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Did you hear Canada's new pet name: "The World's Gay Friend." - Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show," 22 May 2007? I mention this as a comment on just just how far we have "progressed" in the matter of the acceptance of gay unions. The rest of the world now knows us for something other than peacekeeping, the mounties and Canada Dry. I suppose we couldn't possibly have got it wrong, which would imply that all other 216 nations who have not embraced gay unions may just have a better handle on the basic guidelines for a stable society, something figured out a long time ago in the mid-east and written up in the Bible. One problem with our leadership role is that others, even in Africa, are following. Full circle. We in the West brought them the gospel, and now we are rewriting it, and some of them are listening. This issue needs to return to basics: the shape of our bodies and the way God intended them to be used for reproduction. That's why the Bible says what it says. The basic message is - don't distort my perfect design to satisfy your lusts after every kind of illicit pleasure. I don't think the battle can be won in time for General Synod next month on the basis of biblical interpretation. It could conceivably be won based on appreciation of the fundamentals of divine design of the human body, which predates and is the raison d'etre for the well-known statements in the Bible. These issues transcend religious teachings; they are universal.
Tony Copple
Same-sex blessings |