Sexuality, God and Church

Adelphoi,

In response to requests for clarity... and in your kindness... Issues of God and sexuality are often very emotive and we think via our emotions...

I wish to make it clear that I have NEVER attacked divorced & remarried persons as such, only the church's allowance of second & third marriages (when first spouse is alive). And I have not attacked homosexual persons or called them by rude names. I have some relatives who are divorced and remarried and not a few friends who are such and as far as I know I treat them all the same way. What I write against is an apostate Church/bishops and their leading the sheep astray both in sexual matters and in others things and thus they lead them not into the kingdom of heaven but into the kingdom of darkness.

Here is what I have said in summary:

1.There is a large divorce culture both within American society and within the membership of the ECUSA. A large proportion of members and also priests/bishops is divorced and remarried.

2.The presence of this culture - with its dominant justification in terms of personal rights and individual autonomy & happiness - paved the way and set the scene for the carefully planned and executed call of the LesBiGay Lobby to gain a major hearing within the ECUSA. "If you have granted rights to the divorced against Scripture then you must also grant us rights even if you think they are against Scripture."

3.If one is to follow biblical ethics and plain common sense it is obvious that to oppose the "Gay" successes without also dealing with the root cause of them (and other things) - which is the abandonment of good Order - is neither to be just nor realistic.

4.To oppose the right of heterosexual persons to be married more than once in the church as well as to oppose the right of "gay" persons to be blessed in their partnerships is NOT to attack individual persons or couples it is to attack the false authority taken by the ECUSA to allow such things.

5.The real problem is not, therefore, the desires of people to seek their happiness in whatever ways the media and their friends and their (sinful) hearts suggest; but it is the Episcopate (and the General Convention) of the ECUSA, which has since the 1950s and especially since the 1970s forsaken the Lord and his righteous paths.

6.Thus the gay issue must not be prioritized in such a way that the impression is given that if the (reformed parts of) ECUSA gets rid of Gene Robinson as a bishop and gets some resolutions against gay blessings in the books then all shall be well.

7.The disease, the problem, the error & the apostasy would very much remain at the center and with each Bishop; THUS there must be a major U-turn back to the Bible, the Creeds, the Formularies, the Canon Law as it was before the 1970s, and to right Order. Only in this context can "gay" and divorce issues be addressed rightly with a sound mind.

8.What do to about all those in second and third marriages who have been blessed by the ECUSA? Make a clear statement and write in clearly into church law that ALL marriages solemnized and blessed until a specific date shall be treated as true marriages (because any error was primarily & basically on the part of the Church not on the part of those being married); and that from this date certain new rules shall apply to marriage in church and these shall be graciously, pastorally and yet firmly adhered to. The BCP (1662/1928) service of matrimony shall serve as the basic formulary for marriage and appropriate counseling should be put in place immediately.

9.The Primates' Meeting in October 2003 will fall very far short of its duty if it merely and only addresses "gay" issues for the reason that this would be like dealing with one child with food poisoning and not working out where the poison came into the food chain - at factory, distributor, supermarket or kitchen! The "gay" issue & the divorce/remarriage issue and the cohabitation issue are all parts of a manifestation of rebellion against God 's good Order for creation and the Church, and we need a call back to & a return unto that good Order.

10. The Church of England & its Episcopate are heading on the same direction (down into the valley of darkness) as the ECUSA has headed, but with a different kind of routing down the slope! In Britain a lot goes on behind closed doors [under trees in a thick wood as it were) and so one only finds out when it is out in the open!

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)