wfn.org | ACNS3494 "The Bible teaches God's view on sex and marriage"

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3494     |     AUSTRALIA	  |	2 JULY 2003

"The Bible teaches God's view on sex and marriage" says Archbishop Peter
Jenson

[ACNS source: Anglican Media Sydney] Readers cannot fail to have noticed
reports of the recent lively debate in the Anglican Church on the
appointment of bishops who are or have been practising homosexuals, and also
on the blessing of same sex unions.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Dr Peter Carnley, provided
his own views on the matter recently
(http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/34/75/acns3490.html). I have
been invited to respond to Archbishop Carnley.

Let me commence by pointing out where I agree wholeheartedly with him. We
both affirm "the uniquely normative and authoritative place" of the
Scriptures within the Christian tradition.

As Australian Anglicans, Dr Carnley and I are bound to this view since it is
spelt out for us in the second of the Fundamental Declarations in the
Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia. That is, "This Church
receives all the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as being
the ultimate rule and standard of faith given by inspiration of God and
containing all things necessary for salvation".

It may be difficult for those looking in at this Anglican debate to remember
that Christians don't regard themselves as in any way free to make up their
religion. What we are all doing is struggling to obey the living God who has
spoken to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures.

So this Anglican debate boils down essentially to the question of the
authority Christians give to Scripture, and they way they read it.

Where I find myself in tension with the views of Archbishop Carnley is his
suggestion that a plain understanding of God's purposes for humankind as man
and woman, and our sexuality in marriage is not clear in Scripture and that
many people allow the Scriptural text to provide simply a "pre-packaged
answer".

Rather, the historic understanding of the Christian faith, not just by
Anglicans but by Christians throughout the world, is caught well in the
Lambeth Resolution for which ninety percent of the bishops of the Anglican
Communion voted in 1998. This Resolution 1:10 rejected "homosexual practice
as incompatible with Scripture" and further it stated that it "cannot advise
the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved
in same gender unions".

Dr Carnley describes this resolution as "cautiously reaffirming received
teaching". I do not think his word "cautiously" captures either the tone or
the intent of that resolution.

Since Lambeth, the minority who vigorously opposed the Lambeth decision have
worked with equal vigour to overturn it. In various places they have pushed
the boundaries, seeking to break out and away from this Lambeth decision.

Our Creator does have a view on sex and the expression of sexuality. It is
to be found in those texts Dr Carnley refers to as 'ancient texts' whose
meanings are 'hotly disputed'. That is a massive overstatement.

The texts teach that God created men and women and blessed them in
life-long, heterosexual marriage. So important is the positive teaching that
it is reinforced by the negatives against all other forms of sexual activity
outside this norm. This has always been the plain meaning and reading of the
Scripture and the historic understanding of the Christian church.

This teaching is stated positively in the opening chapters of the book of
Genesis. It is reaffirmed in the teaching of Jesus who specifically endorsed
the statements of those opening chapters. It is stated negatively in Jesus'
strong words about those who break up marriages. When the apostle Paul
brought the message of God to the non-Jewish world, various ritual and
ceremonial practices were abolished, but not the teaching related to
marriage and sexual practices.

Obedience to the word of God is not a theoretical or academic matter. It is
a matter of deepest obedience to the One who made us.

By the grace of God there is forgiveness for breaches of God's standards and
divinely empowered strength to live chastely. But we fail God and we do no
service to our fellow men and women by saying or implying that God's
standards are other than they are, or that they are less than they are.

Dr Carnley implies there is something fundamentally different about modern
times and sexual expression. Doubtless many things about modernity are
different from antiquity, but our sexual make up and sexual drive are not
among those differences. Whatever adaptations changing times may
necessitate, changing God's standards of sexual behaviour is not among them.

Even passing knowledge of the sexual mores of young people in western
societies indicates a potentially 'lost generation', lost because of a loss
of moral compass. In a way, the sexual behaviour of modern westerners
resembles the promiscuity that characterised much of the Roman world. Around
us we see despair and purposelessness among many of our younger
contemporaries. We in the Christian churches serve them best by telling them
God's truth, with humility and love, but a love that is robust and genuinely
caring.

It is in humility, not arrogance, that a Christian affirms to his or her
sisters or brothers that this is the way to please God. There should also be
no doubt that leaders in our churches should be above reproach and be those
whose lives exemplify the very biblical and Christian teaching that they are
duty bound to give.

[Dr Peter Jensen is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney]

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