General Synod and Gay Marriage Blessing: Time for God’s Accommodation

The Bishops of the Church of England are recommending Accommodation. They want to accommodate people in gay marriages and the people who campaign for their inclusion. They want to accommodate gay people for whom gay marriage is ungodly and the people who campaign for them. Their current proposal to accommodate both groups is to encourage the Blessing of Gay Marriages.

The Bishops’ proposal has predictably been greeted with outrage by people in both groups. Both extremes argue that it is wrong to accommodate the other side. Both extremes reject the whole idea of Accommodation. How can we have something as flawed and half-hearted as Accommodation, particularly about something as fundamental as human sexuality?

It is time to assert that the God of Jesus and of the Bible accommodates to human sexuality.

Jesus was clear. God’s purpose has always been for one woman and one man for life. How many men were created for a woman? How many women were created for a man? Heterosexual monogamy is and has always been the best practice of human sexuality, has been God’s way.

Has God insisted on His own way? Or has He accommodated to humans?

Jesus accommodated in a remarkable and unacknowledged way. When going through the Gospels for 2. Listening to Jesus | Gay Marriage Maybe (wordpress.com) I missed Matthew 19:11. Jesus has been teaching seemingly strict monogamy. Then he says: ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.’

Monogamy is not a teaching which should be imposed on everyone. Some people can’t accept it. That’s OK for them. They may find, in the end, that they have a less fulfilled, more fraught, life. But Jesus says ‘Don’t insist on My way. About lifelong monogamy, accommodate.’

Paul honoured this accommodation by teaching that church leaders should be monogamous, other church members not necessarily.

The Old Testament shouts that, in mattes of sexuality, the LORD has accommodated, even in His chosen people. He accommodated to Abraham and Sarah using Hagar and to Abraham in late life taking other wives. Isaac was the exception. (For more on Isaac’s remarkable monogamy see Jacob The Son (laddermedia.co.uk)) From Jacob onwards, monogamy was hardly considered. Polygamy and concubinage was the norm.

Does this apply to Gay Marriage? Probably. It would be very odd of God to accommodate human sexuality in one way and not in another. Accommodating Gay Marriage does not mean accommodating the whole variety of human sexual practice, either heterosexual or gay. Monogamous Gay Marriage is as much a bar to Bisexual practice as Monogamous Heterosexual Marriage.

More positively, we follow the example, the spirit, of our God in accommodating our practice of marriage to gay people. Surely, gay people are some of those to whom Jesus’s teaching on monogamous heterosexual marriage has not been given? We make room for them by blessing their desire to live in a faithful lifelong monogamous relationship.

Is such Accommodation a response to the leading of the Holy Spirit today? Probably. Discernment of the leading of the Holy Spirit is a matter of careful, open, examination by the whole Church. This process has yet to be started. The Church of England has spent years listening to each other about Gay Marriage as well as listening to Leviticus and Romans. Now, we should listen more to the recorded words of Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, who can bring us, today, truths which we could not bear before. 3. Listening to the Holy Spirit | Gay Marriage Maybe (wordpress.com)

Part of our listening to the Holy Spirit is to allow people to follow their consciences and then to see what happens. Does God withdraw His blessing from them? (For a great example of God withdrawing blessing look at what happened to Jacob when he allowed his sons to slaughter the Shechemites, and God ‘went up from him.’ Genesis 34, 35 and following.) Or does He bless them the same as His other children? This was the wisdom of Gamaliel, Acts 5:34-39.

Biblically, we can agree with the Bishops in seeking to accommodate people in gay marriages. We must also agree to accommodate fellow Christians of opposing views. If two thirds of the Church representatives agree to the accommodating Blessing of Gay Marriage, some of the remaining one third may threaten to leave. To these unaccommodating Christians we say a reluctant ‘Farewell.’ Loving, accommodating, our sisters and brothers in Christ, is a clear, unequivocal, Jesus imperative. The minority who cannot accept this imperative will, sadly, have to find another home.

We have an accommodating God. Let’s be His accommodating people.

PS I was expecting the decision on Blessings of Gay Marriage to need a two thirds majority, so I wrote ‘If two thirds of the Church representatives agree…’ I was dismayed that the Bishops had decided not to follow a great Church of England practice – needing a two thirds majority for a significant change. Now I add my voice to those of Church Leaders and Bishops calling for a new vote needing a two thirds majority.

I continue to support the Bishops’ proposal but believe that the unity of the Church is more important. How can we go ahead happily if 40% of our people do not want this development? Disregard for such a substantial minority is neither Anglican nor Christian.

The Call by Rick Joyner: Mixed Important Messages

The Call, by Rick Joyner, follows on from The Final Quest and is also an account of Rick’s visions and visionary discussions. Rick sees and converses with Biblical and historical characters, he sees a prison camp and converses with one man there, he sees again inner parts of the heavenly mountain he saw in The Final Quest. Mostly, Rick sees and converses with Jesus and His Holy Spirit, in the form of a White Eagle. (As before, Rick rarely calls Jesus by His name, he calls Him Wisdom.)

My copy of The Final Quest has more marks in the margin, more words to remember and quote, more genuine sayings of Jesus, than any other book I have read. Rick Joyner’s ‘The Final Quest:’ A Great Message | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com) The Call also has plenty of marks, plenty of genuine Jesus words.

The Call also has words more from Rick than from Jesus. ‘Because you are not writing Scripture,’ says Jesus, ‘the words you write will have you in them.’ (p83)

About The Final Quest, I also commented: ‘Rick’s ‘own understanding does not always align with what he has seen and heard from Jesus. This authenticates his visions, his message.’ The treasure of Jesus’ words is sometimes seen more clearly in the earthen vessel of Rick’s own understanding.

Jesus speaks.

Jesus’ message is the same as in The Final Quest. Put Him first in our mind and thought and sight. Love all people, especially His people. Seek harmony, do not stoke conflict. Jesus also conveys fresh truth about True Aim in Life, True Judgement, The True Church, True Use of Scripture, True Worship. Much treasure for us all.

Core Message

‘Your highest purpose is to recognise Me, to hear My voice, and to follow Me. (p211) ‘… taking your eyes off Me is all you have to do to drift from the path of life.’ (p40)

‘This is My commandment to you: Love Me and love your neighbor. Only then will your witness be true. Even when I command you to speak of My judgements, it must be in love.’ (p84)

‘This is also your call – to love with My love and serve with My heart. Then we will be one.’ (p198)

‘Everything I am doing in the earth is to restore the original harmony between My Father and His creation and among all creatures.’ (p158)

‘Fear must not rule over you – do nothing because of fear. Do what you do because of love, and you will always triumph.’ (p164) ‘As you behold Me you will not fear. If you fear, it is because you are not beholding Me.’ (p169)

Jesus says ‘… you must learn not to look just for Me, but at Me.’ (p60)

Now we see Jesus with us hazily. C S Lewis wrote that seeing what is real but immaterial is difficult. Jesus says that those who have the true love of God ‘want to be with Me so much that even when it all seems unreal, even when I seem like a vague dream to them, they will risk all for the hope that the dream is real.’ (p61)

True Aim in Life

In the prison camp, Rick meets Stephen, a seeker who Rick helps discover Jesus for himself.

Rick advises Stephen ‘You can see Him with the eyes of your heart at any time. This is also your call – to see Him more clearly and follow Him more closely.’ (p117)

Yet Rick also advises Stephen: ‘You can always go as far as you can see… You must keep going as far as you can see. Never stop as long as you can still see further.’ (p110) ‘I now believe that it is wisdom to always choose the highest mountain to climb.’ (p126)

Jesus says ‘As you walk in the wisdom that I am with you, you will always see the way to go.’ (p100) We look not for the highest mountain but for Jesus with us.

Jesus says ‘You may think that it is time to march, but I will direct you to camp because I see things that you can never see, even from this place of vision. If you follow Me, you will always be doing the right thing at the right time, even though it may not seem right to you. Remember, I am the Captain of the Host.’ (p148f) We must be open to stopping even though we can see further, because we see or know that Jesus has stopped and we follow what He is doing.

Rick says ‘… we can never outsmart the enemy- our defense is to learn to first recognize, and then resist him.’ (p127)

The White Eagle says ‘Just as the sure communication between a general and his soldiers can determine the outcome of the battle, the strength of His communication with His people will determine their victory or defeat in the days to come. (p188)

Looking at, recognising, the enemy and his ways is dangerous. Our priority is always to look at, recognise, listen to our Captain.

True Judgement

Rick tends to see the need for judgement, to point out people’s bad ways and call then to change, especially when he is listening to, or focusing on others, Lot and Jonah and Zipporah, wife of Moses:

Lot says ‘The Lord cannot abide the increasing evil of mankind much longer.’ (p42)

Jesus says ‘We love mankind and Our eternal dwelling place will be with you. Wisdom is knowing Me, knowing the Father and knowing Our love. The light, the glory and the power that I am about to reveal in the earth will be released through those who have come to know My love.’ (p60)

Lot says ‘You must seek His judgements every day and you must make them known on earth.’ (p43) Jesus says we are to seek Him every day and make His love known on earth. Jesus says ‘You are not walking in wisdom if you are proclaiming Me to be the Lion when I want to come as the Lamb.’ (p62)

Lot says ‘Many believers have made falling down in the Lord’s presence frivolous and meaningless…’ (p52) Here is fuel for those who want to criticise their fellow Christians rather than love them. Jesus says ‘… you must come to My Throne of Grace every day…’ (p65.) Every day we need to top up His grace in us, especially for our fellow Christians.

Jonah says ‘it is presumption to only call upon the Lord when you want something. You should call on Him to ask what He wants not what you want.’ (p50) These judgmental words are almost opposite to Jesus telling us to ask and ask again, with no restrictions. Jesus said to people ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus has not changed. He still wants us to tell Him what we want Him to do for us.

Jonah talks negatively about Christians today. ‘Some are already in the belly of the beast. Some are about to be cast overboard and some are still sleeping, but almost all have been on the ship going the wrong way, seeking to trade with the world.’ (p48)

Later, as Rick focuses on the story of Zipporah, wife of Moses, circumcising their son to save Moses’ life, Rick also sees and bemoans the carnality of Christians, who have not had their hearts circumcised. Rick sees The Christian Army and is dismayed by many slovenly selfish soldiers.

Jesus says ‘Do not be discouraged by the way My people now appear, but remember what they will become.’ (p149)

Nearer the end, Rick sees differently: ‘As He talked… I saw in my heart what seemed to be every church I knew. They immediately became much more than just a group of people; they became His Beloved.’ (p173)

Jesus helps Rick to see His way of judgement: ‘The judgement came from every thought being made manifest. It was not a judgement of punishment, but of liberation, if there was no attempt to hide anything. Freedom came with everything that was illuminated so that there was a desire for every heart flaw to be exposed. The love was so great that I knew everything would be covered and made right.’ (p196)

Any judgement we bring must be the same. We assure people that there is an immense love ready to make right everything they have done. We invite people to bring into the light deeds and thoughts which they have kept hidden – as much as they freely choose to reveal. We rejoice with them in their freedom from guilt and in Jesus’ ability to heal all the injuries we have caused to other people and to ourselves. We do not point out what we see as their faults. We bring ourselves into judgement much more than anyone else. We do not disparage groups of people, especially not our brothers and sisters in Jesus.

Here is a fresh view of judgement and a fresh view of atonement. Earlier in The Call, Adam gives the same message: ‘The Lord did not go to the cross just to redeem but also to restore.’ (p79) Atonement is not only paying the price for our freedom but restoring the creation which we have damaged. Not just that we have a ‘no longer guilty’ verdict but that the wounds we have inflicted are being healed. Everything we have done wrong is ‘covered and made right.’

I think this is the core meaning of the Biblical language of sins being covered, by blood. Just our blood covers a wound in our body and forms a scab, ensuring that the wound will be healed, so the blood of Jesus covers the wounds of all humanity, ensuring that the all wounds will be healed. See Atonement as Blood Covering, A Fresh Understanding? 17 November | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com)

The True Church

Rick sees a Great City, a City of Harmony, beautifully constructed by many Christians from all the different Christian streams. Many connections link the parts of the City. The Highway of Grace links all the streets. Jesus says that the City and the Army are the same.

Jesus says ‘My builders will come from every stream, but they will work as one. Just as great houses need different craftsmen, so does My house. Only when they work together can they build My house.’ (p163)

One key part of the harmony of the City is that differences are welcomed, not made grounds for criticism and accusation. The Final Quest showed that Christians accusing each other are goaded, pushed on, by the devil and his hordes.

Rick notes how strong is the Christian tendency to accuse: ‘Many had been under the influence of the accuser for so long that it was still a part of their nature to accuse, and it could be a while before their minds were renewed. I knew that the church was still a very long way from being united.’ (p168)

‘I knew that what He had said about building with peace in the present and a vision for the future was also essential for the harmony I saw.’ (p159)

‘This is how people judge the church, I thought, and how I have often judged it myself. I have loved God for a long time, but failed to love His people the way that I should.’ (p179)

Jesus responds: ‘Now I will give you My love for My people.’ (p179f)

True Use of Scripture

‘His manna is as gentle and light as the dew, and easily trampled,’ says the White Eagle, Holy Spirit. ‘You must be gentle and light of heart to see it… The Lord speaks every day to each one of His people. They cannot live by bread alone, but must have the words that proceed from His mouth. These are not the words that He spoke in the past, but the words that He speaks to them each day.’ (p185)

Rick has been told to look for, see, expect, Jesus with him. Now he is told to look for, expect, Jesus to speak individually to every one of His people. Rick is to help Christians listen to Jesus for themselves, as the Israelites gathered manna in the wilderness, to keep them going for each day.

Remarkably, ‘these are not the words that He spoke in the past…’ This vital manna, these daily words, are not the words of Jesus recorded in the New Testament, nor the words of the LORD recorded in the Old Testament. Scripture alone is not enough, despite the Protestant rallying call of ‘Sola Scriptura’ ‘Only Scripture.’ Our relationship is not to the Bible but to Jesus. We are not ‘Biblians,’ we are Christians. It is vital for each of us to take in, each day, words direct from Jesus.

It is not just hearing His words, but hearing His voice which will lead you in the way in which you are to go. Many repeat the words that He has spoken, but His manna is the word that He is speaking now.’ (p186)

These words are surprising in a book by an established Evangelical teacher. This message, that Scripture alone is not enough, is highly unlikely to have come from Rick himself. Much more likely to have come, indeed, from the Holy Spirit.

What about Scripture, then? ‘If you are to know His words, you must know both the Scripture and His manna.’ (p187) The italic, stressed, ‘and’ is as Rick wrote it, as Rick heard it. Know the Scripture, especially the words that Jesus spoke. And know Jesus’ words, Jesus’ voice, today. ‘He now wants all of His people to know when He is speaking through them or to them.’ (p188) ‘We must not stop encouraging His people to know His voice.’ (p190)

It is vital for His Church to pay close attention to His recorded words and to the words He is speaking today.

(For an application of this dual listening to a Big Issue of today see 3. Listening to the Holy Spirit | Gay Marriage Maybe (wordpress.com))

True Worship

Rick has witnessed something of the worship of heaven. He is left with a longing to stay in that realm. This is a common response among people who have had a Near Death Experience of paradise. Jesus shows Rick something even greater which makes staying on earth preferable. Jesus shows Rick how The Father responds to the worship of His children now.

 ‘To shake the nations with your words does not impress anyone who dwells here [heaven / paradise.] But, when even the least of My brethren on earth shows love, it brings joy to My Father’s heart. When even the most humble church sings to My Father with true love in their hearts, He silences all of heaven to listen to them.’ (p201)

’Your worship when you are in the midst of difficulties touches Him even more than all the worship of heaven.’ (p205)

Note that this true worship is children expressing love of their Father. Those who know they are children of God, more than servants of God, worshipping, singing to, their Abba Father, using those words of address, more than to their Lord, addressed as ‘Lord.’. All who say ‘Our Father in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name!’ Especially those who cry out for His good will to be done, in lives painfully impacted instead by the evil will of the enemy, the devil. ‘When you worship without seeing His glory in the midst of your trials, that is worship in Spirit and in truth. The Father seeks such to be His worshippers.’ (p205)

Thank you, Rick, thank you! You are a brilliant prophet. You have faithfully conveyed to us the words of Jesus. In your book we see and hear the great eternal treasure which comes from beholding and listening to Jesus. In your book we see and hear something of the earthen vessel of your own, and our, thinking and speaking. The words you have written have you in them indeed. The words you have written have far more of Jesus in them. Alleluia!

To buy The Call go to The Call – MorningStar Ministries

Fay Weldon – Woman of, mixed, Faith

In April 2010 Fay Weldon agreed to me interviewing her for Christianity magazine. In 2000, She had become a notable Christian, baptised in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. She died yesterday, 4 January 2023, aged 91.

Approaching her house, my expectation was to see a cross between Joan Bakewell, glamourous TV intellectual, and Cruella de Vil, from 1001 Dalmatians. She was known as a sharp, pioneering feminist, author of The Life and Loves of a She Devil.’ She would be thin, taller than me, dressed in a green trouser suit, looking down on me.

Fay opened the large off-white wooden door. She was short and not at all thin, with blond, wavy, girly, hair, a broad smile, a quiet demeanour and a steady, penetrating, gaze. A cross between Marilyn Monroe and Margaret Thatcher.

Despite still recovering from a nasty bug, Fay had, that morning, welcomed her hairdresser for the interview photographs. At nearly 80 years old, she was a determined professional writer, presenting her work, and herself, as best she could.

For photos of the interview and brief footage of me rounding off, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Fh3Zpd6qY

Fay explained that she was born to humanists, ignored the prayers at her Catholic school and, much later, was drawn to St John’s Church in Hampstead.

I just like going to church! Being baptised seemed a sensible thing to do. It wasn’t a great moment of enlightenment or sudden conversion. Partly, I think, I wanted to belong.

Then I was always very worried about saying the Creed, because it’s very literal, isn’t it? And they won’t let you take it metaphorically. And one day I said it, and found that I hadn’t been struck by lightning or anything. Now I am used to it, and don’t query it at all.

Another thing that got me going as a Christian, so to speak, is that I was asked to write an introduction to 1 Corinthians. I was sort of converted by St Paul. It seemed such an extraordinary tale, so new at the time, and I thought ‘What an amazing person.

Faith became a strong part of Fay’s life.

We go to church every Sunday at 8 o’clock and once a month we go to another church at 11 o’clock and sing hymns, which I like doing, and meet people. And every now and then, not always, you feel the presence of God. And I like the whole sense of history, that people have walked up this particular path for the last five hundred years, at least, that you are part of something extremely valuable. If I don’t go, I feel as though I’ve missed something.

Fay learnt to cope with adverse reactions to her new faith:

My daughter-in-law was absolutely terrified of letting my grandchildren near me in case I converted them! People are, oddly, quite shocked because they think it means that you have no intellect. Many are really quite polite, and so many are Christians but you didn’t know. People are almost nervous of saying that they go to church and all the rest of it because it’s somehow, socially, not the thing to do. But you discover all kinds of people who are Christian, and who talk to you about it.

Now there’s a sort of scientist backlash which is trying actually to erase Christianity from the social structure. They say we’re superstitious and old-fashioned. But I find it equally difficult to comprehend what they think’s going on in the cosmos.

Fay wrote as a woman of faith:

You can’t proselytise you know. But everything I write, to me, has a kind of moral base to it. And, on the whole, virtue is rewarded.

When I talk at literary festivals, I explain to people that, if they take an hour, or an hour and a half, out of their lives every Sunday it is rather better than going to the shopping mall, and certainly cheaper. And to gather together and to pray for the sick does nobody any harm at all and might even do them a great deal of good.

Once you’ve seen it and once you’ve seen society as it is in its irreligious state, you think that the sooner it gets back to religion the better. If people don’t believe in God, they’ll believe in anything as Dostoevsky said. If you go to Glastonbury, you’ll see them believing in anything – a ruddy waste of time! My mother lived there for a time with the terrible things going on and she used to say ‘Where there are angels there are always devils as well.

Fay only commended her, traditional, type of church: She decried ‘bongo jingle church in pre-fab buildings.’ She relished ‘… a sense of respect, of God as an impersonal force. This is what I respond to. God is greater than you can conceive. Jesus was in your image but God is not in your image.’

Fay’s understanding of the Holy Spirit was ‘I think we’re born with it and if you allow it to develop, it develops. By an act of will that either denies it or includes it in your general behaviour towards other people.’ It seems that no-one, including myself, helped Fay to know that the Holy Spirit has to be received, as Jesus received at his Baptism and as Paul taught.

Fay’s first serious encounter with faith had been in 1989. After the fatwa of death against her fellow novelist Salman Rushdie, she read the Koran. She wrote the pamphlet Sacred Cows expressing her critical view:

The Koran is food for no thought. It is not a poem on which a society can be safely or sensibly based. It forbids change, interpretation, self-knowledge, or even art, for fear of treading on Allah’s creative toes.

The Koran fails in that, being so abusive of non-belief, it insists upon a concrete interpretation of its text. Thus, it gives weapons and strength to the thought police – and the thought police are easily set marching, and they frighten.’

Fay was herself then threatened:

Ten years later they declared me an Islamophobe, which was rather nasty. They turned up at literary readings and things. It took them ten years to get round to it – and that was written before I was a Christian.

Fay did not change her views for our 2010 interview:

I just think it’s very funny to believe that the Koran came from anything other than Mohammed, (perhaps you’d better not print this or I might get into trouble) who was rather like L J Hubbard, in creating a religion… From St Paul onwards Christianity was an inclusive religion. Islam, by its nature is exclusive.

Fay’s view of feminism did change, not to everyone’s approval:

The women are now, on the whole, happier than they were. Women now can speak up without having the little squeaky voices which they used to have because they were so nervous and so unused to speaking in public.

It’s just the children. If we could just have a 25 hour week. Any child can be without its mother for 25 hours a week. I think it’s the full-time work that’s the problem. Let them spend less time producing the stuff that nobody needs and more time in the home or taking care of the children.

Society has changed. Women now have absolute choice about how they live. What goes wrong is not men’s fault. But some women continue, out of habit, to find fault with men.

The published interview is here: https://www.premierchristianity.com/interviews/fay-weldon-i-go-to-church-every-sunday-and-every-now-and-then-i-feel-the-presence-of-god/3612.article

Fay’s appreciation of gathering together to pray was shown in her welcome of me praying with her that day. Before the interview, I thought Jesus had nudged me to offer to pray for her finances. To me, this seemed an unlikely need for a famous novelist. I offered anyway. Fay, happily amazed, called her husband and we prayed accordingly. This turned a professional meeting into an ongoing friendship.

At Fay’s birthday party a couple of years later, Fay welcomed me praying for her painful leg. When her son died, she welcomed me praying the Book of Common Prayer Funeral Service with her over the phone. At another birthday party, she welcomed prayer from myself and my fiancée for her painful back.

Fay encouraged me about my first novel, the whodunit A British Crash: https://www.laddermedia.co.uk/a-british-crash . She wrote ‘The writing is professional and what the book has to say is really interesting.’

Fay also continued to welcome Kehua, Maori familial spirits, from her upbringing in New Zealand. She wrote about these in a novel of the same name. ‘Kehua are the spirits of the dead, who are not nasty, but just trying to bring you home. The book is about the difficulty of distinguishing a character in a book from a ghost. It’s more or less in this house that it takes place.’ The book was largely autobiographical. Maybe she should have taken more heed of her mother’s warning of devils and angels.

We are all a mixture. Fay, and Fay’s strong Christian faith, was no exception. May she see even more clearly in the light of Paradise. May all the saints and angels enjoy her sharp, sympathetic, impish wit, for ever.

Roger Harper