ Marriage

Tonight in the London Times, thanks to queerty.com, there is news that Archbishop Williams does actually believe that same sex unions/blessings are comparable to heterosexual marriage:

Rowan Williams believes that gay sexual relationships can “reflect the love of God” in a way that is comparable to marriage, The Times has learnt.

Gay partnerships pose the same ethical questions as those between men and women, and the key issue for Christians is that they are faithful and lifelong, he believes.

Dr Williams is known to be personally liberal on the issue but the strength of his views, revealed in private correspondence shown to The Times, will astonish his critics.

The news threatens to reopen bitter divisions over ordaining gay priests, which pushed the Anglican Communion towards a split.

Click here for more.

The article continues: In the correspondence Dr Williams wrote of his regret that the issue had become “very much politicised” and was treated by many as “the sole or primary marker of Christian orthodoxy”.

Asked to comment yesterday, Lambeth Palace quoted a recent interview in which the Archbishop said: “When I teach as a bishop I teach what the Church teaches. In controverted areas it is my responsibility to teach what the Church has said and why.”

What is happening here is simple, having lived in a world of neo-orthodoxy and liberal leanings, which bump heads all the time (Duke was useful in so many ways): there was this weird bifurcation between emotions and feelings and gut instincts, a.k.a., "emotivism," which was considered a "bad," and thinking "logically, rationally, and being aware of the tradition and rituals of the Church, Scripture, and reason," which were seen as a "good." So here's the dilemma and quandary and way things work for neo-orthodox folks: even if I like (emotion) you as a friend or brother/sister in Christ, and/or want to be open to your position and who you are, say, as a gay man, but because the traditions, rituals, and Scriptural reasons point to the incongruity of homosexuals in the Church, many neo-orthodox people will thus dismiss the very person who is gay, even though they like them emotionally, because of the reason of Scripture.

Those who follow this logic? Read Richard Hays' "The Moral Truth of the New Testament" (HarperCollins), one of my old colleagues at Duke Divinity School. Read in here why he "likes gays" but doesn't believe they should be ordained. It is painful...oops! That's an emotion.

Williams is stuck in this very dilemma...and the neo-orthodox folks count him as "one of them."

Got it?

Pace!

B