Gays in the Anglican Church: American White Liberals vs. the Third World

From the BBC, the story of how the Anglican Church in Nigeria has been in forefront of opposing the ordination of homosexual bishops in the worldwide fellowship.

Nigeria bishops scorn US “cancer”

Nigeria’s Anglican Church says the US branch of the church is “a cancerous lump” that should be “excised”.

Nigerian bishops were responding to a proposal from the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams last week.

He had suggested the introduction of a two-tier system of church membership to avoid complete disintegration over the issue of homosexuality.

The US branch, known as the Episcopal Church, outraged conservatives by consecrating gay Bishop Gene Robinson.

There have also been disagreements surrounding church blessings for same-sex couples.

Dr Williams urged both sides to heed the need for change, arguing that: “Neither the liberal nor the conservative can simply appeal to a historic identity that doesn’t correspond with where we now are.”

“Too accommodating”

In their statement, posted on two websites, the Nigerian bishops commend Dr Williams’ idea as “brilliant as the heartbeat of a leader who wants to preserve the unity of the Church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how unbiblical”.

But they dispute whether the challenge is really to “fashion out a novel establishment that is elastic enough to accommodate all the extremes of the referred modes of expression of the same faith”.

“A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure,” they say.

“To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient.”

Of course, the leftist clerics in places like the Episcopal Church think of themselves as advocates of the Third World.

They see the people in places like Nigeria as victims of the capitalist imperialism of the advanced industrial nations.

But in reality, the clerics are merely trendy First World elitists who are miles removed from the Christian faith of those in the Global South. Their claimed empathy for “people of color” in places like Africa is merely a form of moral masturbation.