Archbishop of Armagh says biology should determine gay row: CEN 7.11.08 p 8. July 10, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.trackback
Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.
Biology, not Scripture, should determine what constitutes moral behavior, the Archbishop of Armagh said in a speech to the USPG last week.
If homosexuality were shown to be biologically predetermined it “will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth,” Dr. Alan Harper said on July 3 to the Anglicans in World Mission conference held at Swanwick.
“Rulings that may have applied and been deemed valid at one time and in one specific circumstance need not necessarily retain that applicability and validity at another,” Dr. Harper said, suggesting that a rethink of the church’s teachings on homosexuality was in order.
The debate over the morality of homosexual acts had become “deeply visceral and that the quality of debate has suffered as a result,” he argued. Citing the reasoning set forth in Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Dr. Harper argued it was inappropriate on the basis of Romans 1.18-17″ to “to judge or anathematize persons on the basis of sexual orientation.”
“It will be necessary to scrutinize other sections of scripture in a similar way to discover whether elsewhere there may be established evidence of the Law of God in this matter,” he argued, noting the topic should not be considered closed.
The Irish church leader said that while “it has not yet been conclusively shown that for some males and some females homosexuality and homosexual acts are natural rather than unnatural. If such comes to be shown, it will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth, and that insight applied to establish and acknowledge what may be a new status for homosexual relationships within the life of the Church.”
A spokesman for the Church of Ireland on July 7 said Dr. Harper’s address called for a “mature discussion of the issue of homosexuality that draws upon both scripture and the results of scientific research using the application of traditional Anglican methods.” Dr. Harper was not calling “for a particular outcome” nor was his address drawing parallels “between same sex relationships and marriage.”
There appears to be little prospect of science providing conclusive proof for a genetic basis of homosexuality, however, as the world’s largest study of twins and homosexuality has contradicted assertions that homosexuality is innate.
Writing in the scientific journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm report that genetics and environmental factors are important determinants of homosexual behaviour.
Co-author Dr Qazi Rahman stated the study “puts cold water on any concerns that we are looking for a single ‘gay gene’ or a single environmental variable which could be used to ‘select out’ homosexuality – the factors which influence sexual orientation are complex. And we are not simply talking about homosexuality here – heterosexual behaviour is also influenced by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors.”
The study of 3826 identical and same-gender fraternal twins in Sweden aged 20-47 indicated that approximately 35 percent of differences in male sexual behavior are genetically driven and 65 percent by environmental factors. Among women, genetics account for 18 percent of differences and environment 82 percent.
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