THE Church of England’s report Being Human appears to contain entirely predictable, but ultimately worthless warnings over the Church’s outdated view of sex. In reality, this focus is insignificant to young people, the vast majority of whom have been brought up in non-religious home and school environments. The mistake the Church often makes is that of perceiving that the average young person was interested in Christianity in the first place. Essentially, they were not, and therefore arguments that 21st-century society will become open to spirituality because the Church doesn’t mind them living together before marriage are totally facile. The young today are more likely to have a knowledge of Darwin than of religious doctrine.
“Sexing up” the Church, giving it some longevity, requires a complex and skilfully orchestrated campaign. I suggest a certain Mr Campbell, who may be looking for employment in due course. What’s that? The new doctrine is against spin, oh dear . . .
D. Arrowsmith (age 23), London NW1
Pop idols?
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THERE seems to be a strong relationship between the Anglican Church’s report Being Human and the Professional Association of Teachers’ complaint about the effect of pop stars’ outrageous videos and statements (news, July 30).
In the former, the Doctrine Commission pays credit to sex being a “gift of God in creation” but forgets to remind their faithful that sex was meant for creation, not self-indulgence, not abortion. It was intended to be within the confines of marriage, to provide for the nurturing of God’s gift of the creation of new life.
The teachers’ conference lamented the corruption of ten and eleven-year-old children by the example of today’s entertainers.
Not just children. Professor Sykes and his Anglican bishops have been misled into casting aside their principles to stem falling church attendance. They imitate the same pop stars in the hope that this will bring back their popularity. As for the statement that “the new strain of very long marriages . . . has proved extraordinarily challenging for the Christian Church” — on what ground do they make such a foolish statement? My wife and I, being 51 years married, find the opposite.
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David Mowat, Liverpool
Church failure
THE answer to the question is yes and no. Being Human seeks to modify important traditional doctrines about sexual relationships to pander to the lifestyle of 21st-century Western society. However, the Church is failing to meet the real needs of that society: sexual permissiveness does not lead to health or happiness. The Church’s failure, apparently compounded by this report, to preach the value of sexual self-restraint and the vital importance of marriage has contributed to our moral confusion and misery.
Alan Tonkyn, Reading
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Market research
IN MY opinion there has been too much emphasis on the teaching or “conversion” of the population, and not enough attention paid to finding out the aspirations of people and then moulding these to the teachings of Christ.
George Stoney, Winchester
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Live by the Bible
FOR everybody who aspires to be a Christian (a follower of Christ, not just a churchgoer) there is a need first to answer the question, “Is the Bible the word of God?” If the answer is affirmative, then he or she lives by the Bible.
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The troubles in the Church of England stem from trying to conform to the world (or the 21st century), contrary to Romans xii 2. It is the world that needs to conform to the Bible.
Dr Johnson F. Ajayi, AJAYI5@aol.com
In tune
IT APPEARS that the Church of England is in tune with the 21st century by not preaching against sexual sin. However, with regard to those couples living together (living in sin), perhaps they ought not to be condemned by the Church because, according to the Bible, if the relationship is consumated they are “married”. But if they then part and go on to have sexual relations with others, that is a different matter.
Ron Phippin, Enfield
Out of tune
THE Church is gratingly out of tune, but it should not try to be in tune with a society which basically ignores the reality of an Almighty, who can be known in Jesus Christ as the way, truth and life. Being relevant to society should not entail conformity in basic principles. The C of E affirmation on sexual activity should not lack the passion of certainty or clarity of doctrine. I was taught that God’s best for us was to keep sexual intercourse within marriage. As a sailor during the war and after, this was not easy. But I have never forgotten the relief one felt when coming up to university and joining the Christian Union, where one could be good friends with lots of young women and men, learn a lot about others, and have great fun without any suggestion of seduction.
Further more, from the very first, such abstinence made courting and marriage later on so very special. And it still is.
Dr Keith Sanders, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
What tune?
IT DEPENDS on what is meant by “in tune with”. If it is a question of being open to new insights and discoveries, and what their implications might be for Christian teaching, there can be no objection to this, other than on strict fundamentalist grounds. If, on the other hand, it means following all the fashionable and politically correct opinions, this should bear no relation to eternal Christian truths. In this connection it should be noted that at no point in the Gospels does Jesus mention, for example, Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs), whereas he specifically condemns fornication.
Alan Pavelin, Chislehurst, Kent
In tune with God
THE issue is not whether the Church is in tune with the 21st century but whether it is in tune with God.
Richard Bodle, richard.bodle@virgin.net
Written by men
THE Bible, Torah and Koran were all written by men for men; so we women need to know what tune the Church is now playing and is this tune God-given. Sex, money and power have all been controlled by men; could this change?
Mary Summerell, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Fruit of tears
THE very fact that the Church of England has tackled the very difficult question of sexual desire is welcome if new generations are not to abandon the Church as being out of touch. However, great care is needed if the grief and tears which are the most common fruits of sexual gratification for its own sake, are not to destroy any hope of happy and fulfilled lives. The joy of being surrounded by a loving family, especially when our brief stay on this earth is running out, beats the hell out of the initial excitement but ultimate boredom of sex for its own sake alone. There is more than one way of being out of touch with reality.
Vincent Hale, Sheffield
Sound the trumpet
THE decline of Christianity in the UK has matched the increase in liberalism and uncertainty in the Church when growing numbers of people are looking for consistent leadership. The result is the rapid loss of potential Christians to New Age, other faiths and none.
Unless the Church of England changes its ways and “sounds a certain trumpet”, its decline will accelerate and its relevance to the 21st century will diminish rapidly.
Peter Gatward, Ceredigion, Wales
Easy way out
WITH the decline in marriage and increase in cohabitation, the Doctrine Commission of my Church has followed the easy but disastrous path of going along with social change at the expense of traditional Christian teaching.
Although its chairman, Professor Stephen Sykes, acknowledges that a covenant relationship involves commitment of a man and a woman to lifelong union, he is reported to think that it could also describe an unmarried couple, when statistics show that their relationship is unlikely to last more than a few years and their children will face a bleak future compared with those of married couples.
The Rev John Brown, Middleton-on-Sea, West Sussex
Nothing new
THE practices of the 21st century are nothing new, for St Paul spells out the sexual mores and its consequences in his letters to the Romans and Corinthians among others. (The phrase “sexual immorality” occurs 18 times in the New Testament alone.) People are looking for constancy in the Church, not adjustments to its creed to the tastes of the day. The C of E has already forgotten the lessons of a few weeks ago that it is the Bible-believing churches which are thriving and whose members provide the greatest financial commitment.
Alan M. Pardoe, Malvern Wells, Worcestershire
Outdated image
HOW could a book written more than 2,000 years ago still be applicable? The idea itself has not been revised. We are told the same stories, which are not in keeping with evolution. The Church demands control over society and desires its power of old. People do not want to be controlled. They are looking increasingly where the answers lie — within. The Church continues the old way of thinking.
Through the evolution of the human being’s mind, contexts were required to comprehend the uncomprehendable. The use of a deity in our form was the best way to understand the nature of the world, the Universe and life. But the Scriptures require radical updating. Our image of God is outdated. There is an increasing realisation of an alternative school of thought. Spirituality versus religion. Spirituality internalises beliefs to bring responsibility back to individuals to raise themselves up in the way they conduct their lives, rather than control through fear of reprisals from God.
Religion needs to balance itself with our extended understandings and capabilities. We have evolved over the centuries, while the Bible and Church have stagnated, desperately clinging on to any form of power or control available.
Belief in the Church as a trustworthy institution has gone from the majority. It is seen as corrupt and in the same light as a government. Full of air and little else — people in it for themselves.
John Cutting, Attleborough, Norfolk
Timeless message
THE 21st century is not in tune with the Church, for no century has been in tune with the Church. Nor should it be. The Church’s message and morality is timeless if it is anything. If it is not, it is worthless. Truth does not change with fashion and fad. If it does, it is not the truth.
Robert McGregor, Aberdeen
Remember 1963
IT LOOKS as though the Church has just about caught up with Philip Larkin’s 1963 — which is probably the time when many of our senior churchmen were becoming aware of sex. So they are 40 years behind the rest of us. That, I suspect, is about par for the course.
Malcolm Bowden, Hartford, Cheshire