The church and homosexuals
Sir: The unfortunate Mr R. L. Court, reeling under the lash of the Rural Dean of Wickford, must be wondering what he has done that deserves such treatment.
Mr Court pointed out that the Rev Denis Nadin's 'educational ginger group', REACH, which "believes that homosexual Christians can be fully Christian and fully homosexual" is a nonsense because homosexual relationships are very strongly condemned in both parts of the bible. It is therefore surprising that even after "eight years of full-time academic study of the Holy Bible, God's word written (Article XX)" theRural Dean can manage to question this point. A little more time should convince him that Mr Court is right (for example, see Romans ch. 1).
Unfortunately this does not exhaust what can only be called the Rural Dean's distortions. Christian compassion and concern for homosexuals is not at issue. Whether Christianity and practising homosexuality are compatible is.
While the New Testament attitude to homosexual practice is perfectly clear, you would be hard put to it to make a good textual case about the other matters the dean mentions in the last paragraph of his letter. Here he is failing to compare like with like.
I can understand neither why the Rural Dean compares Mr Court's letter to the anonymous letters received by :clergymen, nor why he says it is unworthy to be published in a serious journal. Such a display of petulance would be unbecoming even if the Rural Dean's views were correct.
Malcolm Rees
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