Faith and Love
When you start up a jolly blog like this one, it can be hard to post when life doesn’t seem so jolly after all. Misssives readers come over here for the daft stories, but occasionally I need to get serious. Indulge me.
This week I have been thinking a lot about church. And why I don’t go anymore. My reasons can quickly be summed up in news I heard this week. In Aberdeen, a minister applied for a position in a city church. He is a gay man with a cohabiting partner. He was previously, a few years ago, a married man. He finally admitted to himself and his wife that he was a homosexual, and they divorced. I do not know how amicable this divorce was, but it is an upsetting story all the same, involving the sad breakup of a family. The man had led a lie of a life and had hurt many people in the process. Presumably he felt that he had to lie to himself and others to fulfil his calling as a Church of Scotland minister but of course, only he really knows why. It’s not exactly in the league of lying about your word per minute typing speed on your CV, is it? It involves considerably more cover up effort. It is tragic that he had to cover up this fundamental part of his make-up and cause such a great deal of pain.
All I know is that after all this he is still a minister in the Church of Scotland, he has rebuilt his life and he is widely regarded at good at his job and people seem to value him, including the members of the church he applied to lead, who overwhelmingly agreed to approve his application. Minister happy, congregation happy. Everybody happy? It would seem not.
In the wake of the announcement of his acceptance of the post as minister for the church in question, twelve other city and shire ministers wrote a letter of condemnation of this gay, cohabiting man being able to take up such a post. This letter has been sent to the Church of Scotland headquarters who are currently looking into it. One of the ministers who signed this letter is a man me and my husband know personally. We have mutual gay friends, and many other friends who have cohabited without being married, most of whom have not wanted to become ministers, so have not had to face this career stumbling block. We were appalled to find out that his name was on the bottom of this letter.
Here’s why I don’t go to church anymore:
1. The Church will not accept the validity of common law marriage.
2. The Church still condemns sexual relations outside of marriage.
3. The Church still regards homosexuality as a sin, despite it not appearing as one of the Ten Commandments.
4. The church seems to think that a man or woman in a same sex relationship, or cohabiting outwith wedlock is unfit to lead a congregation despite any skills, commitment, and strength of faith they may have.
I don’t accept their views on these matters, and until they change I will not be sitting in any church pews. I used to feel guilty about not going to church anymore. Now I don’t want any part of it. Our views are at odds.
And don’t even get me started on what’s going on at Amazon.
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