YP Letters - 'Out Of The Box' Thinking.

From: Beryl Williams, School Hill, Wakefield.

THE recent comments of Archbishop Sentamu, who would exclude gay marriage from the Church (and fair cop, Your Grace, because nowhere in the Holy Bible is homosexuality mentioned other than as a mortal sin and an abomination such as to incur the dreaded wrath of God), are not so much wrong as awaiting further clarification.
For now that he has finally informed us that marriage is a Holy Sacrament instituted by and entirely within the remit of the Church for the sole purpose of sanctifying the union of couples of opposite gender, then surely by the same token, likewise neither should heterosexuals who have their relationships rubber-stamped by the State, have ever been allowed by the Church to be considered “married” couples, but rather parties to civil partnership along with their homosexual brethren.
On this basis, therefore, and conceding that the Archbishop is correct and has a point superbly validated by the Holy Bible, the Church would have done much better to exclude heterosexual civil partners from marital status, and clarified its position on the matter then, instead of waiting for homosexuals to claim such status in Church before starting to predicate about what the Holy Sacrament of marriage is supposed to be about.
Had it done so, homosexuals would now be receiving the equal treatment and respect that they deserve, and a hullabaloo that has nothing to do with the message of Christ whatsoever need never have arisen.
In other words, it is the Church that allowed this confusion to arise in the first place. Like they say: use it or lose it, and the same goes for the sanctity of holy matrimony.
The Church lost its monopoly on marriage long ago, and did so without batting an eye.