Why We Need "Gay Christians"

For those who are wondering what is going on in the Anglican Church in North America in regards to the issue of human sexuality, here is a series of articles and press releases in order in which they were published, the most recent first. 

The recent decision by Archbishop Foley Beach and the ACNA to officially discourage (or disallow) the phrase “gay Christian” distressed me deeply. I think this should especially distress someone like me, a Global North Anglican with a traditional view of Christian marriage and sexuality, whose confirmation and formation as an Anglican came mostly through the ACNA. The idea behind the decision is, very basically, that a Christian cannot also be “gay,” because this word carries other loaded cultural and identity connotations, and “human identity lies not in sexual orientation…but in union with Christ,” and so a Christian who might otherwise identify as gay should instead call himself or herself “a Christian with same-sex attraction.” This new “Pastoral Statement” stems, in part, from the ACNA’s expressed desire to be more faithful to the gospel, to align less with prevailing Global North secular culture, and, it seems, to align more deeply with particular Global South Anglican bishops on this matter.

Though the moratorium on “gay Christian” as a description of identity may not have had a violent or obnoxious intent, its effect has been to ostracize and penalize the celibate gay Christians among them, who are, or were very recently, in their ranks as leaders and colleagues.

Besides the power dynamics at play in some of this decision’s effects, here are five reasons why, in the Global North at least, this is bunk. We need to be able to say “gay Christian.” Here’s why “Christian with same-sex attraction” won’t cut it (and yes, these reasons are “pastoral,” but not as code for “theologically wimpy”). Read More

Also See:
ACNA repudiates claims that it has changed its teachings on human sexuality
Archbishop Beach writes to the Diocese of the South about the “Dear Gay Anglicans” open letter
C4SO Pastoral Guidance on the ACNA Statement on Sexuality and Identity
Sexuality and Identity: A Pastoral Statement from the College of Bishops