Gscene Magazine Gscene - January 2014 | Page 52

52 GSCENE KEITH SHARPE MY RESOLUTION DR KEITH SHARPE, CHANGING ATTITUDE SUSSEX, DENOUNCES RELIGIOUS HOMOPHOBIA Here we go again: 'homosexuals represent a danger to our kids' is the real translation of this nasty claim. ‘Stonewall will teach heterosexual children to be gay’. It's spurious and nonsensical of course but obviously it shows no concern whatsoever for the homosexual children growing up in our schools, or indeed for the children who bully because of their ignorance of sexual diversity. Ignorance which is of course shared by the advocates of Anglican Mainstream. COUNTERING RELIGIOUS HOMOPHOBIA 4. Anti-Jesus Stonewall Jesus was very clear about sexual morality: he was against all forms of sex outside heterosexual marriage, and that included homosexuality. Stonewall’s raison d’etre is to promote same-sex sexual relationships and lifestyles. How can a church which claims to obey Jesus partner with Stonewall? One of my New Year resolutions this year is to name and denounce homophobia wherever I encounter it. I think sometimes in the past I have been too willing to accept the good faith of religious people opposing gay rights when really they are motivated by homophobia. 2014 as the year of the first gay marriages seems a good time to start. This is simply not true. As I have shown many times in this column, and in the book, The Gay Gospels, Jesus did not condemn homosexuality. Anglican Mainstream rely on a distorted interpretation of the Gospels to justify their bigoted and prejudiced views. Jesus would surely have shown compassion for the victims of homophobic bullying. And a hardline anti-gay organisation called Anglican Mainstream is a good place to start. This set-up purports to be the 'conscience' of our national church but actually regularly churns out homophobic attacks on the rights of t HЕ