CHURCH OF ENGLAND RECOMMENDATIONS

ON HOMOSEXUALITY

A discussion by Lyn Pedersen of

SEXUAL OFFENDERS AND SOCIAL PUNISHMENT, Being the evidence submitted on behalf of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council to the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offenses and Prostitution, with other material related thereto Compiled and edited by Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Ph.D., Study Secretary, Church of England Moral Welfare Council; 1956, The Church Information Board, Church House, Westminster, SW1.

Many homosexuals have felt the churches to be the chief source (with their hidebound morality) of the prejudice and persecution which typify Western attitudes toward inversion. The churches do see themselves as keepers of an ancient moral standard, yet they may at times be aware that a certain type of intolerance is inconsistent with the Christ example. Actually, the Christian scripture and Christian thought and practice is nowhere more confusing than in the very basic attitudes toward sinners, associating therewith, purity, righteousness, condemnation and compassion. Most Christians however, quick to "judge," have donned the easy mantle of selfrighteousness-more PharisaicalPauline than Christlike.

And however often socially minded Christian agencies or individuals have turned to help or understand (or pester) drunks, thieves or prostitutes, the sulphurous specter of Sodom has generally scared them off from inverts. The homosexual can appeal to no direct parallel to

one

the "thief on the cross," the "woman taken in adultery," the "wine bibbers and publicans."

Four years ago, members of the Moral Welfare Council of the Church of England decided to face up to this problem. Led by the late Canon Warner and Study Secretary D. Sherwin Bailey, they initiated a study which led to the Interim Report in 1954 and now to this booklet, containing the Church's very strong submissions to a Parliamentary committee (expected to report this year) which will recommend for or against a change in English law.

In reviewing the Interim Report (One, June 54) I referred to it as "surely the most forthright statement on the subject ever to come from a Church body." This booklet follows the same line a bit further. A bit more understanding of the subject seems to have been garnered, though there are frequent apologies to those critics who feel the Church has abandoned morality:

"We must now return to the first criticism mentioned-namely that