Rev Frank Wainwright mentioned civil partnerships in his sermon at St Gregory's, Cheltenham, on Sunday and said that marriage is between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Apparently five members of the congregation have complained and the deacon has been branded as a homophobe by lesbian and gay groups.
So let's have a look at the "Adam and Steve" thing. In 2001, openly gay playwright Paul Rudnick wrote a play called "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told". this was a parody of the bible in which Adam wakes up and realises that he is gay - then gets together with his boyfriend Steve. There was a 2005 film about a gay couple called "Adam and Steve", and there is a gay dating agency called ... Adam and Steve. A variant on the theme is the 1974 homoerotic film "Adam and Yves."
Rev Wainwright has apologised for any offence he may have caused and the Gloucestershire Gay and Lesbian Community Group has nobly accepted his apology, saying that they do not want to stir anything up. Such as an examination of the vindictive hypocrisy of the complainants perhaps?
Deacon Wainwright said that he presumed that it was a gay member of his congregation who complained. I wouldn't be so sure. There have been several occasions in the past year when gay groups have distanced themselves from the more strident attempts to instrumentalise "equality" in the secularist attack on the Church. The real issue here is much more likely to be dissent from the teaching of the magisterium. The complainants may or may not have been gay; but you can bet that they probably don't agree with the doctrine of the Church on marriage that Deacon Wainwright was expounding in his sermon.
10 comments:
I'm sorry that Deacon Wainwright felt he had to apologise.
Apparently that Christian registrar in Islington who refused to carry out civil partnerships has had her application for appeal turned down by the Supreme Court. She is now considering taking her case to the European Court:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion
/7399275/Christian-registrar-denied-leave-to-appeal-gay-wedding-refusal.html
And the good Deacon has to apologise for what precisely??? Telling the truth?? Is that a crime these days in Gulag UK?
These gay or whatever complainants (perhaps paid up members of the catholics for a changling church CCC) are so fully dressed to the hilt in 'the Emperor's New Clothes' they can't see their hands in front of their noses. They have lost all semblance of rhyme and reason and frankly of the 'bleedin obvious' too!!!
Thanks for the pre-warning about these sad films and plays - certainly won't ever bother with that lot.
Dear Father
May God bless Rev Wainwright for telling the truth in love to his people.
It is most unfortunate that he has had to apologise for teaching the Faith in a Catholic Church...
The persecution of Catholics is well under way. Let's face it the only reason that no-one has been jailed yet under the weight of recent legislation is because we're all too scared to stick our heads above the parapet and tell the truth - and not to apologise for it afterwards.
At some point we'll all need to choose between New Life in Christ and cowing to aggresive atheistic and secularist agendas.
Eventually some soul will point out innocently that the Emperor has no clothes...
We have a several priest friends who have come under fire for teaching basic Catholic doctrines from the pulpit in the last two years - including those which do not even refer to human sexuality.
Ah... what it is to live in a free country!
Our prayers are with you.
God bless
Alan and Angeline
Could the commenter who posted the not for publication comment email me (rosary@freeuk.com) as I'd like to follow up on the information.
Could the commenter who posted the not for publication comment email me (rosary@freeuk.com) as I'd like to follow up on the information.
So sorry to appear to question orthodox teaching on this, but I'm really quite glad the Deacon had to apologise.
I don't know if the rest of his sermon was a particularly eloquent proclamation of the truth, but it was all ruined by this stupid little joke.
It's at the level of thirteen year old boys bullying people in the playground, using discrimination against homosexuals not based on Biblical doctrine but - as with sexism, racism, and so on - based on contempt for anyone who is different (often, in my experience, the most vulnerable and gentle youths). "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!". None of you heard this said in mockery?
The Deacon's comment was at best misjudged and at worst an inappropriate outburst that gives the impression that his sermon was based not upon centuries of orthodox teaching, but upon the language of juvenile bullying at its most tactless.
Stefan - you have not addressed the fact that this joke was first used in gay circles and is a standard (if not clichéd) expression there. So it could be seen simply as the adoption of a common expression that is used light-heartedly by gays themselves. Indeed the films that use it are making use of a light-hearted expression to advance the acceptance of gay relationships.
That's why I think that this is much more likely to be about liberal Catholics attacking an orthodox cleric and finding a useful excuse to do so.
We need to pray that our pastors will have courage, the courage to say the right things from the pulpit, even when it hurts.
As a rule, I think that jokes do not a have a place in homilies - though I have heard plenty over the years, even in extraordinary form masses.
I think that the joke is merely a handy stick for these critics - it was the entire homily that they found offensive.
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