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REC Presiding Bishop Condemns Critical Race Theory, Homosexuality
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
June 16, 2021
The Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church condemned Critical Race Theory and homosexuality in an address to his church's General Council.
The Most Rev. Ray Sutton denounced the introduction of Critical Race Theory within the life of the Anglican Church. Speaking at the 56th General Council of the REC recently, Bishop Sutton said that while Critical Race Theory may at some points offer useful information, they are not necessarily Biblical nor Christian in their premises, principles, and practices. They can even at times become explicitly anti-Christian, displaying another kind of religious prejudice. And since they are only theories, they can offer misinformation or exclude key information. Moreover, these secular racial theories in the hands of some biased researchers unfortunately succumb to atheistic totalitarian, Marxist ideologies.
"Although not everyone is a racist...[or] that all police are racist, Christians must speak the truth in love and peace with the standard of the Word of God. This calls for the application of a Biblical world view to provide not only the Scriptural understanding of race, but to avoid being conformed to the world by secular racial theories. Christians therefore must be extremely careful not to rely on secular theories and worldviews regarding any subject such as race and racism."
The bishop also spoke to the recent controversy over "gay Christian" terminology, observing this was a flawed approach to Christian anthropology and ecclesiology.
Sutton upheld the ACNA College of Bishops statement, Sexuality and Identity: A Pastoral Statement from the College of Bishops, "concluding that sexually hyphenated designations of Christians struggling with same-sex attraction is neither Biblical, historical, nor pastoral. The statement also reassured these misguided believers of our commitment to love, help and care for those Christians wrestling with this disorder."
"Although some Christians have always in the history of the church dealt with same-sex attraction in the context of homosexual disorder, Scripture nowhere speaks of same-sex attraction as a Biblically sanctioned category. James does refer in his epistle to, "lust conceived as giving birth to sin" (James 1:15). No doubt temptation is not sin. However, James is not suggesting that sin is only in the action, the birthing of it. He's doing the opposite. He uses conception and birth language to explain how the two are one."
Sutton said the apostle Paul expressed limits imposed by prior relationship in terms of only two possible relational attractions for Christians, singleness bound to the Lord in celibacy, and Biblical marriage to a spouse (1 Corinthians 7:24- 40).
"For the apostle, there are only two Biblical attractions, the singular attraction to the Lord, and the exclusive attraction to one's spouse. There is no suggestion anywhere in the Scriptures that there's a third category of same-sex attraction. Without any clear Biblical evidence for using sexual hyphenations in the church with reference to those of the same gender, therefore, such designations should not be used to categorize Christians."
Biblical friendship is permissible and commendable, but Scripture does not hyphenate Scriptural friendships with sexual word, concluded Sutton.
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