Tutu on Church Priorities

"Our world is facing problems – poverty, HIV and Aids – a devastating pandemic, and conflict," said Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu, 76.

"God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another.

"In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."
[…]
Archbishop Tutu referred to the debate about whether Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, could serve as the bishop of New Hampshire.

He said the Anglican Church had seemed "extraordinarily homophobic" in its handling of the issue, and that he had felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at the time.

Asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes.

"If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."

["Tutu chides Church for gay stance", BBC news, 18 November 2007.]

Posted on November 21, 2007 at 00.31 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Common-Place Book

3 Responses

Subscribe to comments via RSS

  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 21 November 2007 at 02.21
    Permalink

    More indication of what a bright, openminded and goodhearted man Tutu is.

    All these people of faith, supposedly, who are so ready to render harsh judgments make me wonder why they're so unwilling to leave it to God.

    Re: Robinson in N.H. Why can't those opposed to him being bishop take the position that if God finds Robinson's sexual orientation a problem, God will in his own time and way make that known. Seems to me that would be acting on faith in God, as opposed to presuming to speak for God.

  2. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Friday, 23 November 2007 at 06.22
    Permalink

    S.W. writes:
    )God will in his own time and way make that known(

    Sounds reasonable in this case, but if applied as a general principle it turns into Imshala (sp?), the Muslim notion that everything is the will of God. From what I've seen, this weakens one's realization of cause and effect.

    Tutu:
    )"If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."(

    What's this? A shot across the bow? )That's right, God. Any whiff of homophobia, and you're history. So behave.(

    The Church concerns itself with family life, raising of children, nurturing motherhood, etc. Homosexuality is seen as a threat to this. A homosexual leader in the church is discomfiting to many.

  3. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Friday, 23 November 2007 at 19.23
    Permalink

    I think Tutu's statement is his way of saying he doesn't believe God puts a sexual-orientation test on which of his children he loves.

    What you cite as Imshala might owe its origin to the Greek stoics, who, having multiple gods, generalized that mode of thought.

Subscribe to comments via RSS

Leave a Reply

To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.

I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.