For whom the Bell tolls

  Premier initially offered to publish this article, but since have informed me that website issues have made this impossible. --- I’m a gay guy who loves what the Bible teaches about sex and marriage.   So began an article on  Premier a couple of weeks ago. And whilst the author and I come from rather different theological stables, I’m also proud to say exactly the same. I’m gay, I love what the Bible teaches about sex and marriage – and I profoundly disagree that biblical teaching is anti-gay.   Of course, that’s probably where Mr Bunt and I diverge. The thing is, the idea that there is one single ‘biblical view’ about anything at all, let alone sex and marriage, is fundamentally disingenuous and is ultimately an attempt to limit the superfluous and generous nature of God. That’s not the same as saying ‘anything goes’ – a cheap, but ultimately fallacious, jibe at ‘liberal’ theologies that seek to bring all into the flock of Christ. As a student of theology...

The imagery that we heard in our Gospel today must be among the most familiar  used in scripture.   It is very tempting, particularly for those of us who most commonly meet lamb on a plate rather than in the fields, to imagine today’s reading as one of agricultural harmony, a kind of pretty, and pretty twee, image of beautiful sheep ambling after a smiling shepherd, leaning on his crook, looking off into the sunset. Think Hovis advert meets the Archers. Pastoral bliss.   Yet a nyone who has ever worked on a farm will, of course,  remind us  that sheep are anything but the fluffy bundles of joy so often pictured in saccharine farmyard scenes. Sheep are hard work – they go the wrong way, they show little to no initiative, they occasionally give you a decent nip on the hand when you’re trying to get them in order.  Sheep constantly need new pasture to feed on, and to be taken care of when the wolf comes or they get trapped down a ditch. In fact, there was a Yo...