The UK’s biggest religious institution, the Church of England, has proclaimed that sex is only for married, straight people and has called for gay people to abstain from having sexual relations.
The guidance from the Church also calls for gay people to be abstinent with their partners. In its guidance, the CoE wrote, “For Christians, marriage – that is, the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows – remains the proper context for sexual activity.”
The church said it sought to “uphold that standard”.
The Church’s guidance of a “lifelong union between a man and a woman” does seem to be at odds with the current legal situation in the United Kingdom, where marriage is considered a legal union between two consenting adults of any biological sex.
“falling short of God’s purpose for human beings”
Speaking about the introduction of the same-sex marriage act 2013, the guidance explained, “The introduction of same-sex marriage, through the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013, has not changed the church’s teaching on marriage or same-sex relationships.”
It also said that people having sex outside heterosexual marriage were “falling short of God’s purpose for human beings.”
The remarks, which were reported by the Guardian, have caused many LGBT people and their allies to pour their outrage onto Twitter.
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