Episcopal Buggery: What Would Henry Think?

Homosexuality has taken front and center stage once again in the public arena, and people are speaking out, including an Army chief general, who claims that homosexuality is immoral. This is only the most recent story inovlving gays. The most second most recent major story involving the induction of gay bishops and priests in the Episcopalian church, otherwise known as the church of England. The church of England was of course headed by none other than King Henry VIII (possibly the most anti-gay male of all time). Yet 'forward thinking' Episcopalians champion Henry as the great religious rebel, who broke free of the shackles of centuries-old primacy of the Catholic church. Now seems to be an opportune time to look the founder of the church of 'gay tolerance' in America.

Henry was quite an accomphished man. Henry introduced many legislative acts during his reign the most famous of which severed ties between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, effectively making Henry the head of the church and the state in England. But it would be misleading to think that Henry was virulently anti-Catholic. He was actually a staunch supporter of all of the doctrines of the Catholic church (for the most part). He received thorough theological training as preparation for an ecclesiastical career. It was only when his older brother, , died that Henry was catatpulted into the position as heir to the throne. In the meantime, Henry was crowned defensor fidei (defender of the faith) by Pope Leo XIII, in answer to Luther's anti-Catholic sentiment. All monarchs maintain the noble title to this very day.

It was only after his first marriage that he volatile Henry chose to rebel for political reasons. His first wife, unable to bear a son, appeared to be unsuitable for a king looking for an heir. However, the reigning church doctrine did not allow for dissolution of marriage. Henry, of course, changed all that with a legal stroke of a pen, and proclaimed himself to be the king of England.

Another piece of legislation that Henry is not so well known for is the buggery act of 1533. Buggery, of course, is slang for anal sex in Britain. Buggery was considered "an unnatural offense" against the will of God and man. Henry simply adopted one of the laws of the Catholic church and subsumed it under his rule. What was once previously outlawed by religious courts was now outlawed by civil law. Homosexual acts were punishable by hanging. This law was upheld until 1861.

It seems that the Episcopalean church is trying to obscure history and the very character of its founding head. Ironically, it is the same thing that Henry himself did in toppling the Catholic church as supreme ruler of the realm. Homosexuality was something repulsive to men like Henry and most men of that age. It was intolerable and unmanly.

It is time for the Church of England in America to wake up, and study its own history before trying to destroy it. And it is time for Christianity to take a strong stance against 'tolerating' homosexuality at all levels of its membership.