It’s probably worth pointing out that Anglican priests do engage in same-sex marriage in places like the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and Scotland. In fact, much of a brouhaha at this summer’s Lambeth Conference revolved around Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby treating same-sex married bishops like shit, refusing to allow their same-sex spouses to attend Lambeth. Welby, who heads the worldwide Anglican Communion, is a hardcore, old fashioned homophobic bigot who pronounced to the world during Lambeth that gay people are sinners, and that that cannot and will not change in Church teachings.
But Anglicans around the world are busy giving Welby the finger, telling him in effect that he’s not just wrong, that he’s hateful and cruel, and does not in any way represent them.
Things crystallized a couple weeks ago in a symbolic way when the daughter of the late South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu visited England. She is herself an Anglican priest, and she came to preside at the Anglican funeral of a close relative who had requested that she do so.
The leaders of the Anglican Church in England refused to allow that, on the grounds that she’s married to a same-sex partner.
Anglicans around the world again gasped in astonished outrage. Bishop Tutu himself was very strongly pro-LGBTQ, so to see Anglicans in England treating his daughter like shit because she’s gay is (at the very least) astonishing.
It’s hard for a lot of Anglicans, or at least they tell me so, to understand why Anglicans in England are so disgustingly homophobic. It’s hard to understand why they allow a foul man like Justin Welby to lead their Church.
It’s not like people who live in England are generally inclined to be homophobic. Quite the opposite, really. So why are Anglicans in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Scotland so much more accepting and loving than the Anglicans who run the church in England?
It’s hard to say, but it’s a fact that the Church of England is run by dedicated homophobic bigots who daily do cruel and outrageous things.
I hope the day comes soon when Anglicans in England show their homophobic leaders the door and transform their churches into forces for decency and love like they are in other parts of the world.
