"THE SIN OF HONESTY"

Umm, umm, good! And I'm not talking Campbells's Soup. Benny Hazelhurst's post at Benny's Blog with the title above, which I "borrowed" for my post, is excellent.

From Benny's "About Me":

Benny is a husband, father, and a Rev in the Church of England. More controversially, he is an Evangelical Christian who beleives that homosexual relationships and partnerships should be welcomed, nurtured and blessed. He is a founder member of Accepting Evangelicals with his wife, Mel, and they beleive that God has a place for everyone in his/her Kingdom.

I see nothing controversial about Benny and Mel's views, but I'm sure not all will agree.

Benny says:

Over the last week there have been a number of Blogs pointing out the culture of secrecy that exists in the Church of England and the Anglican world over sexual orientation.
....

So the Archbishop's now famous phrase from last week's interview in the Times that "He has no problem with gay bishops' clearly needs another caveat placed alongside celibacy - the caveat that "He has no problem - as long as no-one knows!"

Ouch! Benny says further:

Is honesty the main issue then? Is it the honesty and openness of Jeffrey John that is the real cause of his awful treatment at the hands of the Church? And when is there going to be a sustained challenge to this way of doing things?

Is it the honesty of Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool that makes them and the Episcopal Church such a focus for disapproval in the Anglican Communion? If they had just kept quiet? If they had just lived a lie? If they had hidden behind a veneer of acceptability? Would everything have been ok?

The answer, of course, is a resounding "No!" If we, as Christ body here on earth are to convince people that God is real, we need to be real. If we want people to find abundant life in Christ, we need to live real lives, not carefully crafted veneers of acceptability.

Wise words, indeed. Please read Benny's post in its entirety. Benny's Blog is most certainly a blog I'll want to keep an eye on.

I am so pleased when clergy in the Church of England speak out on the matter of inclusion and equality for LGTB persons. The few voices which have been heard in the past have suffered and borne the brunt of the backlash from those who prefer an exclusive, pure church, which is not at all the example that Jesus set in the types of people he invited to be his followers, and which is a church that never existed, except in the fantasies of the purists and the exclusionists.

Go, Benny!