The rector of two traditionalist Church of England parishes in London posted a note to his blog the other day in which he joked that active homosexuals should have a health warning tattooed onto their backsides.He suggested the slogan, "Sodomy can seriously damage your health."
The response to his satirical recommendation has been howls of outrage from homosexualist groups and demands for his resignation.
Rev. Peter Mullen, rector of St. Michael's, Cornhill, and St. Sepulchre in London's financial district, wrote, "In addition the obscene 'gay pride' parades and carnivals should be banned for they give rise to passive corruption, comparable to passive smoking. Young people forced to witness these excrescences are corrupted by them."
But, after an explosion of media stories in which homosexualist activists expressed their anger, Mullen apologised, saying he did "not intend to cause any upset" and that he realised the remarks were "injudicious."
"I was not actually meaning to criticise individual homosexual persons, but the promoters of gay culture," he said. "I have caused offense," he added. "I want to issue an apology."
But over-the-top satire is well within the traditions of British journalism, and Dr. Mullen has also defended himself saying, "I wrote some satirical things on my blog and anybody with an ounce of sense of humour or any understanding of the tradition of English satire would immediately assume that they're light-hearted jokes."
His remarks came in the context of a post criticising Times columnist Matthew Parris, a former Conservative party politician who is one of the more prominent journalistic members of Britain's homosexualist political movement.
Rev. Mullen's blog at typepad.com has been removed but the content has been cached.
Rev. Mullen wrote, "Since Parris will not dirty his hands by entering theological discussions with his readers, perhaps I might answer for religious believers in the purely utilitarian terms which even the lofty Parris is bound to engage with.
"We disapprove of homosexuality because it is clearly unnatural, a perversion and corruption of natural instincts and affections, and because it is a cause of fatal disease. The AIDS pandemic was originally caused by promiscuous homosexual behaviour. Such promiscuity is itself an evil because its perpetrators merely use others indiscriminately for their own gratification, treating their fellows as sex objects and as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves."
Despite its basis in fact and in Christian teaching, Rev. Mullen's post has caused a furore in the Church of England and among homosexualist activists who chose to take his tattooing suggestion seriously and have denounced him as a "homophobe."
The Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres, said the posting was "highly offensive."
The Rev. Mullen was told on Friday that he could face disciplinary action.
A spokesman said, "While clergy are entitled to their own personal views, we recognise that the content of this text is highly offensive and is in no way reflective of the views of the Diocese of London."
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the homosexual equality organisation Stonewall, said, "If I were a vicar at the heart of the City of London, I might be praying about other things at the moment rather than getting hot under the collar about gay sex."
Radical homosexualist activist Peter Tatchell of the group OutRage! demanded his resignation.
But satire aside, Rev. Mullen's comments are supported by medical studies showing the physical damage done to men who engage in homosexual acts.
In 2005, in brief titled "Gay Marriage and Homosexuality, Some Medical Comments," a group of Canadian doctors told Parliament that a proposed bill recognising "gay marriage" would endanger the health of Canadians.
They listed the diseases associated with anal sex, "many of which are rare or even unknown in the heterosexual population."
These included anal cancer, Chlamydia trachomatis, Cryptosporidium, Giardia lamblia, Herpes simplex virus, HIV, Human papilloma virus, Isospora belli, Microsporidia, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and C and others.
After his joking recommendation about tattoos, Rev. Mullen wrote more pointedly about the damage to public morals of some activities common among homosexual men in London and elsewhere.
"Those committing homosexual acts in public places - such behaviour being a crime in any case under the Homosexual Reform Act of 1967," he said, "should be arrested, tried and punished."
In England, the term "cottaging" has become a euphemism for the popular homosexual activity of sex in public toilets, particularly in parks where they go to "cruise" for casual, anonymous sex.
"Parks, open spaces and public lavatories," Rev. Mullen wrote, "would at once become more wholesome places" if arrests were made.
The website of the parish church of St. Michael's Cornhill in the City of London says, "We are traditional Church of England - real Anglicans. We use the Authorised (King James) version of the Bible (1611) and the Book of Common Prayer (1662). Our 11am Sunday service is Choral and always features musical settings from the classic tradition of church music from Tallis and Byrd through Purcell and Vittoria, Mozart and Haydn to Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Britten."
Hereunder is the actual posting on aforementione Blog which has now been removed:
Matthew Parris
Matthew Parris is wilfully refusing to give his readers his opinion about the recent "gay wedding" and about relationships between the church and homosexuals generally. He says, "When it comes to the church, synagogue or mosque, if you think the whole thing ridiculous, its hard to get excited about the ridiculousness of a subset of it. I should feel the same if morris dancers or the British Astrological Society tried to exclude gays."
So, for Parris, the views of billions of Christians, Jews and Muslims worldwide are of no more consequence than a couple of obscure sectional interests. From what point of privileged judgement does he thus discount 4000 years of civilisation? The great world religions have survived the criticisms of far more intelligent and better informed opponents than the ignorant upstart Parris. There is a whole history and literature of distinguished apologetics for religious belief, but Parris will attend to none of it - sufficient only to attract his disdain is mainstream religion's disapproval of homosexual acts.
Since Parris will not dirty his hands by entering theological discussions with his readers, perhaps I might answer for religious believers in the purely utilitarian terms which even the lofty Parris is bound to engage with. We disapprove of homosexuality because it is clearly unnatural, a perversion and corruption of natural instincts and affections, and because it is a cause of fatal disease. The AIDS pandemic was originally caused by promiscuous homosexual behaviour. Such promiscuity is itself an evil because its perpetrators merely use others indiscriminately for their own gratification, treating their fellows as sex objects and as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. I should have thought that Parris, having rejected religious belief, might want to construct his moral beliefs on this Kantian humanistic imperative. But I suspect he is not really interested in morality of any kind - except as a special plea to excuse his lust for gratification at whatever cost to human dignity and the sanctity of human life.
It is time that religious believers began to recommend specific utilitarian discouragements of homosexual practices after the style of warnings on cigarette packets: Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS. In addition the obscene "gay pride" parades and carnivals should be banned for they give rise to passive corruption, comparable to passive smoking. Young people forced to witness these excrescences are corrupted by them.
Let me continue the comparison with smoking which is banned in most public places. Those committing homosexual acts in public places - such behaviour being a crime in any case under the Homosexual Reform Act of 1967 - should be arrested, tried and punished. Parks, open spaces and public lavatories would at once become more wholesome places. There ought to be teaching films shown in sex education classes in all our schools. These would portray acts of sodomy and the soundtrack would reinforce the message that it is a filthy practice ending with the admonition: "We do, after all, know the importance of washing our hands after going to the lavatory."
But I should like to turn Parris' disdain for religion back on to him. If I consider that homosexual practices are vile, why should I concern myself with subsets of their aspects? I might as well concern myself with other minor irrelevancies such as the Doris Day fanclub and polo-neck sweaters.
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(Source: CT)