December 23, 1996 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The pro-homosexual movement within the Church of England is growing and wielding increasing influence within that denomination.

On November 16, 1996, more than two thousand supporters of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) held a 20th anniversary celebration in London's prestigious Southwark Cathedral. The final service in the day-long event required a spill-over into a nearby hall. For 20 years this organization has pressed for the recognition of homosexuality as a natural condition which should not be condemned as immoral. One of its priorities is to press for the ordination of openly practicing homosexuals.

Though many Anglicans publicly opposed the event, several Church of England bishops gave support by their presence at the service.

The Presbyterian Church USA News (Nov. 20, 1996), reported that a blue banner over one of the stands at the festival declared: "Jesus Christ, he is the way -- we believe it, and we are gay."

According to Church Net UK, Anglican Bishop John Gladwin spoke at this anniversary, declaring "that the nature of human sexuality was a gift from God." He said that "society was self-deceived and deluded when it came to matters of sex, and what was required was a bit of honesty."

Retired U.S. Episcopalian Bishop Walter Righter was one of the speakers at the conference. Earlier this year Righter was cleared of charges of heresy for ordaining a "practicing homosexual." (We published an article at that time entitled "No Heresy in the Episcopal Church.") In London at the LGCM anniversary, Righter told the crowd, ""You are the prophets, you are calling the church to account. Keep the heat on." He said: "God made you the way you are and the Church has to recognise that. It takes an institution a long time." According to Church Net UK, Righter said that "this was time of shifting paradigms, and that there was no ethic for many of the new situations created by twentieth century society." He suggested that "a different paradigm might be relevant for gay than for straight relationships." He is wrong, of course. The Word of God is just as applicable to man's condition today as it was 2,000 years ago. Man's technology has changed, but his nature and his spiritual and moral condition have not. He needs the same salvation that he needed 2,000 years ago, and he needs the same Word of God that he needed 2,000 years ago. The fact that we are living in the computer age does not change the fact that sin is still sin, and sin is defined by the Holy Scriptures, not by society's shifting values.

Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who claims to be an "evangelical," denied that by permitting the service in Southwark the Church of England was endorsing gay rights. That position is indefensible biblically and misses the real issue. For a "church" to allow heresy and sin to go undisciplined is disobedience to the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 5:13 we have God's instructions to the churches in regard to dealing with unrepentant sinners. They are commanded to "put away from among yourselves that wicked person" (1 Cor. 5:13). Someone might protest, "But who are you to judge another person?" The answer is that it is not man who judges an unrepentant sinner. It is God Himself who does the judging, and He has already judged. He has judged that such be put out of the church until he repents and seeks restoration. The church simply obeys God and deals with the unrepentant member according to God's instructions.

To oppose the homosexual agenda, a coalition of "evangelical and traditionalist" members of the Church of England organized periods of fasting and prayer in 50 parishes across Britain.

The Bible teaches that homosexual acts are unnatural, immoral, and abominable before God. Homosexuality is not a natural condition. It is a product of man's sinful nature. Homosexuality is a sin, but it is not an unforgivable sin. Homosexuals can be forgiven and cleansed by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God through the power of the new birth any sinner -- whether he be an adulterer or a drunkard or a homosexual or an idolater or a thief or a murderer -- can be saved and can become a new creation in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ does not free men to sin; He frees men to be delivered from sin.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).