-You are resisting the inevitable future. Just as Galileo was resisted by the church, but shown to be the future in arguing that the world was round, so you are resisting the clear progress of truth in understanding human sexuality.

-You are wasting gospel time on elevating a second order issue on which there may be legitimate disagreement into a first order issue.

-You are making evangelism on the ground difficult to those who are committed to including everyone within society or any human community.

These are strong points, but I believe that there are stronger answers to each of them.

The issue before us is the concrete form of the question of God's authority. It is the sharp point of the secularist attack on the gospel in the Western world. It is therefore about the authority and clarity of scripture which is the way God exercises his authority over His church.

Human sexuality is so constitutive of who we are and so central to culture that we are dealing with a major issue. Obsessed with sex? Yes, and so is everyone else. Our culture is obsessed with sex so we should not be embarrassed with engaging with this issue. If we did not engage we would be divorced from our culture.

Scripture declares this to be a matter of life and death. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:9 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, not thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (ESV) We would be cowards if we do not make clear this is an issue of life and death.

The world's view is bad for the physical and mental health of men and women. If this is so, the medical profession is at grave fault for failing to speak out on this.

The holiness of the church is being compromised. The gospel message is "Repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. " (Acts 2.38). The acceptance by the church of homosexual practice would be to call holy what God calls sin to be repented from.

The churches in the Global South need our support on this. They are taking a strong stand now, but their cultures are being increasingly invaded by Western values. The orthodox Christians, along with orthodox Muslims and Jews, are the last bastion in western culture who stand for the truth of God on this matter. If we fail then the work of the Church throughout the world is touched.

We are on a slippery slope. Sin is being redefined through this issue of human sexuality. Resiling on the uniqueness of Christ is next on the list since western culture cannot tolerate unique and exclusive claims in its search for harmony between different tribes in a world without God. If we weaken on the nature of sin, we weaken on the nature of the identity of the saviour from sin.

In short, the efforts of liberal theology to gain control of the church have now gone too far and in human terms is endangering the whole gospel enterprise of the Church. If we do not stand here, we will not be able to stand anywhere.

--The Most Rev. Peter Jensen is the Archbishop of Sydney
END