From netfriend:

(June 2003):

Does any one else have a bit of a problem with the following statement issued by the Anglican Diocese of Sydney: “For our part, we cannot welcome into our Diocese those who have abandoned the teaching of Scripture in such a flagrant manner”?

Aren’t there at least 2 types of problem with this declaration of unwelcomeness?

Firstly, in the first ever communion, didn’t Jesus give His Body and His Blood to all 12 disciples, including Peter the denier, Thomas the doubter and Judas the betrayer? Did he welcome all of them to His table, even though He knew what some of them were doing or were going to do against Him? Is His action at the first communion a continuing model for the rest of us, or an isolated event which has been superseded by subsequent revelation and church teaching?

Secondly, how is this proclamation of unwelcomeness going to work in practice? For example, at Worship, will each congregation in the Diocese have to post people at the doors of the church, to select those who can come in and those who are unwelcome? How will they recognise the welcome ones from the unwelcome ones? Will each congregation have to get potential worshipers to sign statutory declarations affirming their conformance to the requirements of the Diocese, before they can join in Worship? Outside of Worship, how will unwelcomeness work? In WA, we have a religious sect which forbids its members to have any form of social contact with people who are not accepted members of the sect. Will Anglicans in the Sydney Diocese be required in ordinary life to shun those who the Diocese regards as unwelcome? How will they know who are the unwelcome ones? Perhaps the unwelcome ones will need to wear some sort of identifying badge or other symbol (for example, an armband with an identifying symbol on it, something similar to the white and blue armbands which were worn by the Jews of Warsaw in 1940)? Will the unwelcome ones only be those members of the Anglican communion who do not conform to the requirements of the Diocese, or will it include all people who do not meet the requirements for welcomeness, including those who do not explicitly follow Jesus? Given that there may be an awful lot of people out there who could fall into the unwelcome category, perhaps it would be easier to have the welcome ones wear a badge or an armband?

My response:

To complicate the situation:

At the Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Sectarian (they’re not quite the same) end of the theological spectrum the question: ‘Is homosexual practice as bad as heterosexual adultery or fornication?’ the answer is ‘All three are forbidden in Scripture, and each is as bad as the others.’

Next question: Should people who commit such sexual sins be disciplined in some way by the local church?

Answer: Yes.

Now, the rub. 70-90+% of young people who are members of evangelical churches are not virgins when they marry. That is, they’re ‘fornicators’. (My specialty is counselling clergy, and pastors who are close to their people give me this figure – corroborated from my own 40 years’ experience as a pastor/counsellor). Are they given the same treatment as people in the other two categories? No, not generally (except in some of the more sectarian groups).

But isn’t their ‘sin’ just as bad?

Well, yes, but the difference is…. wait for it…. they’re the children of respected church families…

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher