Gay Humanists concerned at New Primate’s Support for Homophobic Course

KENILWORTH, 25 JULY 2002 — The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has expressed concern that the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a supporter of the evangelical Christian Alpha course which is intrinsically homophobic.

Alpha’s pioneer and principal promoter, the Reverend Nicky Gumbel, has publicly condemned gay sexual practices and claimed that gays can be healed. “The Bible makes it very clear that sex outside marriage, including homosexual sex, is, unfortunately, a sin”, Gumbel has said, and there can be no doubt that this is the stance taken by the Alpha course.

GALHA issued a warning to lesbians and gays about the course when it was widely publicised in a 10-week ITV series presented by Sir David Frost in 2001. More recently GALHA publicly criticised gay pop idol Will Young for dabbling in the course and was taken to task by The Church of England Newspaper (18 July 2002) for daring to voice such heresy.

GALHA spokesperson George Broadhead said: “Unlike his predecessor, George Carey, Rowan Williams is reported to be very gay-friendly, and lesbian and gay Christians are over the moon at his appointment. In a press release about it, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement’s Richard Kirker says that in a church led by Rowan Williams, ‘homophobia will be challenged and intolerance rooted out’. But how does this square with the Archbishop’s support for Alpha? Is it possible that Williams is unaware of its hostile teaching on homosexuality, or is he so enthusiastic about its Christian evangelism that he thinks such teaching can readily be ignored?”

• For a summary of the Alpha course’s attitude towards homosexuality, see: Alphabet Soup: how words can mangle meaning (Gay and Lesbian Humanist, Spring 2002)