I am same-sex attracted, committed to celibacy: please hear my voice
This article is written by a conservative evangelical committed to Biblical truth on issues of sexuality. Written in the context of the Church of England’s ‘Living in Love and Faith’ debate, it addresses issues pertinent for evangelicals in all denominations. The article is reproduced with permission, but anonymously.
I have found myself wanting to set out some thoughts from the perspective of one who experiences same-sex attraction, and who is and has always been committed to the Biblical view of sex and marriage. What I write here is personal, in the sense that I’m not claiming to represent anybody else or any group. It is perhaps not very theological, and is addressed primarily to those in the church who share my conservative evangelical position, and to encourage further reflection and prayer.
Josep Rossello: what’s next?
Nicola Laver interviews the South American bishop who came to the UK on a mission which has unfolded in unexpected ways
An exodus of evangelicals from the Free Church of England (FCE) continues against the backdrop of serious fraud allegations and a culture of secrecy against its senior leadership. Both the police and the charity regulator are investigating a range of allegations against Bishop Primus John Fenwick, who is resisting calls to resign.
Sexual temptation
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
Dear Editor,
Sadly, Dr Curl’s response (August en) to my letter (June en) reveals a common mistake.
GAFCON in sexual civil war
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
The Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Henry
Ndukuba, has released without warning a
statement accusing the Anglican Church in
North America (ACNA), another GAFCON
province, of departing from the authority of
Scripture.
‘The deadly ‘virus’ of homosexuality has
infiltrated the ACNA’ he alleged, and this
had
‘serious
implications’
for Archbishop
Foley Beach’s leadership of GAFCON (the
Global Anglican Future Conference, made
up of orthodox believers unhappy with
Anglicanism’s liberal sexual trajectory).
Children’s books
Date posted: 1 Jun 2021
Dear Editor,
In the May issue of en your correspondent Neil McKenzie asks about suitable books for his grandchildren. In the 1980s I was asked to tackle this very question by the Librarians’ Christian Fellowship, as it was then called. My findings, still available online, are now very out-of-date but the general principles still apply.
Trump and Biden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Dear Editor,
Martyn Whittock may be concerned at the
cocktail evangelicals drink when they vote for
Trump, but he fails to assess the ingredients
of the only other cocktail on offer: voting
for Biden.
Free Church of England row over Bishop
EN
Date posted: 1 May 2021
The Free Church of England (FCE) – a
‘Reformed and Protestant’ body set up by
disillusioned Anglicans
in
the mid-19th
century – is facing turmoil amid calls for its
Primus, John Fenwick, to quit.
A letter calling for him to step down has
been signed by half of the UK’s active FCE
clergy, including former Church of England
ministers Peter Sanlon and Steven Hanna. It
says decisions made by Bishop Fenwick are
‘endangering the peace and future flourishing’
of the denomination.
John Stott: Abrahamic and apostolic?
Chris Wright
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Chris Wright suggests the scale and scope of Stott’s ministry were epic
‘I am a great believer,’ John Stott would often say, ‘in the importance of B.B.C. Not the British Broadcasting Company, nor Bethelehem Bible College, nor even Beautiful British Columbia. But “Balanced Biblical Christianity”.’ In my own assessment of John’s life and ministry I suggest a Biblical balance of Old and New Testaments by saying that the scale and scope of John Stott’s significance within the global church has been both Abrahamic and apostolic.
The good Trump did
Date posted: 1 Mar 2021
Dear Editor,
Re ‘Donald Trump’s legacy’, February the Christian’s test of a government
Not so black and white?
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Dear Editor,
The letter about black and white pastors was very interesting, but I believe that the wrong conclusion has been reached. I have attended churches occasionally that have black congregations and enjoy the freedom of spirit I have found there. The same is true of churches in Colombia, South America.
Jim Packer – a personal memoir: from Puritanism to Winnie-the-Pooh
Tony Baker
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Tony Baker reflects on several decades of friendship with J.I. Packer
The first time I heard Dr Jim Packer must have been at midweek talks he gave to the CU in Oxford (OICCU) in the 1950s.
Authentic Anglicanism and false fears
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Feb 2020
Nearly four years ago, Chancellor George Osborne claimed that the UK’s exit from the European Union would be ‘a shock to the world economy’. Thus began what became known as ‘Project Fear’, but with Brexit imminent there is no sign of financial panic nor of the other dire consequences foretold.
This is not to say that Remain had a monopoly of misleading claims, but it is a reminder of how politically-driven communication can stretch facts and evidence. Sadly, the Anglican Communion is not exempt. It has its own ‘Project Fear’.
Christmas and literature
Felicity Carswell
Date posted: 1 Dec 2019
Felicity Carswell highlights the great opportunity that Christmas brings to put good material into the hands of our non-Christian friends
I love Christmas – the tunes, the smells, the tastes, even the cold weather that brings with it cosy evenings by the fire.
Increase in use of puberty blockers to be investigated
The Times / en staff
Date posted: 1 Sep 2019
Paediatricians are to investigate the controversial drugs used to halt puberty in children who want to change sex, it was reported in late July.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health asked its ethics and law advisory committee to look at the ethics surrounding the rapid increase in the use of hormone blockers to treat under 16s. The drugs are currently only licensed for use in children under this age who start puberty early, before the age of nine, not for children who present as having ‘gender dysphoria’.
USA: eugenics targets African-Americans
Christianheadlines.com
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
Dr Martin Luther King’s niece stated in January, on Martin Luther King day, that Planned Parenthood (PP), the US abortion provider, targets African-Americans.
Dr Alveda King, the Director of Civil Rights for the Unborn said: ‘The leading cause of death in the African-American community is not gang violence … it’s abortion. [With] 60 million-plus abortions legal in America since 1973 [and] about a third of those in the African-American community [who make up] 13% or less of America’s population, that means we are having more abortions.’
Day of Prayer
Lee Emerson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2019
Dear en,
I was encouraged to read in the November
edition about the ‘Day of Prayer for Britain:
Brexit, Unity and Reformation’…until
I
came
to
the concluding
remarks:
‘Brexit
was likened to the Children of Israel leaving
Egypt. Moses persisted. It was God who
hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Finally, everyone
was set free.’
Letter from America
Wars and rumours of wars
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
Many of us would suppose that we live in unusually disturbed times.
A leading relief organisation in America estimates that they are dealing with, on average, far more serious crises in the early part of this century than in previous decades. There appears to be a growing flame of upsets, civil wars, brutality – and downright barbarism. Not to mention North Korea: what on earth is the world going to do about that most unstable situation?
Letter from America
Fear & loathing in Las Vegas
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Nov 2017
When there is an event like the recent shooting in Las Vegas, a national conversation begins.
It takes fairly predictable lines and moves along standard patterns. The anti-gun lobby comes out in force, as does the pro-gun lobby, and the majority of people mourn and scratch their heads in wonderment that anything so awful could be perpetrated by a human being. Such socio-cultural events seem to have increased in frequency in recent years – whether they are events of violence, race, sexuality and gender, or scandals of one kind or another. And the church is increasingly being asked by a secular society to provide moral leadership with regard to these various ‘cultural issues.’
Letter from America
The Sovereign Plan or the plans of mice and men?
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Oct 2017
Perhaps the most frequent question I have received as a pastor in America over the last year or so is a version of ‘What on earth is going on?’
It is not hard to understand why variations along the lines of that kind of question are being asked by people today. We have clear indications of cultural change all around us, as well as a grievous lack of decorum and even basic civility in cultural battles. We have a multi-polar global scene with nations jostling for influence and power culminating in various wars or regional conflicts. We have terrorism continuing to spread its blight of vicious evil on the unwary. We have political populism that has thrown up global leaders who have caught many people by surprise.
Letter from America
Trumped
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
I am a ‘legal alien’, I carry a Green Card and all our children have been born here, but I cannot vote in America.
With that in mind and also being a pastor, it is inimical, unwise, and probably unedifying for me to talk about party politics.
Brexit pursued by a bear?
The House of Commons became a bear pit.
The Prime Minister’s proroguing of Parliament was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court at the end of September. Mayhem ensued as MPs were recalled. Boris Johnson wants a General Election. The opposition parties do not want one until a no-deal separation from the European Union is avoided. But it was the incandescent rage and abuse voiced by both sides in the chamber which caused alarm. The country is already divided and such staggering levels of unbridled fury can only make things worse – as this winter’s tale of bruising politics unfolds.