Joel Osteen, pastor of the nondenominational Lakewood Church in Houston — now the nation’s largest congregation — arrived in Boston last weekend for an appearance at the TD Banknorth Garden (also known as the Hub). Attendees paid $10 per ticket to gain admission to the event.

The Telegraph [London] reports that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has changed his views on homosexuality, now affirming a far more traditional understanding than had characterized his earlier thinking.

Rowan Williams has distanced himself from his one-time liberal support of gay relationships and stressed that the tradition and teaching of the Church has in no way been altered by the Anglican Communion’s consecration of its first openly homosexual bishop.

The declaration by the archbishop – rebutting the idea that homosexuals should be included in the church unconditionally – marks a significant development in the church’s crisis over homosexuals. According to liberal and homosexual campaigners, it confirmed their fears that the archbishop has become increasingly conservative – and sparked accusations that he has performed an “astonishing” U-turn over the homosexual issue.

Consider this remarkable section of the paper’s report:

The revelations came in a newspaper interview last week in which the archbishop denied that it was time for the church to accept homosexual relationships, suggesting that it should be welcoming rather than inclusive. “I don’t believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don’t say ‘Come in and we ask no questions’. I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviours, ideas, emotions,” he told a Dutch journalist.

“Ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics.”

At the same time he tried to distance himself from a controversial essay he wrote 20 years ago, in which he defended same-sex love. “That was when I was a professor, to stimulate debate,” he claimed. “It did not generate much support and a lot of criticism – quite fairly on a number of points.”

Response to the Archbishop’s statements has been fast in coming:

The Rev Giles Goddard, the chairman of Inclusive Church, a liberal group, said the archbishop’s comments revealed an “astonishing” change in his position. He added: “The implication is that there is no justification in scripture for the welcome of lesbian and gay people. It appears that he has moved into the conservative camp.”

The Church of England Newspaper reported August 25:

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a warning to the liberal wing of the Anglican Church saying that not every controversial issue facing the Communion is negotiable. Speaking in an interview with the Dutch evangelical daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams said that ‘boundaries are determined by what it means to be loyal to Jesus Christ’ when questioned on unity in the church and the row over homosexuality.

He went on to speak of necessary doctrinal boundaries:

He also pointed to the letters of Paul and said that boundaries are determined by what it means to be loyal to Jesus Christ. He said: “You reflect the loyalty of God in Christ. It also concerns the international arena. Christians will always have reconciliation as a priority and refuse to retaliate. “By no means everything is negotiable for me. I would not be happy if someone said: Let us discuss the divinity of Christ. That to me seems so constituent of what the Church is.” The Archbishop also said he feared the divisions taking place in the American Episcopal Church could be repeated in the UK at some stage in the future.

This is a truly important development — but also a developing story. Stay tuned.

“It just saddens me to see so many of our strong butch women giving up their womanhood to be a man.” Now there’s a statement your grandmother probably wouldn’t understand.

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has contributed some of the most important biblical scholarship on the question of homosexuality and the New Testament. He is also a committed churchman who writes with outrage and grief over his denomination’s recent vote to allow what amounts to a local option on the issue of ordaining practicing homosexuals to the ministry.

The decision against same-sex marriage handed down July 6 by the New York Court of Appeals (that state’s highest court) continues to send shock waves across the nation. The first wave of media coverage focused on the fact that the court found no basic constitutional right to same-sex marriage and declared that any change in the state’s marital law would have to come from the legislative branch.

America’s media elite prove themselves time and again to be out of touch with the American people. Just consider a recent editorialin The Los Angeles Times.

“It is not controversial to contend that in the United States, constitutional law serves as a decisive battleground in the struggle over freedom’s moral and political meaning,” asserts Peter Berkowitz. “It is another matter to assess the impact of the battleground on the battle, to clarify the current balance of power, and to anticipate the battles to come.”

Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, clarifies the biblical understanding of homosexuality in “A New Testament Perspective on Homosexuality” published in the current issue of Themelios, a journal published by the Religious and Theological Studies Fellowship in Great Britain [article not available online].