In a recent blog post I restated the campaign aim formulated by Changing Attitude England back in 2017 at the beginning of the LLF saga. Changing Attitude England’s statement was written to be as terse and succinct and as fully inclusive as possible:
Full equality in ministry and relationships for LGBTQIA+ people
In a comment on the blog posted on Thinking Anglicans Jane Charman said it was a step forward that Changing Attitude England is now trying to define a campaign aim but asserted that there is no such thing as an LGBTQIA+ ‘person’. Jane is a member of the growing number of people who believe that ‘TQIA+’ people have already achieved equality in ministry and relationships in the Church of England. There’s nothing to stop a transgender person, intersex person or person who thinks of themselves as ‘non binary’, ‘queer’ or ‘asexual’ from being ordained so long as they satisfy the usual criteria for public ministry that apply to us all. Nor is there anything to stop them entering into relationships of their choice so long as these are within the law. The one category of people who are affected in this way are lesbian and gay people with same sex partners who are only allowed to exercise ministry on the condition that they do not openly celebrate their relationships in the form of marriage.
My TQIA+ friends do not agree with Ms Charman. I am nevertheless grateful to her for alerting me to an error that has only now become fully conscious to me - the reality that there is another category of people who are being abused by and discriminated against in the Church of England and are not included in the CAE list. This is the group, dominant in our society, to whom the labels heterosexual or straight are applied.
They are discriminated against by the Church of England because of the Church’s doctrine of marriage enshrined in Canon Law and tradition. The Church requires every heterosexual couple applying to be married in church to be engaged to be married but not engaged in any form of sexual relationship because intercourse is only permitted in marriage.
A brief discursive paragraph
After the operation to replace my left hip in Salisbury Hospital I was met by a friend of forty years standing who took me to the house he and his wife have recently extended where I spent a week learning to walk again. They were the first couple whose marriage I had the pleasure of presiding over when vicar of St Faith’s Wandsworth in 1982. One of them was divorced. They were living together in a house in the parish. We talked about the failure of the previous marriage. They assumed I might refuse to solemnise their marriage because of church hostility to divorce. I declined to question them about any bed-sharing or intimacy they might be engaged in that was contrary to the church’s requirements as expressed in Canon Law and tradition.
The Church of England’s absurd position on sex
In 1982 I knew the Church of England’s position was absurd, both on sexual abstinence and divorce, and I ignored the rules. Today, I’ve realised with something of a stupefied shock; that for thirty years I’ve been campaigning for equality for LGBTQIA+ people and more specifically in recent years for equal marriage without recognising that straight people have been getting away with what is forbidden (in theory) to lesbian, gay and bisexual couples – the pleasure of sex outside of marriage.
The contemporary attitude of the Church of England to sexual intimacy and pleasure is totally absurd. It is time for all groups pursuing equality, integrity and a healthy Christian sexual culture to major on a campaign to review with the greatest urgency the liturgical and legal, Biblical and theological teachings and traditions of the Church of England in relation to sex and intimacy.
Has anyone recently undertaken research to find out how many heterosexual couples who come to church to be married are already sexually active and living together? It’s not a question that’s appropriate to ask, just as it’s not appropriate to ask lesbian and gay couples if they are sexually active – though many conservative evangelicals are obsessed with the belief that gay couples should most definitely be quizzed about our sex lives.
The Challenge
I’ve been building up to this blog for some months. What I’m arguing for in general – a Church that refocuses it’s teaching and life on the essence of Jesus’ life and teaching – “life in all its fulness’ in my briefest summary – the majority of people ignore, finding my ideas too uncomfortable or difficult.
But I repeat the question – what are Together for the Church of England and all those campaigning for more radical changes in attitude for women, people of colour, those with disabilities, and all those straight people, young and old, who for years have been getting away with having sex prior to getting married – what are you going to do to campaign for a Church that celebrates sexuality and gender diversity and proclaims and lives God’s unconditional love with the deepest integrity? You’ll probably ignore me again, but I’m not going to retreat into silence.
The LGB Christian absurdity
Jane Charman and Lorenzo Fernandez-Smal, both commenting on Thinking Anglicans, think lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians are special categories distinct from all the others and in need of special care and attention in the current climate. They claim LGB Christians are actually the only category of people to whom these rights are specifically denied, the only ones who don’t already have full equality in ministry and relationships. Therefore, Jane and Lorenzo argue, it stands to reason that they’re the ones I need to prioritise. LGB Christians are quite distinct from the rest and especially from straight folks.
The reality is that “straight folks” haven’t needed to campaign for anything. The two World Wars and the post-war culture transformed attitudes to sex so much that people just got on with their lives, despite the flurries of anxious shock and disgust expressed by Mary Whitehouse and Malcolm Muggeridge and ABWON. It’s an outrage that the Church of England has been unable to contain the unbridled, lustful sexual appetites of heterosexuals.