Former NI Presbyterian chief: 'Yes - God loves gay and straight alike... but He also sets out a demanding lifestyle'

​Rev Norman Hamilton was reacting to comments from current Scottish moderator Rev Iain Greenshields and Archbishop Justin Welby, in which they sought to echo recent remarks from the Pope about homosexuality.

The whole issue began to enter the headlines on January 24, when the AP news agency ran an interview with the pontiff in which he condemned the criminalisation of homosexuality in parts of the world and said "people with homosexual tendencies are children of God… God loves them… God accompanies them”.

Then yesterday the Pope spoke again to re-state the same message – this time accompanied by Archbishop Welby and Rev Greenshields, who were joining him on a trip to Sudan.

“I entirely agree with every word he said,” Welby said, while Rev Greenshields said that love is “the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance”.

In response, Rev Hamilton emphasised to the News Letter that “being loved by God is not the same as being a follower of Christ”.

••• ‘SIN AND CRIME ARE DIFFERENT’ •••

Speaking in his AP interview on January 24, the Pope had said laws outlawing gay acts are “unjust,” and the church should try to end to them.

“It must do this, it must,” he was quoted telling AP.

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity… it’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”

Then during what AP called an “unprecedented joint airborne news conference Sunday while returning home from South Sudan,” the Pope yesterday said parents must not throw gay children out of the house.

“To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said.

“Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice… People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them.”

Archbishop Welby, the spiritual head of global Anglicanism, was then quoted saying: “I wish I had spoken as eloquently and clearly as the pope. I entirely agree with every word he said."

And Rev Greenshields, the moderator of the Scottish presbyterian church (known simply as The Church of Scotland) said: “There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away.

“There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whomever he meets.

"And as Christians, that is the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance.”

The former Irish presbyterian moderator Norman Hamilton (from 2010 to 2011) said last night, particularly in reference to Rev Greenshields’ remarks: “Criminalising those who are gay is abhorrent.

"But as the Moderator knows well, being loved by God is not the same as being a follower of Christ. If that were so, everyone in the world would automatically be a Christian. The fact Christ loves and died for President Putin doesn’t make him a follower of Jesus.

“Christ in fact demands that our money, our time, our gifts, our whole being (including our sexuality) is offered to Him unconditionally. He calls us to a pretty demanding lifestyle – but also promises his enabling for it.”

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Evangelical Alliance, were both asked to comment; neither did.

••• SYNOD STARTING •••

After landing back in the UK, Archbishop Welby yesterday addressed the 2023 opening gathering of the Church of England general synod, at which he continued his theme of speaking out against gay “rejection”.

He said: “Where people find it difficult to believe what Christians say about God’s great love for them because they have been excluded, or made to conceal their identity, or made to feel in some way less, they have not been spoken to in Christian.

“Along the way, too many people, especially around sexuality, have heard the words of rejection that human tongues create.”

He described the church as having a history of antisemitism, racism, slavery and “collusion with the evil structures of power – look at how we have and do treat those with different sexualities”.

The Synod, at Church House in Westminster, London, will sit until Thursday.

••• ONS SAID 1% OF POPULATION IS GAY •••

In 2020 the Office for National Statistics reported that 1% of Northern Ireland's population aged 16+ were gay.

It said another 0.4% were bisexual (and another 0.4% said 'other').

However the results of the 2021 Census, when they are eventually published, may differ from that.

It is far harder to gauge how many transgender people there are, not least because it is almost impossible to get an agreed definition of 'transgender'.

However the ONS reports that "less than five" of the 3,600 respondents to the UU/QUB NI Life and Times Survey said they were transgender between 2016-18.

That would equate to somewhere between 0.1% and 0.02% of the population.

More from this reporter:

• Ulster politicians praise Scottish gender-switch law and call for Northern Ireland to mimic it

• Christian pastor: The day dad told me he was a woman