a view through my own eyes

I am just dumbstruck by the quality of this one…

I was amused (I think) this morning, when I went online to request a repeat prescription for allergy drugs to find the following:

Important note: Your password is now CaSe SeNsItIvE for added security

I suppose that the only consolation was that at least it has always been SSL encoded via https (well that is what my browser reports) and that they had a valid certificate.

Up on campus as reported moderately regularly by the media we have the Lambeth Conference. Which is pretty much a ten yearly gathering of Anglican bishops to discuss the way forward for Anglican Churches. Anglican churches are pretty much those that were founded by the Church of England as the British Empire colonised the world.

Now you can call me a bit dumb or a half witted ignorant fool if you like, but finally it occured to me today that there is more behind the gay bashing conservative bishops than the media would have us believe and that the situation for the liberal bishops is in some ways more privileged. So whilst the two groups of Bishops studiously ignore the media and concentrate on other matters (except Gene Robinson who seems to be courting the media) which are probably in Church terms much more important, I want to explore why it is such an issue and why the Lambeth Conference has no chance of sorting it out at the moment.

So bear with me whilst we go on a short biblical history lesson.

Now the bit of the Bible that is frequently quoted by the conservatives is quite clear, it categorically says and I quote from the book of Leviticus:

18:22 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
20:13 If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

So taking that at face value, if you are a practising homosexual according to the book of Leviticus then things don’t bode well for you. Consider also that Leviticus was apparently written in roughly 1450BC and that the Old Testament

Moving forward in the Bible to the New Testament which was written entirely in the period 40-100AD (or thereabouts) and in the main considers the life of Jesus and the life of the early church. From what I have read and with a bit of Googling Jesus says not a single thing about homosexuals and the often quoted phrase from Matthew is:

22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Now I am not to say what is in context and what is not, mainly because I am neither wise nor a scholar of the Bible. But it is not too hard to see why contradictions arise and why at face value some of the Bishops are at loggerheads.

At this point we put the Bible to one side and consider the following two points:

1. In Britain, America and other countries in the Western world it is illegal to discriminate against homosexuals and this is where many of the liberal viewed Bishops hail from.
2. In Sudan, Nigera and other countries in the developing world it is illegal to be a homosexual and the penalties range from imprisonment to the death penalty, unsuprisingly many of the conservative Bishops are from these parts of the world.

So since legally the two opposing parties cannot agree with each other without risk of persecution or worse in their home nations, how can they be expected to provide a unified Anglican church view? Since any unified view will have to take on side or another is it really too difficult to appreciate why the sexuality debate that the media would love to see (Bishop punch up at Lambeth anyone?) is pretty much being deliberately avoided?

Finally consider that it was not that many years ago that homosexuality was illegal in the now liberal countries in the western world.

At least for a novelty it is not just Windows…