The Independent reports on the many organisations and people condemning Bishop Nazir-Ali of Rochester for his comments suggesting that all gay people should repent.
Labour MEP Michael Cashman accused the Bishop of Rochester of being “selective” about which parts of the Bible he upheld. “When he calls for the closure of all the banks, finance houses and credit card companies because of what it says in the Bible about usury, then I’ll take him seriously,” he said. “Until then, unless he can say anything good, he should shut up.”
In his comments, made to a Sunday newspaper, the bishop said homosexuals should be welcomed into the Church but that a person’s sexual nature could only be correctly expressed in a heterosexual union within marriage. His remarks reopened the row over homosexuality that has for years threatened to tear the Anglican Church apart.
Buckingham Palace have played down a statement from The Queen sent to the Bishop’s organisation representing it merely as an acknowledgement rather than a statement of support.
