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Can you tell what Christians think from the media?

9:08pm Thursday, 25th August 2011

If you live in different parts of Australia you would get a radically different picture of how the churches are dealing with same sex issues.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that two ministers in the Uniting church have become Sydney’s first openly gay ministers in a major Christian denomination. Meanwhile the Sunday Mail in Adelaide reported the departure of a lesbian priest who feels she was persecuted in the Anglican church. Under the radar of the mainstream media many Christian groups continue to issue statements in support of traditional marriage.

Ben Gilmour was inducted as minister of Paddington Uniting Church in July, and says that being open about his sexuality was a matter of integrity. ''I feel as though I'm on the right journey,'' he said. ''It's about walking the path that's in front of you with the light that you've got.''

Nicole Fleming was inducted as minister of Balmain Uniting church in July, and says that sexuality ‘was a non-issue for her congregation, which was united in its focus on social justice.’

On the other hand, the SMH article reports that Reverend Ben Gilmour changed his denomination to become one of the first openly gay ministers in Sydney. He found it necessary to leave his position of 10 years as an Anglican minister on the north coast of NSW, since it had “made homosexual ministers the dividing issue of our time” and he knew that “if I was going to continue on the track I was, I wouldn't be licensed,'' he said.

In Adelaide lesbian priest Ali Wurm was coducting her final service at Semaphore St Bede's Anglican Church, in the diocese of Adelaide in which she felt “bullied and persecuted her”. The article reports that Ali Wurm stepped down from her position as priest rather than conceal her sexuality in order to conform with the more conservative and influential elements of the church.

An earlier Adelaide Sunday Mail article from June postulates a connection between the resignation of Reverend Ali Wurm and the Dean of Adelaide, Sarah Macneil’s announcement that she would step down. It suggests that tensions within the Diocese of Adelaide about how to respond to a global moratorium imposed by the church on same-sex unions and the ordination of clergy in same-sex relationships were contributing factors in the women's departures.

Jeffrey Driver Adelaide Anglican Archbishop said "the Anglican Church of Australia maintains a traditional approach to human sexuality."

“For more than 400 years Baptists have affirmed the Bible as the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. The Bible teaches that the only appropriate context for sexual intercourse is between a woman and a man who are married to each other. Those who argue otherwise have drifted away from biblical ethics and an authentic Baptist understanding of marriage,” Rod Benson, public issues spokesperson for Australian Baptist Ministries, said in an official press release.

The Baptist statement is typical of many by Christian leaders which indicate that this traditional reading of the Bible regaring homosexuality is held by most Australian Christians.

A new group, Christians4equality features four ministers but no denominational leaders on their website. A Galaxy poll on the site shows a majority of those surveyed who say they are christians support gay marriage. However the poll, unlike the Barna polls in the US failed to cross reference church attendence and other markers of Christian belief to seperate out nominal christians.