Bishop 'urges gays to repent and be changed'
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Independent Minds
A Church of England bishop urged homosexuals to "repent and be changed", it was reported today.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said people who stray from traditional Bible teachings "do not share the same faith".
Dr Nazir-Ali spoke after more than half a million people, including the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown, took to the streets of London yesterday to celebrate gay culture at the annual Pride festival.
His controversial comments also come ahead of the launch in the UK and Ireland of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a coalition of conservative parishes from around the world.
The evangelical group, which campaigns against active homosexuality in the Anglican communion, counts Dr Nazir-Ali among its supporters.
The bishop, who is stepping down from his post in September, told the newspaper: "We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
"People who depart from this don't share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
"The Bible's teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
"We welcome homosexuals, we don't want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed."
He added: "We want to hold on to the traditional teaching of the Church. We don't want to be rolled over by culture and trends in the Church. We want a movement for renewal. We need a reformation of the Church and the life of the Communion."
Derek Munn, director of public affairs for gay rights group Stonewall, criticised Dr Nazir-Ali's comments.
He told the paper: "It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance.
"Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf."
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Comments
Immorality is about how you treat others, with fat cat greed and selfishness high up the list. Good Old Dr. Nazir indeed.
I agree - It's all homosexuality in the media, day-in, day-out.
Its an illness, which is sad, but its the act of homosexual sex that's the sin.
When the embryo is developing, physical gender assignment occurs. But along side the physical assignment, is the preparation of parts of the brain that relate to future sexual activation. When there is this mis-alignment between the physical attributes and the processing of sexual orientation, this is where it all goes wrong.
Correctable or not, using drugs or any other alternatives, I dont know.
www.millarcrime.com
Yet again we see the strange link between illiteracy and bigotry ...
Stop protecting known abusers. Then maybe people will be more inclined to listen to you.
Actions speak louder than words.
I hope Will Self is reading because he also wrote a Bible, he'll be able to open a church to Dave soon.
'To thick for Science ? Try religion'
People like this sicken me. Especially the religious ones. Almost on a daily basis we see some priestly pervert jailed for sexually abusing children - AND HE DARES TO LECTURE THE GAY COMMUNITY!!!!!! He should keep his bigoted mouth SHUT and keep to serving cucumber sandwiches at rectory tea parties.
It rubbish like this that hurts real people - and for what? Some imaginary friend. Sickening.
With the recent news of 100,000 new swine flu cases a day in the UK predicted by the end of August, these are uncertain times we live in.
A simple message of the Christian faith for all those who feel like turning to God in prayer at this time of uncertainty............
We are reminded yet again of mankind's limitations and the reality of our human frailty, of many people's 'arrogance' and belief in self, perhaps placing their trust in, man's limited knowledge, material possessions, money, science etc and the many false prophets and idols of this world and this age. Which I believe will be shown for their emptiness and false hope over the coming weeks and months.
It is time for people to humble themselves and repent and turn to the Lord Jesus in prayer...Remembering God's promise 'To Fear not, for the Lord your God is with you'. All those who have built their lives on the rock of Jesus will still be standing when the storm has abated. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no man/ woman will come to the Father except through Him. Jesus is the door to eternal life. Knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find, ask and you will be answered. Even those who die in this life have the complete assurance of eternal life.
Nothing will separate us from the love of God; not even death. Give your life to the living Lord Jesus today and be saved. His salvation which brings peace, hope, joy, calmness, inner strength, unconditional love and blessed assurance, is there for everyone who turns to Him. He paid the price on the cross for our salvation and it is by His GRACE we are saved, we can share in His resurrection life and be born again, by the power and love of His Holy Spirit. Amen
So if they can't; what do we do? As a Christian (not of the intolerant denomination) I do not believe that God wants us to hate homosexuals. The Bible itself says: "God loves us all". If he had qualms with homosexuals or other persecuted groups, he would not have created (if you believe in creation) them in the first place. So it is wrong of anyone to proclaim the hatred of homosexuals, or any other person for that matter, in the name of God.
I don't know what God Dr. Nazir-Ali serves, but I serve that God that created us all equal and that loves us all in spite of our imperfections. Besides, is this not one of the reasons -bigotry- why we have qualms with the Talibans interpretation of Islam?
Go and read a book... a real one.
Amen.
"hold[ing] on to the traditional teaching of the Church." means bullying and tormenting anyone who doesn't bow their knee to these clown-suited fairy tale merchants of nastiness.
Reform the church, stop the lies, admit there is no god and the Bible is a stream of archaic nonsense. Honesty is better than godliness any day.