The Archbishop of Canterbury talks to Michael Gove about faith, politics, and whether he'd attend if one of his children had a gay marriage ceremony.
Michael Gove. Spectator. 12 December 2015
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Bowman
My definition of sin is something that we do or think or say or want or feel or imagine which is wrong in the sight of God, contrary to his will, in disobedience to his law and his commandments. As I have argued elsewhere at length it is clear from the Bible that homosexuality is a sin.
For some of the likeness(es) I have in mind see Galatians 5:16-25: homosexuality, like other sins is a ‘work of the flesh’, of fallen human nature, which can, like other sins, be forgiven by the blood of Christ, which, like other sins, we are called upon to put to death by the Spirit in a life-long struggle, which, like other besetting sins, may trouble us to the end of this mortal life until the final redemption of our bodies.
Phil Almond
“If one of his own children were to be
gay and fell in love with another person of the same sex, and asked his blessing, how would he react? ‘Would I pray for them together? You bet I would, absolutely. Would I pray with them together? If they wanted me to. If they had a civil service of marriage, would I attend? Of course I would.’
But, I challenged him, conscious of what many evangelicals believe, wouldn’t you say to them that while you love them, their relationship was sinful or inappropriate?
‘I would say, “I will always love you, full stop. End of sentence, end of paragraph. Whatever they say, I will say I always love them.’”
A painfully direct question, more challenging and more relevant (to the current disagreement) would have been: ‘Is homosexuality a sin like any other sin?’
Phil Almond
Phil, your question is unusually hard to construe. Thoughts about the difference and likeness of sins range from the idea that there is a short list of misdeeds that are alike only in being on it to the complex hamartiology of, say, Dante’s Inferno. What likeness do you have in mind?
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0904-gardiner