Taking Courage -May 1, 2002

The Courage Trust, which has worked with men of homosexual orientation for the last 14 years, has been asked to leave the Evangelical Alliance.

In a joint press release from the two organisations, it was made clear that the development of Courage's position through its years of work and theological reflection, now put it at adds with the Alliance's position.

Although presented as a separation by mutual agreement, it was clear that Courage's willingness to accept covenant relationships between men that might include an erotic dimension was unacceptable to EA.

However, questions have already been raised about why this issue has been singled out, whilst members of the Evangelical Alliance are permitted to hold divergent positions on most other ethical issues.

The following statement was issued jointly by the two organisations:

"With the greatest regret, The Evangelical Alliance today accepted the resignation of The Courage Trust from membership.

"The Courage Trust has been a member of the Alliance since 1989. It provides a significant ministry to those of a homosexual orientation.

"Over the past few years Courage has defined and sought to pioneer a 'New Approach' to ministering to homosexuals. Exodus, which serves as an umbrella body for Christian organisations working in this particular field, removed Courage from membership in 2000 following Courage's adoption of the New Approach. Following this a series of conversations took place between Courage and the Alliance, whose position on the subject of homosexuality was set out in its 1998 report, 'Faith, Hope & Homosexuality'.

"The issue relates to same-sex intimacy. The New Approach states that while homo-erotic sexual practices cannot be actively commended there are certain circumstances in which it would be inappropriate overtly to condemn them. In such circumstances, the New Approach holds that the acceptability or otherwise of homoerotic sexual practice should be left to people's private judgement and conscience.

"Courage takes the view that the Biblical condemnations and prohibitions of homosexual practice were not written with the pastoral care of Christians who are homosexual in mind. On the contrary, the passages concerned sought to confront selfish and abusive behaviour in a very different social context. Courage also argues that while the Bible is consistent in condemning homo-erotic sexual practice whenever the matter is considered, it is wrong to assume that these scriptures necessarily preclude all homo-erotic sexual practice in the context of long term committed, loving, same sex relationships, where mature partners conscientiously believe before God that this is appropriate to their relationship.

"The Alliance considered a preliminary report about Courage's new position in July 2001 and agreed to regard Courage's membership as 'under review' until early 2002. Since then further discussions have taken place between Jeremy Marks of Courage and the Alliance, and a major Consultation held on 19 December 2001. This Consultation was attended by other groups ministering to homosexuals, by Alliance staff, and by a delegation from Courage. All the other groups working in this field stated that they looked to the Evangelical Alliance to uphold Biblical orthodoxy in the area of homosexual relationships, as stated in Faith, Hope & Homosexuality.