"Anglican Complicity in the Sexual Revolution"

Sharing an important article by Jay Thomas via First Things Magazine

I know I’ve been MIA on Substack for the last couple of months, and there’s a good reason for that: I’m working on a book proposal! I’ll be sharing more about that in the year ahead, but for now, I wanted to share this important article that was published on First Things today. In some ways, it is similar to the talk I gave in September at the Protestant Theology of the Body Conference (which was hosted at my Anglican church here in DC). I ended my lecture with a call-to-action for the ACNA to reconsider its position on contraception, righting the wrong it committed at the Lambeth Conference of 1930. If you’re interested in watching that lecture, you may do so here. (I’ve also written at WORLD Magazine about this topic here, here, here, and here.)

In the meantime, please read this important article by Jay Thomas, a Priest in my own denomination, the Anglican Church of North America. I was deeply heartened to read it, and am grateful to him for writing it (despite its unpopularity!). I’ll paste some of my favorite quotes below.

Anglican Complicity in the Sexual Revolution by Jay Thomas, First Things Magazine

“[I[n all the most trying ages of the Church’s history, the questions which were most defining and dividing were questions of God and Christ (theology and Christology). Today, as we muddle our way through the sexual revolution, the questions that divide are those of anthropology. But we need to unwaveringly assert that because Christ became man, questions of anthropology are intrinsically questions of Christology. The man Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the father. Yes, he is fully God; but we cannot forget that he also remains fully man. Christian anthropology participates in Christology. Thus questions of human sexuality, gender roles, and biology cannot be confined to the realm of adiaphora. This is not because Christians only care about sex, but because Christians only care about Christ.”

“St. Paul teaches us that the union of man and woman in marriage reflects Christ’s union with his Church. This union is fundamentally and intrinsically life-giving and reproducing. The entire Gospel message is about bringing about new life, everlasting life, abundant life. God designed sex to be ordered toward creating new life, and the past century has shown us that when that act becomes divorced from God’s purpose, the whole structure comes crashing down.”

“We have allowed the unitive and the procreative acts to be separated within marriage, thus opening Pandora's anthropological box. But there is hope. As Archbishop Beach noted, the modern Anglican Church is called to be a repenting church. We may not be able to put the cat back into the bag (so to speak), but we can ask God’s forgiveness, and through his absolution and grace, nothing is impossible.”

You should definitely read the whole thing. And if I don’t write before the new year: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! More exciting things to come soon. Thanks for reading.

-Katelyn