(CNN Belief Blog) The Church of England cannot refuse to appoint bishops simply because they are gay, but it can insist that they remain celibate, the denomination's lawyers have told it.
It would be wrong for boards appointing bishops to take account "of the fact that a candidate had identified himself as of gay sexual orientation," says the legal advice, which the Church of England published Monday.
But church rules do bar anyone in a sexual relationship outside marriage from becoming a bishop - which implies that a gay man can become a bishop only if he is celibate. (Read more)
Comment:
Although I thought Dr. Rowan Williams was a Freemason, I found an article in The Telegraph saying he made a public apology to Freemasons in the Church of England. He upset some clergy by his statement about Masonic beliefs not being compatible with Christianity. Freemasonry has links with ancient magic and Satanism, but it also has links to modern reason. Modern Masons believe that the rationalist God of the Enlightenment is an improvement on the limited Christian one. It is deeply associated with the ideology of Deism, just as our Founding Fathers were known to embrace. [1]
Dr. Williams seems to lean toward liberalism, which is opposed to conservatism. Wikipedia says that liberalism is a tool used to bring about revolution, and it embraces equal rights and freedom of speech. Funny, isn't that a concept our Founding Fathers brought to our country? But it is also the force used to bring change to the way women are viewed in the Church and the family - one of egalitarian and not complementary roles.
As you may already know, "Liberal feminism, the dominant tradition in feminist history, hopes to eradicate all barriers to gender equality—claiming that the continued existence of such barriers eviscerates the individual rights and freedoms ostensibly guaranteed by a liberal social order."[2] I smell a rat!
If Dr.Williams isn't a Freemason, then he shares common ideology with them - feeding his desire to bring in gay (oh yah, celibate) clergy. If a person's political beliefs are influenced by both heredity and environment, then the Church of England, along with many liberal mainline denominations in the U.S., are in the express lane to destruction.
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 14:12
