Head to head: Gay Church Debate

From BBC News, this feature puts two opposing views on the question of gay bishops "head to head", Dr Philip Giddings first and Revd. Gareth Williams second:

Head to head: gay church debate

One could blog all day on this issue, of course, but what I've tended to do is stick to features that deal with questions of Biblical interpretation.

Giddings: "What is wrong, from the Bible's standpoint, is homosexual practice. That's because the Bible clearly teaches that the only acceptable context for sexual intercourse is within marriage, and marriage is only between a man and a woman.

Therefore, sexual intercourse outside heterosexual marriage is sinful and must be repented of. Homosexual practice falls within that category."

Williams: "As regards the Bible, the problem I have is that many people who take the view that the Bible is against homosexuality are approaching a rich and complex text rather too simplistically.

Two thousand years on we know so much more about what makes us human.

Reading the Bible with a naivety that pretends to know nothing of what modern human psychology tells us about the givenness of our sexuality only perpetuates injustices towards lesbian and gay people."