The Protestant churches are becoming more anti gay but hoping to conceal it by silence . It won’t work

Late intro . Gladys is an broadminded and sympathetic commentator on church affairs often concentrating on reconciliation and other pastoral efforts which she regularly  shares with Slugger. There are other sides to church affairs. Alf McCreary has contributed a column of church news for the Belfast Telegraph for many years which by and large has taken the orthodox view of the place of Christianity and the  churches  in Northern Ireland without entirely ducking  the many controversies within them. In the Irish Times Alf has just written a critical opinion piece on the state of the long lasting controversy about gender equality that has been wracking the Protestant churches ever since the first appointment of woman ministers.  They don’t seem to be worried that it is now leaving the churches more isolated from the trend of opinion north and south – or perhaps in the case of the Presbyterians, they are more worried beneath the surface, judging  from their adamantine refusal to explain the dismissal of faithful followers who take a different view of sexuality.

.. the church is battling with another set of troubles – namely the concern of rank-and-file Presbyterians who are dismayed by its evidently increasing conservatism, and the perception that it is heavy-handed in dealing with same-sex issues.

This has been a sore point in the church for several years, but matters came to a head when its general assembly voted in June 2018 to exclude same-sex couples from taking Communion, and also approved a move not to baptise children from a same-sex relationship.

The rupture with the more liberal Church of Scotland and Alliance party former leaders and the treatment of  church faithful  who are either gay or hold liberal opinions is justified  by appeals to fundamentalist  reading of bits of the Bible

At this time of writing, the church has kept a stony silence on the issue, a position described as “astonishing “ by Belfast letter-writer Paula Curran to the local Telegraph.

Very few northern Presbyterian liberals are brave enough to speak out publicly, but everyone is watching for the outcome of this struggle for the soul of the church.

Meanwhile the parting words of outgoing moderator Dr Charles McMullan hang heavily over the current controversies. He said in June: “In a rapidly changing and secularising Ireland, we need to speak the truth in love and not be perceived to be closing the door to those who would see our churches as a cold place when we know that not to be the case.”

Most people in Ireland might decide for themselves, however, that a thawing of Presbyterianism from its perceived cold perspective is not likely to come any time soon.

At the same time the media have been covering the controversy  within the Church of Ireland over the appointment of David McClay as the new bishop of Down and Dromore. He is a member of Gafcon, a powerful conservative movement dedicated to opposing the appointment of women and gay clergy on alleged scriptural grounds. Although they disavow it, they are a potential breakaway group from the world wide Anglican communion and do not regard recognition of the co-ordinating role of the frantically conciliatory Archbishop of Canterbury as the necessary condition of Anglicanism. This correspondence illustrates how far gone is the split within Anglicanism without breaking it apart altogether.

The world of Anglicanism seems to divide between the more liberal and more affluent white Commonwealth and  US  – although divisions there are rife enough –   and the new Commonwealth in Africa and Asia  where homophobia is strong and Christianity is facing not only strong competition but  persecution and murder from fanatical adherents of other faiths like  militant Islam.

In Ireland it’s noteworthy that the liberal voice is louder in the south where the  Protestant churches are of course much smaller, than the north. There has been no mistaking the backward conservative trend since the late 1970s after a brief if still contested liberal flowering in response to Vatican 2. The argument such as it is, is a dialogue of the deaf and has been is eroding the churches’ old position in society for years.  They will not regain it if they continue to behave like bigoted cults.  It must have a negative effect on  church reconciliation efforts between even nominal Protestant and Catholics. For most of the young, the principle of gender choice is a settled argument.