 |
| Archbishops’ Appointments Secretary Mr Stephen Knott and Major General Alastair Bruce outside St John’s Church Edinburgh. Source: The Edinburgh Reporter |
Quoting from The Independent, Church of England gay activist Jayne Ozanne claims that the majority of Anglicans believe same-sex marriage is right. Allegedly a survey commissioned by the Ozanne Foundation found that the level of overall support has risen in the past decade, from 38% believing in 2013 to 55% in 2022:
"The majority of Anglicans living in England support same-sex marriage, according to a survey. Some 55% of people said they believe in same-sex marriage, the poll found, while almost three quarters (72%) of those under 50 indicated their support. The level of overall support has risen in the past decade, from 38% believing it was right in 2013 to 48% in 2020 and 55% this year."
Not so says consultant statistician, the Rev Peter Ould. Writing in Premier Christianity he says: "The Ozanne Foundation has published a new piece of research, conducted by YouGov, that claims that support for same-sex marriage is increasing among Anglicans. But what does that actually mean, and are the Anglicans surveyed in any sense connected to the people actually worshipping in the pews of the Church of England?
"The survey claims that 55 per cent of Anglicans believe that same-sex marriage is “right” and The Times has a headline that the 'Majority of Church of England worshippers back gay marriage’. If you dig just a bit into the data however, you realise that the survey says nothing of the sort...
"This survey doesn’t tell us anything more than that non-Church attenders believe the same things as other non-Church attenders who are simply more honest about not believing what Christianity believes. The Church of England should be led by the Bible and God, not an opinion poll."
Read Peter Ould's analysis here.
Nevertheless Pink News claims that a majority of English Anglicans now back same-sex marriage, despite the Church of England’s refusal to perform or bless them while the Very Reverend Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury and chairman of the [Ozanne] foundation, said the results show the church is “manifestly out of step with what the majority” of people think.
Fake news, misrepresentation, half truths and appeals to public opinion form no basis for changing what the Church believes and has taught through the ages. That has wrecked much of Anglicanism and if left unchecked will bedevil the Catholic Church in the same way.
Ozanne propaganda worthy of putrid Putin in Moscow.
ReplyDeleteThe school of "we say it is so, therefore it is so".
If Putin is looking for fascists he's invaded the wrong country.
DeleteHe should have sent his troops on tour to England, we're drowning in Feminazis.
In statistics, you've got to ask the right people the right questions to get the right answers. And I have to say that I agree with Peter Ould, although (to be fair) the Ozanne Foundation don't say "Anglican Christians" but "respondents self-identifying as Anglican". Having said that, I would guess that there has been a shift in attitude towards same-sex marriage amongst CofE worshippers and, indeed, among British Christians in general. Better research, in the right places (i.e. churches) would be needed to determine this. I suspect too that answers will vary according to the "churchmanship" of the respondents.
ReplyDeletePerhaps not "a shift in attitude towards ... " , but those opposed have left, shifting the average. Once all your opponents have left, you are left with overwhelming support!
ReplyDeleteIndividual people will take their own view on this subject, and they're entirely entitled to do so. I'd only say that a religious community which was asserting one view as late as the 1980s and is now assering a wholly different one only forty years later in the 2020s has serious credibility issues.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, and those clergy including some Bishops who for decades had no difficulty with a different stance on the issue, of a sudden are on fire for LGBTsupport. No credibility, no validity, claiming now a greater wisdom than of the ages.
DeleteLW
It's about time the Cult in Wales introduced a "no claims bonus" scheme. 😂
Delete@ LW:
DeleteMy - rather depressing! - impression is that the Welsh Anglican hierarchy routinely drifts on the wind of whatever British secular tide is fashionable in the moment.
When I left Wales in the mid-1980s we were in the earlier days of Thatcherism, the government was contemplating legislation against the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the school curriculum and 'the Sun' was running a series of salacious 'nooky in the vicarage' stories - as many as they could uncover. To which the bishops of the time reacted with a mix of horror and terror, trying whenever and wherever they could to suppress even a whiff of possible sexual deviance, however vague and speculative.
Noow that I'm back in Wales, over thirty years later, that Thatcher era sexual morality climate within the UK has changed completely - it's become history. And once again the bishops appear to drift along in the wake of secular fashion. Of prophecy and leadership there's no sign. But I don't think that there really was back then, either. 'Dedicated followers of fashion', as that song had it!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60667533
ReplyDeleteSturgeon busy virtue signalling once more.