In one letter to his parish in 1999 he criticised the Church of England charity The Children’s Society’s decision to lift its ban on placing children for fostering or adoption with gay couples.
He spoke of the parish having to “review its decision to support them” in light of the change and urged the charity to rethink.
Since then the law has been changed making it illegal for charities to discriminate against gay couples, a move which effectively forced the closure of all Roman Catholic adoption agencies in England...
In the same article Rev Welby, as he then was, discussed the admission by Michael Portillo, the former Tory Cabinet minister, to having “homosexual experiences” as a student.
While emphasising that this did not matter for Mr Portillo’s political career, he went on to speak of sexuality as a “powerful force” leading people “astray” adding: “The standards of expected sexual morality are clear.
“Throughout the Bible it is clear that the right place for sex is only within a committed, heterosexual marriage.
“Interestingly, all recent research also shows that the children of such a relationship are likely (not always but often) to be happier and more stable.”
More controversially he also spoke about a belief that people can change their sexuality.
He criticised the media for “[talking] as though his sexuality is exactly the same now as then”...
The Daily Telegraph.
Hmm...
Despite the scary strapline the comments were made in a single article written more than a dozen years ago in a parish newsletter (so how can they be "unpublished"?)
They're taken from a new biography the Telegraph will be serialising.
I really don't want to defend this man, he's clearly no friend to The Gays; an "evangelical traditionalist" who was silent over the recent great gay marriage debate (he supports civil partnerships) and homophobia in the African church, but this article perhaps is more about seemingly adding "moral support" to the Telegraph's own anti-gay views.
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