A study of the attitudes of Roman Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches to homosexuality.
A study of the attitudes of Roman Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches to homosexuality.
Homosexuality is defined as the presence of a predominant and persistent psychosexual attraction towards members of the same sex. The term homosexuality has only been used since the 19th century. The three churches I shall be looking are the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches. All three churches look to the bible for their teachings on a range of topics since all three churches are Christian. The English term homosexuality was invented in 1892 to translate the German word used by psychologists to describe what they understood to be a pathology or psychological imbalance. A long time ago before modern science techniques, the three churches thought of all homosexuality as a sinful thing. They took at the time that homosexuality was only an act and that the person can be held responsible, as shown by St. Paul when he was writing his letters he only thought that there was an act and that homosexuality was a product of people committing idolatry. All three churches took this on and thought this was true.
Until modern science, psychology revealed that it was rather orientation, people can have natural homosexual tendencies and so cannot be held responsible for that. With new science the act of homosexuality was changed form when it was thought that a homosexual was responsible for having that condition and they chose to participate in the act. But now days with new science people believe that it is orientation that causes homosexuality, i.e. the person is born with the homosexual orientation, and so cannot be held responsible, which cannot be changed and is fixed. The orientation can then be divided into nature and nurture. With in nature it is about genetics, it is a biological truth. In the past few years' scientists have been looking for the gay gene, which has supposedly responsible for homosexuality, and on the other hand there is nurture i.e. the way you were brought up. It is often been shown that a troubled childhood can lead to homosexuality as well as the absence of the father, together with social depression as another cause. Homosexuality is unconditionally rejected as not christianly legitimate either as orientation or a genital expression. There has been an important shift in the churches thinking on homosexuality in the past few years, in recent years there has been the introduction of the homosexual condition or orientation. Which has come about through modern science. In the past church attitudes towards homosexuals were hostile particularly to the people who were open. They have taken homosexuality as a medical model. It is not so much that homosexuals commit horrible sins as such, and through no fault of their own since they have a tendency to perform such acts. A distinction can be made between act and orientation. According to G. Moore "this relieves people burden of guilt for and having homosexual tendencies. If having these tendencies is properly thought of analogous to a medical condition, like a tendency to come out in spots or develop fevers, then you are not blameworthy for having them."(Reference a).this shows that it is rather orientation as opposed to act when talking about homosexuality. With psychology, and in new modern science, the act of homosexuality has been replaced by orientation, someone can have that orientation under no fault of their own, sexual orientation is said to be fixed by the age of 5 and cannot be changed during adulthood.
The traditional unacceptability of homosexuality from the view point of the church is better understood more straight forwardly, such activities as homosexuality, are to the Catholic Church break the complementary of man and women put forward by natural moral law also it undermines the teaching that sex should be with in a stable relationship through marriage.
Presently there is no consensus on the causes of homosexuality According to Macquarrie there is four factors about orientation, the first is that the orientation become fixed in early childhood, by aged 5, people are neither homosexual or heterosexual, the effects to change the orientation in adult hood would not have a lasting effect, and that homosexuals will experience behaviour problems stemming from social oppression for instance. (Reference b)
After that the three churches ordered studies into homosexuality and what causes it. As a result of this the Methodist and Anglican changed their views on homosexuality, but the catholic churches remained on its existing teachings. The Catholic Church responds to changes very slowly, the Methodist has a more modern feel, they respond to changes when needed to do so and also they are a relatively new church.
All three churches take their teaching from the bible. They all will go as far as to say that the homosexual act which a person commits cannot be held responsible for the act because to some extent they all accept the new scientific data on homosexuality to say that a person can have a homosexual orientation, it is neither changeable or is it chosen. This means the churches believe that the person cannot be held responsible since they have the orientation naturally and cannot be changed. Within the Methodist church you have liberals and conservatives. The only way the three churches differ is in their interpretation of the scriptures. The Anglican and Methodist churches are protestant and so they are more bible based than the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church uses natural moral law, scripture, tradition and the Magisterium to come to a decision on issues and teaching. Compared to the other two churches the Catholic Church uses tradition. I will address the differences in detail with the three churches later in this essay.
The relatively few biblical references dealing with the subject do not treat homosexuality as an orientation but rather refer to certain types of homosexual acts.
Since all three churches uses the scriptures from the bible this would be a good place to start. I will be giving first what the modern exegesis would be for the stories, than when I mention each church I will include their view to scripture mentioned. There are relatively few passages in the bible that deal with the subject of homosexuality. In the passages they describe different types of homosexual acts. They all appear to have a negative view to same sex expression. The most famous reference used from the bible is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) (reference c). A fundamentalist Christian would look at the story and say that it is a clearly saying that homosexuality is wrong. If you also look at the chapter before, (genesis 18) you can see that the same two strangers visited Abraham, who offered them hospitality, gave them everything, with contrast to Sodom where the people showed in hospitality towards the strangers. Abraham's nephew put out hospitality to them, this is why his family was the only one saved. The story mainly shows about hospitality and how you should treat others, in Sodom the men where going to degrade the strangers status to that of a women. It does not show adherence of homosexuality, but about hospitability of visitors.
You can then turn to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, two verses that are essentially identical; they are both condemning men with other men. This may not be what it seems because in the Hebrew language there is no word for homosexuality. The term was first used in the 19th century. If you were to look at Leviticus verses you would think they were saying that homosexuality was wrong. But at the time the term was not used. It is saying that if you take the role of the women, then it is wrong. It is saying that it ...
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You can then turn to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, two verses that are essentially identical; they are both condemning men with other men. This may not be what it seems because in the Hebrew language there is no word for homosexuality. The term was first used in the 19th century. If you were to look at Leviticus verses you would think they were saying that homosexuality was wrong. But at the time the term was not used. It is saying that if you take the role of the women, then it is wrong. It is saying that it is opposed to anal intercourse between tow men. All the texts are specific to men. Moreover there is no distinction between act and orientation, where orientation is split into nurture and nature. If you look other verses from Leviticus, you can see that they are a set of rules on different things. If you take one rule you have to take them all. There are to be to found else where in the same book forbidding all kinds of things, for instance 19:9 forbids farmers when harvesting to reap their fields right to the edge.
In the New Testament there are three passages, which touch on homosexuality. These are 1 Timothy 1:8-11, 1 Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Two of these are lists of things, which were thought to be wrong. Some scholars have thought that the items on this list are of equal importance; no one is given special importance. The final passage Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul speaks about what he considers to be unnatural behaviour. He talked about man and women leaving the norm and falling into perverse actions. Also he says that homosexuality is a consequence of idolatry, i.e. leaving your faith in God and worshipping another God. Natural meant you have catholic complimentary; you need a female and male. In 1 Corinthians, it is a list of things to be condemned; homosexuality is on of them, should we just highlight this one out of all on this list. In Romans 1:26-27, this passage is often taken as a straightforward condemnation of homosexuality. According to St Paul, those who have exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones are a consequence of idolatry. They have rejected God, so they have become godless. For Paul homosexual activity is part of the godless life. Homosexuality is not condemned on its own. This passage from Romans is in fact an example of a standard Jewish polemic against pagans and their way of life. It is nearly the same as the book of Wisdom 14. There are many Christians who are homosexuals, but have not lost their faith in God, but they regularly go to church, so what Paul had said about homosexuality was a consequence of losing your faith is shown to be incorrect. St Paul at the time was only aware of the act and not the orientation of homosexuality, so his writings reflect this. It has been suggested that in both Corinthians and Timothy, the list is a generic formulation with no special weight given to any one specific item, others say that in these two lists are in fact the technical term used for sexual gratification. In total there are six places in the bible where homosexuality is mentioned. Compared to hundreds of commandments and lots of pages of teachings.
In all of Jesus teachings the main theme is unconditional love of your neighbor. If you apply situation ethics, the most loving thing for the homosexual person would be to accept them for who they are and offer support to them, let them live out their orientation with out discrimination against them. It would also mean that the teachings in the bible and the church could be over written in the name of love. All the churches accept the notion of unconditional love of their neighbour, so they are obligated to accept homosexual persons with love. If you apply proportionalism to homosexuality, the proportionate knows that the best thing for the person would be to accept the person and going against their teachings in the church. But they understand that it is wrong.
Homosexuality was not always thought as wrong. If you go back to ancient times, take the Romans for instance many of today's western views are taken from the Romans. The Romans did not consider sexuality or sexual preference a matter of much interest. John Boswell writes "Roman law and social strictures made absolutely no restriction the basis of gender. Romans were like other people, sensitive to issues of love and caring but individual sexes (gender) choice was completely unlimited. Male prostitution was so common it proved a large tax for the revenue of the treasury"(reference d). In Greece and Rome at the time gay marriages were legal and often emperors would marry a male, there was total acceptance on the part of the populace.
The Christian community might have been responsible for some of the prejudice against homosexuals at the early church. The first is through homosexual relations this is opposed to the procreative sexuality laid out by the church in their teachings. There was recorded indeed on the part of many early Christians a feeling of hostility towards any form of sexuality, which was not potentially procreative. As late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there appears to be no conflict between Christian life and homosexuality. Gay life was everywhere. After the twelfth century Christian tolerance of gays seem to disappear rapidly. During the period of 1250 and 1350, all the European countries passed civil laws demanding the death of anyone who committed a single homosexual act. This could have had a affect on the Christian theology at the time. During the 13th century writers like Thomas Aquinas were trying to show that homosexuality was a sin. St Thomas Aquinas wrote how homosexuality was against nature, nature being created sexuality for procreation and using it for any other use was against nature and therefore a sin. In Summa Contra Gentiles he writes "is it sinful to walk on your hands when nature intended them for something else?" Here he is trying to show that walking on your hands is against nature like homosexuality. First he tries arguing that it must be sinful because it impedes the reproduction of the human race. I will revisit natural moral law and Aquinas later in the essay. During the middle ages the tolerance for homosexuals decreased, as well for the Jews. The public continued to become more hostile to gays people and putting no pressure on the church to re-examine their teaching on homosexuality.
The first church I will look at is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is more explicit in its conclusion. Homosexuality is contrary to scripture and natural moral law, but the catechism in 1994 accepts the notion that some people are born with homosexual inclinations. The Catholic Church will accept people as a homosexual into the church just as long as they remain celibate, i.e. do not have sexual relations. The Catholic Church uses natural moral law, scripture, tradition and the Magisterium to come to a decision on issues and teaching. Unlike the Church of England, their vocation must be a life of sexual chastity. Before 1975, the Catholic Church they did not accept that homosexual people could not be held responsible for their inclination. (All take from reference e) In 1975, the Vatican said that homosexual orientation were not wrong because ones orientation is not a matter of choice, it is something that you are born with. But they did state that to act upon these feelings by engaging in relations was a sin whether casual or in a stable relationship. The catholic church believes that homosexuality is a condition which if parents of the homosexuals should not condemn their child, but love and care through pastoral care, they should not be rejected and they should urge their child to be sexually inactive. According to the Congregation for the doctrine of faith on homosexuality, there has to be special concern and pastoral attention should be directed towards those who have this condition. The most loving thing is to care for them. According to the Catholic Church you should not use the modern exegesis of scripture, as it will lead confusion.
. The Catholic Church uses natural moral law, scripture, tradition and the Magisterium to come to a decision on homosexuality. For Catholics Thomas Aquinas is the main advocate of natural moral law. The Greek philosopher Aristotle impacted Thomas Aquinas (reference f, Summa Contra Gentiles). Natural Moral law is anything that encourages human flourishing. Thomas Aquinas said that you do not need to go to the bible, but look at the world around you (nature). According to Aquinas in the summa contra gentiles, homosexuality goes against natural moral law. It also goes against the complementary of the sexes and marriage. One of main arguments is that homosexuality does not occur on the animal kingdom so human should not as well. This can be disproved because new science techniques show that there are homosexual animal species, so his argument is not true. Aristotle believed that everything serves a purpose. The Christian thinkers of the middle ages looked at nature as showing the purpose of the creator who put order into everything. Nature is created by God therefore it equals God's law.
(Reference g, Michael Wilcockson, "sex and relationships"). In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (published in 1994, page 505), the church said that homosexuals do not choose their homosexual condition, for most of them it is a trial. It also said that they must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. This also says the they must be called to a life of chastity. The Magisterium in the document maintains that homosexuality is technically intrinsically disordered; this is form the viewpoint of natural moral law. Thomas Aquinas combined both traditions concluding that homosexual activity is worse than rape because the former violates natural moral law and therefore God where as rape only violates another human being. A homosexual person's suffering, if she or he suffers is not like the suffering due to illness, it is due to social depression, this is one reason why the Catholic Church teaches that people must accept homosexuals and treat them with respect as if they have a condition. The church teaches that homosexual acts are contrary to the creative wisdom of God. In 1992, the Vatican issued a new catechism for the church. It states since homosexuality is not a matter of choice, "they do not choose their homosexual condition for most of them it is a trial. In the Catholic Church, a homosexual who has to a priest, occasional instance of promiscuity could receive absolution and be allowed to receive communion. However they also teach that if she/he becomes involved in a permanent, committed loving partnership with a person of the same sex, then they would be denied both absolution and the sacraments unless the relationship is terminated. This means that they must live a life of celibacy. They also say that with in marriage does sexual intercourse fully symbolise the creator's dual design, as an act of covenant love with the potential of co-creating new human life. They observe that only within marriage between a man and woman is sexual intercourse open to the possible creation of new human life. Thus the church concludes that sexual activity with in a loving committed homosexual partnership is objectively immoral. As a consequence of homosexuality it has been observed that there were gay murders in Italy estimated to be between 150 and 200 gay men being killed. The deaths can be attributed to homophobia. The Catholic Church is trying to keep section 28 laws about teaching homosexuality in schools, since the government is going to scrap. It has been observed that the leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope was observed to be attacking gays and lesbians in his speech during the Golden year of the Catholic Church. The Pope is very traditional; he takes the tradition of the church very seriously, and does not accept that homosexuality is good.
(Reference a). The Christian thinkers of the middle ages saw nature as manifesting the purpose of the creator who established order in everything. There are three levels to be considered in finding these inclinations. 1) Those inclinations shared by humans and all created beings, for instance all created being strive to stay alive.2) those inclinations shared with animals for instance all animals pursue the production of offspring by the coming together of male and female and the raising of their offspring.3) those inclinations found only in human beings. The final cause of sexual act is the procreation of children. Natural moral law would see contraception, homosexuality and masturbation as inherently wrong since they cannot lead to the final end of sexual relations.
The Catholic Church teaches that only within marriage can sexual intercourse can occur. The purpose of sexual intercourse is for procreation of new life. It should be in a loving permanent relationship. This comes form natural moral law, Aquinas being the main advocate. According to Moral Law you have to have complimentarily, a women and a man, where two become one through marriage. Sexual relations occur only to produce a child. Homosexuality can never become married. It goes against natural moral law; Aquinas argued that since homosexuality does not produce life, it goes against God's creation plan. It breaks the complimentarily of the sexes, it is breaking the union that occurs when you have sexual relations, the man and woman come together with God, God gives the child their soul, and save them from sin and damnation. So through homosexual relations you are preventing God from giving the child their soul and it breaks his plan for procreation.
Thomas Aquinas does explicitly condemn anal and oral sex because it thwarts the telos or purpose of sexual intercourse to have children. He says it is evident from this that every emission of semen in such a way that generation cannot follow is contrary to the good of man. And if this were done deliberately it must be a sin, now I am speaking of a way, which in itself generation could not result (Thomas Aquinas Summa Contra Gentiles). The notion of a telos is ambiguous. Sex may equally be regarded purposely for unitive or loving ends. If the lack to reproduce in heterosexual relationships where one or more of them are barren then this could be applied to homosexual relationship. Modern scientific consensus does not regard homosexuality to be a deviant pathology. Natural Law is always subjective to criticism of the Naturalistic Fallacy. It is coherent to derive from statements of fact statements of value. For example Aquinas fallacies to move from the biological fact that humans have reproductive organs and to jump to the abstract law that we must reproduce. Just because something is a fact it does not mean it ought to. There is a leap in logic.
The catholic perspective, which finds support in more secure findings of the natural science. The Catholic moral view point is founded on human reason illustrated by faith. The church this is in the position to learn from scientific discovery. In the Congregation for the doctrine of faith (reference h), it stresses that you have to try to understand the homosexual condition and noted culpability for homosexual acts should only be judged with prudence. The document also draws the distinction between the homosexual condition or tendency and individual homosexual acts. Homosexuality is a disease you should not jump into judging them all about their act. The catholic church says that therefore that special concern and pastoral attention should be directed towards those who have this condition, lest that the person in question should be led to believe that living out this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally is a morally acceptable option. In the document mentioned earlier that the dimension of authentic pastoral care is the identification of causes of confusion regarding to church's teachings. One of these is the new modern exegesis of scripture, which claims that scripture has nothing to say on the subjective of homosexuality. The church today addresses the Gospel to a new world, which differs in many ways to the ancient ways. There is nevertheless a clear consistency with the scriptures themselves on the moral issue of homosexual behaviour. You have to take all the scripture not just bits according to the church. They also teach that you cannot use scripture alone but use the Magisterium and tradition of the church. Human beings therefore are nothing less than the work of God himself, and in the complimentarily of the sexes they are called to reflect the inner unity of the creator. In Genesis 19:1-11 the deterioration in the story of the men of Sodom. Here they say that there can be no doubt of the moral judgment made against homosexual relations. In Leviticus they believe that in the course of describing the conditions necessary for belonging to the chosen people, therefore this excludes the people of God who behave in a homosexual fashion. St Paul in 1 Cor 6:9 he proposes the same doctrine and lists those who behave in a homosexual fashion among those who shall not enter the Kingdom of God. In Romans Paul uses homosexual behavior as an example of blindness, which has overcome humanity. Instead of the original harmony between God and creatures is distorted of idolatry has led to all kinds of moral excess. In Tim 1 he names explicitly sinners as those who engage in homosexual acts. They teach that only in the martial relationship that the use of sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behaviour acts immorally. To chose a member of the opposite sec for ones' sexual activity goes against the creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union able to transmit life. It has been argued that the homosexual orientation in certain cases is not the result of choice and so therefore the person would then have no choice but to behave in that fashion. The church in the congregation on the doctrine of faith document concludes by saying that the bishops have a responsibility to inform the priests under them to bring the teachings of the church to everyone. They should give pastoral care for homosexuals and treat them and care for them and help them to remain celibate.
The next church I will look at is the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church includes the Episcopal churches in the U.S; Anglican churches in Canada, the church of England and 35 other national churches around the world. The Anglican Church is a protestant church; their view on homosexuality is that it is o.k. They teach that you must provide pastoral care for homosexuals; they have a more modern attitude to homosexuality. The church of England split form the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago and became a state church. The Anglican Church in 1991 believed that it was acceptable for homosexual relationships in the laity but not for the clergy. In 1997 the synod meeting lead them to the resolution in requesting further discussion on the issue. Gays and Lesbians may be ordained within the Anglican Communion but only if they remain celibate. The Anglican Communion does not recognize gay and lesbians union ceremonies. They say that the bible is the rule and ultimate standard of faith. The bible teaches life long heterosexual relationships for sexual relations. Scripture offers no positive examples of non-martial sex and contains specific condemnation o homosexual practices as sins. The bible also provides no justification for the church to ordain non-celibate homosexuals or bless same sex relationships. In the Lambeth conference 2000, section 1 group states that the Anglican church, sexuality is intended by God to find its rightful and expression between one women and one man in the covenant of marriage which is a life long and unconditional commitment between a man and women. They oppose homophobia and any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. At this conference the bishops, said that there are those who see homosexuality is a disorder, it goes against scripture and churches teachings, homosexual relationships goes outside biblical norm, and finally those who advocate the orientation of homosexuals and same sex relationships unions as wrong. The final resolution is that practicing homosexuality is a sin, which could be adopted by the church. The Anglican Church cannot advice the blessing or ordination of those involved in same sex unions. The church rejects homosexual practices as incompatible with the scripture. They look at scripture in the same line as the Catholic Church. The Protestants churches use sola scriptura (scripture) and sola Fiode (faith) for their teachings they do not use tradition as the Catholic Church does. The Anglican Communion teaches that homosexual orientation as a disorder or disease something that can be changed or healed, this is the first group with in the church, the second says that there is no much concentration on sexual ethics and the third is that, homosexual orientation is fixed and unchanged, they should receive full human rights.
I n the 1987 synod, the Anglican Church acknowledged that there are those who are homosexual not by choice but by orientation and that they must be given full pastoral acceptance in the church communities. But the least satisfactory argument rests on homosexual physical sexual relationships. Where it may be acceptable for the laity, in the church to have a full relationship. But it is not permissible for the priests and bishops because at the heart of Christian vocation you must remain celibate. They will accept homosexual ordained people just so long as they remain celibate. They say that sexual intercourse is an act of total commitment that belongs properly within a permanent married relationship. That acts like homosexual acts are against this idea. Homosexual like in the Catholic Church need to be treated with pastoral care, the Anglican Church therefore accepts the homosexual orientation side, and they will accept homosexual relationships for the laity but not for the ordained people. Therefore they will accept homosexual ordained people as long as they remain celibate. The Anglican Church gets rid of the tradition and teaching of the church (Magisterium) because these are man made, so they only use scripture and faith. The Church accepts homosexuality as alright for the laity but not for the ordained clergy.
The last church I will look at is the Methodist Church. The Methodist movement split in 1844 over slavery and the power of Bishops. The United Methodist membership's beliefs about homosexuality are split along the conservative and liberal lines. Liberals within in U.M.C generally look at gays and lesbians' ordination and same sex marriages as civil rights issues- that they are fundamental human right issues that should be available to everyone with any sexual orientation. They also believe that homosexuality is natural, naturally orientation for a minority of people. It is neither changeable or is it chosen. The other side of this is conservatives, they believe that homosexual behavior is a sin, against God and condemned throughout the bible. They say that to allow a homosexual to be ordained would be an attack on the historical church. They believe that Marriage is for one man and one woman. Homosexuality is abnormal and unnatural. They Methodist Church is referred to as the mainline of the Christian denominations, where they go the others follow. Divine Command theory is associated with the Conservatives. Civil rights come from the state/government. The conservatives say that since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teachings, self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates ordained as ministers or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church. There could be in the future a church split between the liberals and conservatives with in the Methodist Church. There is two options that is for the church to split into two groups or fir their to be a local opinion i.e. the decision to ordain sexually active gays and lesbians could be delegated to the individual congregations or regional conferences all over homosexuality. In 1992 the conference could agree on four points, there are 7 references to homosexuality in the bible represent ancient culture and not the will of God. They cannot be taken as definitive according to the Methodist church. Homosexuality for the liberals is a normal sexual variant, which can be healthy and whole. The present, state of Knowledge and insight in the bible, theological, ethical, biological sociological fields does not provide a basis upon which the church can responsibly maintain the condemnation of all homosexual practices.
With in the conservatives, they believe like the Catholic Church does that sexual intercourse can only occur in marriage, so which makes the relationship official, the man and woman become one and they are declaring their love for each other. It is also that in marriage there is a stable relationship, where children can be brought up properly.
As a conclusion the topic of homosexuality a difficult topic to discuss. A number of years ago when the churches did not accept the homosexual orientation area. They did not accept that the homosexuals could not be held responsible for their tendencies for the same sex. They did accept the scripture saying it was a clear damnation of homosexuality. If you apply utilitarianism to homosexuality there can be tow out comes possible, first is that the homosexuals are the minority and utilitarianism favors the majority so in this case it would be society at large, so they would the greater happiness over the pain of the homosexuals as they are in the minority. The second is if they are in the majority then society would have to accept them for how they are as their happiness is greater than the pain which society has. The churches after accepting the fact that it is orientation rather than act which occurs when homosexuality is concerned they changed their stand to include the homosexuals as if they were ill so they would require pastoral care. Thomas Aquinas is the main advocate of natural moral law, the catholic church uses this and three other things to make decisions on teachings of the church. Homosexuality was not always thought as immorally wrong, it was around the 11th to 12th century when the shift of the views ion homosexuality. It has been observed in ancient Rome where same sex marriages were allowed. To the extreme the churches will have to address the issue of homosexuality, the Methodist Church may split into two over this issue; there is greater pressure on the Catholic and Anglican Churches to look again at their scriptures and teachings to come up with a new approach to homosexuality. But eventually homosexuality may be accepted with in the churches just as others topics like women priests and bishops a couple of years ago, which nearly caused a divide in the Methodist church.
David Page 1 4/11/2007
