LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne has compared biblical Christians to “rapists” and “Holocaust deniers” for failing to preach the morality of homosexual sex.
In a recent article for Pink News, Ozanne, director of the UK-based Ozanne Foundation and General Synod member, blasted the Church of England for upholding Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality in its recent publication of a set of resources titled Living in Love and Faith.
Supposedly a British evangelical Anglican, Ozanne works with religious organisations around the world in an effort to persuade them to update their moral teachings to accommodate LGBT sexual lifestyles.
Unlike the soldiers who crucified Jesus, church leaders know they are “wounding and hurting” LGBT people by propagating biblical sexual morality, Ozanne writes, and thus Jesus’ prayer — “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” — does not apply to them.
“Personally, I believe that it is completely different,” she states. “Indeed, I think it is immoral, inexcusable, and cowardly.”
The Anglican Church’s invitation to LGBT people to dialogue with Church leaders is also unacceptable, Ozanne insists.
“Would one invite a survivor of the Holocaust to sit down and listen to the rantings of a Holocaust denier?” she asks.
“Would one ask a rape victim to sit down with a rapist and understand why they want to rape people? It is not only ridiculous – it is downright dangerous!”
Archbishop: God Wants Church of 'Glorious and Profligate Diversity' https://t.co/uJOeTkcMnc
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 12, 2020
Ozanne takes particular issue with the idea that Christians with same-sex attraction should be encouraged to live celibate lives rather than engaging in homosexual relations.
“There is now a wide body of evidence that shows just how harmful these teachings are to people, particularly young LGBT+ people growing up in conservative communities of faith,” she states.
Ozanne suggests that Christians who do not celebrate gay sex should be prosecuted for hate speech and notions of religious liberty should not allow churches to teach that sodomy is sinful.
There is “clear evidence that certain actions are wounding people, particularly young people at the start of their lives,” she declares, and therefore “they must be robustly challenged and stopped. If necessary, by enshrining things in law.”
It is “the moral duty of a civilised society to safeguard the vulnerable – not appease the perpetrators,” she declares. “This is all the more insidious when the perpetrator is a religious institution, a place which is meant to show love and provide sanctuary.”
Along with preaching against homosexual activity, other offensive practices include “conversion therapy,” Ozanne writes, which attempts to help people overcome same-sex attraction.
People who undergo such therapy, Ozanne says, often do so because they have been taught that changing gender or engaging in homosexual sex is “sinful.”
“Most LGBT+ people are aware that religious teaching can be very Bad News for who they are, who they love and how they are accepted amongst certain religious communities,” she writes.
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