Same-Sex Blessings and Racism

A Thought Experiment ad absurdum

Progressives often cannot understand why conservatives continue to oppose same-sex blessings and/or marriage within the Church. This is because, they assert, that the conservative does not “have to” join the same-sex affirmers in the prayers/blessings. No one’s forcing them to say or do anything they don't want to; they’re free to ignore the prayers and continue to believe what they believe. Why all the fuss? Why is sexuality such a big deal?

After all, they say, these blessings don't affect them personally. Why are conservatives so interested in the love lives and sex lives of others anyway? Why can't they leave these other people alone to love God and grow in faith in their own way with love and dignity? The Church of England is a "big tent", after all, with lots of diversity in all sorts of colourful and varied perspectives. And are we not called "to agree with each other in the Lord"? (Phil. 4:2).

It is usually assumed that the primary reason the conservative continues to oppose same-sex blessings in spite of its direct irrelevance to their own life must be because the conservative is either ignorant of the very basic fact that there are people who think differently to them within the Church, or that they refuse to accept people who think differently to them within the Church.

The Experiment…

Now let's imagine that in ten years' time there is a substantial shift in public opinion on some key issues relating to human identity within western culture. Let's say that after a few years campaigning and raising awareness here and there, there emerges a growing and increasingly well-supported group of people within the Church of England who profess to be orthodox Christians in every respect but simply happen to hold some openly racist views.