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January 24, 2020

The Church of England surprises everyone with its latest pastoral guidance

By Andrea Widburg

Something interesting happened on Thursday, and it wasn't just Brexit becoming official as of January 31.  The Church of England released a statement that's bizarre by 21st-century standards when it took a stand against modern moral culture.  This occurred in the form of a new pastoral guidance from the Church of England bishops stating that sex should be confined to (heterosexual) marriages:

The statement from the House of Bishops says the church's teaching on marriage "remains unchanged", claiming sex outside of marriage is "falling short of God's purpose for human beings".

It adds: "For Christians, marriage — that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows — remains the proper context for sexual activity."

However the church seeks to "uphold that standard" in its approach to civil partnerships and to "affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships".

Those in mixed- or same-sex civil partnerships can still be ordained — but only if they abstain from sex, the bishops added.

But members of the clergy are also instructed not to provide a blessing for couples registering a civil partnership.

England has been at the forefront of gay "marriage" and the breakdown of traditional marriages.  This makes the bishops' guidance a big deal.

Leftists are predictably outraged.  What's really funny, in a sad way, is that leftists think there's something wrong with a church having standards.  For them, church is a feel-good place where you go, are told God loves you, and then you get on with doing whatever the heck you please.

Even some clergy in the Church of England are upset.  Whatever this gal's reason was for becoming a clergy person in the Church of England, it apparently didn't have anything to do with passing on core biblical principles to her parishioners:

There were also several people who showed off their erudition by pointing out that Henry VIII lived a debauched life.  There are two problems with this.

The first is the failure to recognize that standards shouldn't be ditched just because people, even the people who founded an institution, don't follow them.  Religion is supposed to elevate us, not keep us company as we wallow in the moral gutter.

Second, and much more significantly, Henry's choices weren't driven by debauchery.  Henry was fanatically committed to having a son to take the throne after he died.

The reason for this fanaticism was that there was no way he could look into the future and see his daughter Elizabeth's splendid reign.  All he could do was look into the past, going back almost to William the Conqueror, and see the disasters that resulted when a king died without a strong adult male to inherit his throne.  That was the primary reason Henry broke with the Catholic Church and why he so brutally worked his way through wives.

Here's just one example of that foolish, uninformed trend in tweets:

There were some who stood up for the bishops' decision:

For traditionalists, the modern Church of England is generally leftist in its social and political orientation.  Nevertheless, the bishops did something important when they reaffirmed traditional teachings about sex and marriage.  By doing so, they reminded people that religion can be a harsh taskmaster, but its demands come with the promise that both this life and the afterlife will be better for complying with those moral demands.

Something interesting happened on Thursday, and it wasn't just Brexit becoming official as of January 31.  The Church of England released a statement that's bizarre by 21st-century standards when it took a stand against modern moral culture.  This occurred in the form of a new pastoral guidance from the Church of England bishops stating that sex should be confined to (heterosexual) marriages:

The statement from the House of Bishops says the church's teaching on marriage "remains unchanged", claiming sex outside of marriage is "falling short of God's purpose for human beings".

It adds: "For Christians, marriage — that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows — remains the proper context for sexual activity."

However the church seeks to "uphold that standard" in its approach to civil partnerships and to "affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships".

Those in mixed- or same-sex civil partnerships can still be ordained — but only if they abstain from sex, the bishops added.

But members of the clergy are also instructed not to provide a blessing for couples registering a civil partnership.

England has been at the forefront of gay "marriage" and the breakdown of traditional marriages.  This makes the bishops' guidance a big deal.

Leftists are predictably outraged.  What's really funny, in a sad way, is that leftists think there's something wrong with a church having standards.  For them, church is a feel-good place where you go, are told God loves you, and then you get on with doing whatever the heck you please.

Even some clergy in the Church of England are upset.  Whatever this gal's reason was for becoming a clergy person in the Church of England, it apparently didn't have anything to do with passing on core biblical principles to her parishioners:

There were also several people who showed off their erudition by pointing out that Henry VIII lived a debauched life.  There are two problems with this.

The first is the failure to recognize that standards shouldn't be ditched just because people, even the people who founded an institution, don't follow them.  Religion is supposed to elevate us, not keep us company as we wallow in the moral gutter.

Second, and much more significantly, Henry's choices weren't driven by debauchery.  Henry was fanatically committed to having a son to take the throne after he died.

The reason for this fanaticism was that there was no way he could look into the future and see his daughter Elizabeth's splendid reign.  All he could do was look into the past, going back almost to William the Conqueror, and see the disasters that resulted when a king died without a strong adult male to inherit his throne.  That was the primary reason Henry broke with the Catholic Church and why he so brutally worked his way through wives.

Here's just one example of that foolish, uninformed trend in tweets:

There were some who stood up for the bishops' decision:

For traditionalists, the modern Church of England is generally leftist in its social and political orientation.  Nevertheless, the bishops did something important when they reaffirmed traditional teachings about sex and marriage.  By doing so, they reminded people that religion can be a harsh taskmaster, but its demands come with the promise that both this life and the afterlife will be better for complying with those moral demands.