Last week, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Sir Justin Welby, addressed the Cambridge Union, the oldest debating society in the world. The video can be watched here. He spoke about the nature of truth (plural), the need to find resilience (in any community of ‘truth’) and how to cope with failure (“forgive your own mistakes”). This will be the topic of another post, for now, the focus will be on his answer to one the questions he was asked:
“Your tenure as archbishop included the church’s approval of blessings for same-sex couples, despite this the church still does not allow gay marriage in its churches. Do you see the church’s definition of marriage changing in future years and do you think this view is compatible with the 21st century?”
Sir Justin smiled as the question was read out.
He began by repeating the view he expressed during an interview with Alastair Campbell in November last year, “I believed it was proper to have standalone services of blessing in churches for same-sex couples.” So far, so normal.
Welby continued, “the use of the word marriage is much more complicated, there is a very clear biblical definition of marriage which is in the words of, in the mouth of, Jesus, clearly between a man and a woman.” Which led him to predict, “It may take some time before, if ever, before we get to marriage because the church worldwide is deeply split on this not just the Church of England.”
This was a strong challenge against same-sex ‘marriage’ from the former Archbishop of Canterbury. It raises the question of was he ever as clear as this with his Episcopal friends, either in North America or Scotland? After all, same-sex marriage has been celebrated in these provinces for years – apparently in the face of the “very clear biblical definition of marriage” and Jesus’ own words, yet he saw no need for discipline.
Having perhaps disappointed many in the crowd on the question of same-sex marriage, he returned to the reasons why he had changed his mind about same-sex blessings.
“Everything we see and understand in the huge amount of study we’ve done is that there are social goods in faithful lifelong stable relationships of people of the same sex being together and living in covenant relationships. I didn’t used to think, that my mind’s changed over the last 10 years…”
“… I do believe that we need to recognize the human dignity and the potential for good that lives in every human being regardless of issues of sexuality and that when they fall in love and when they live out that love faithfully and in stability, and faithfully and with stability and caring for others [sic], it is a huge blessing for them and for society and I’ve seen that in so many places, that in the end even I began to realize that I was being thick.”
Take a moment to absorb that. Justin Welby has laid it on the line – the only reason that he once held a traditional view of marriage and sexuality was that he was “being thick”. Brainless, dopey, moronic (choose your word), this is an extraordinary insult to millions of Anglican believers who hold on to that traditional understanding. It is all the more remarkable given that he has spent the last nine years overseeing a project of ‘shared conversations’ and ‘pastoral principles’ based on respect for differing views.
What Anglican Futures surmised was true at the Lambeth Conference, has now been spoken aloud by the man himself, as this blog said then:
“This is a debate between unthinking traditionalists and unblinking theologians. Very politely, but one may say utterly ruthlessly, the Archbishop of Canterbury has painted a picture of primitive, unquestioning, traditionalists, who reflect their culture, in contrast to the deeply prayerful, intellectual progressives, who have studied the scriptures.
The assumption, of course, is that eventually the immature, unscientific laggards will eventually grow-up and catch-up.”