Rowan Williams Exegetical Soft-Shoe Shuffle

I once read that Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, had a problem being understood. The problem was that his thought is so profound that it confuses those of us with lesser intellects.
I’ve just read his comments made to Toronto theological students regarding Paul’s comments on homosexuality in Romans 1. It seems that according to Williams, the apostle Paul has the same communication problem. What seems plain in Romans 1 to the ordinary reader is in fact just plain confusing. Seemingly when Paul writes about men being filled with ‘shameful lust’, ‘committing indecent acts with one another’ and being guilty of ‘perversion’ he was not condemning homosexuality. He is according to Williams not making a primary point about homosexuality but about self-righteousness. Instead he was urging Christians not to judge one another. At the same time Williams agrees that Paul and his readers regarded homosexuality as immoral and being so on the same basis as idolatry.
Williams argument that homosexuality is not condemned and condemned at the same time is just too profound for me! I think I’ll stick with Paul who wrote, ‘I did not come to you with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed the wisdom of God.’ Unless of course I’ve misunderstood this as well.

More Twaddle from an Atheist

I’ve just read Shirley Dent’s article in the Guardian The Bible:Unbelievably Good In it Dent an atheist states ‘The fact that they are all untrue should not deter us from remembering the benefits of reading the religious texts at the heart of our cultures.’ Is she trying to tell us that there is not one iota of truth in the Bible- factually, historically, culturally? So what is the value of the Bible according to Dent? It is so that we can understand a cultural heritage that is rooted in the book. If Dent is correct then surely we need to understand what it was that inspired men like Bunyan to root their work in the Bible. It was a deep conviction not simply that the Bible was a cultural source but that it is true.