Wednesday, December 09, 2009

The splitting point

The anti-homosexual agenda started in the 1998 Lambeth Conference now bears its full bitter fruit.

We see that the Archbishop of Canterbury is unable to bear witness against pure evil - the proposed anti-homosexuality bill which includes the death penalty for some 'offences' and imposes threat of imprisonment on any who fail to 'inform' on a homosexual - do we not recognise Stalinism made manifest?

Very little evidence of Lambeth 1.10 Anglicans having any ability to recognise what's happening and speak out.

Oh it's very sensitive. It's complicated. It's cultural.

I imagine there were people who said the same about slavery, apartheid, other forms of absolutism.

I'm not in favour of 'x' but if I speak out it might be counter productive. I'm changing things quietly from the inside - yeah right. How very comfortable, how very Anglican, how very hypocrtical.

Well we can all relax now because the game is well and truly up and we can see what there - what's really always been there. And has been there from the beginning.

Either the Anglican church (C of E and its colonial derivatives in whatever formation they find themselves) believe in human rights and human rights advocacy or they don't. And they either believe in the humanity and personhood of LGBT people or they don't.

Well now we know they don't. Or at least not sufficiently enough to stop a lynching.

It comes into clear relief as the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a vaguely threatening statement about the Diocese of Los Angeles appointing a highly qualified bishop who is a lesbian.

It's in sharp relief with his refusal to make any pronouncement with regard to Uganda even though there is well established Anglican teaching on human rights. Oh but they didn't really mean that bit (I'm sure they felt warm and fuzzy when they passed such resolutions and felt a tinge of smug superiority), least not when LGBT people are in the firing line of the religious right empowered - that is to say with the ability to make their nightmare fantasies part of the law of a country.

So I think it's pretty clear what anti-gay Anglicanism really stands for and I am at least thankful for that. It is for the rest of us to speak out, if we can find it in ourselves to do so.

And it is therefore imperative that the election of Cannon Mary Glasspool be given the necessary consents for her consecration to proceed.