[The Church of England report on homosexuals has…]
Socialist Press1979 1979-10-24Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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The Church of England report on homosexuals has managed to offend almost everybody.
Gays must have been revolted by its patronising tone of addressing moral lepers. For the arbiters of society's morality however it was a good deal too wishy washy and liberal. The press saw the report as a dangerous breach of the Church's traditional condemnation of gays.
The Mirror summed it up by saying "Gay lib for vicars is causing a storm in the Church of England."
The press seeks to keep gays firmly boxed into a 'problem' category.
A report which recommended 'compassion" from 'normal' people is fine, but in seeking to accomodate towards a strong gay lobby within its ranks, the Church report had suggested that perhaps "abnormal' desires had some legitimacy.
The Daily Telegraph said that the Church should not be criticised for producing a report -tempting as this was.
"Our quarrel with this report rests on those confusions which apparently result from an over zealous adherence to modern fads rather than to strict theology... The report should have made clearer the distinc-