Quite why Mal feels he has to keep his opinion on gay people in the clergy to himself is mystifying. As much as one tends to censor the exposing of certain personal thoughts for one's website, I think the beauty of running a site like this is the sheer honesty that it brings out in you. I'm prepared to be a lot more self-critical in a forum like this, which anyone can read, than I would be talking to someone face to face. I know that, no matter how clever I am editorially, writing this site is a terribly honest exposé of the sort of person I have become. Even the things I choose not to write tell a lot about me.

So, I have no problem expressing my own views of homosexuality in the clergy. In principle, the problem is that there is a conflict between the faith in the words of the bible and their observing the needs of their sexual orientation. In much the same way as a non-celibate man cannot be a priest in the Catholic faith, a non-celibate homosexual cannot be a clergyman in mainstream Christianity. I'm seeing this in black and white. It's the same way that mainstream Christianity cannot condone gay marriage.

Ah... but times have changed, and ah, there is acceptance of homosexuals into Christianity and gay people can be proudly Christian... Yes, they can... but I dispute all this ahhing. I'm a computer programmer. I see things in binary. If the scriptures did not say that homosexuality was "an abomination" (not my opinion - those of the scriptures) then there would be no conflict. If you want to follow a religion like Christianity, but which specifically ignores those lines of the scripture, then be my guest. Indeed, I've no axe to grind with it. I'm not a Christian, nor am I a homophobe. I'm a computer programmer, I've just said that. I'm just being horribly logical.

However, if your religion specifically prohibits something you can't be a champion of religion and still do that thing, and in the case of homosexuality, it's a rather stupid thing for a religion to prohibit - it's guaranteed to cause distress and bigotry, rather than understanding and love. So, make your own religion. Or have no religion. Just don't start a practice of saying - "here is the word of God... but we've decided to skip a few bits because they're not important"; that's hypocrisy.

Oh dear... I suspect someone will take me the wrong way.

No pun intended.