Sex outside marriage fine if it is 'intimate' says Kirk

Published on Thursday 21 May 2009 09:58

CHURCH members are to be asked to think again about traditional teaching on sex outside marriage.

A report to the Church of Scotland's General Assembly – drawn up by a group which included the man at the centre of the row over gay ministers and some of his critics – looks at the question of single people and sex.

It sets out the traditionalist view that the only proper place for sex is in heterosexual marriage, but also describes a possible alternative Christian approach which would allow sex so long as it was about "genuine intimacy", not just a physical thrill, and did not mean being unfaithful to an existing committed relationship.

The Assembly will be asked to encourage study of the report.

The Kirk's annual gathering, which opened in Edinburgh today, is set to be dominated by a debate on gay ministers, scheduled for Saturday evening.

An evangelical group is trying to block the appointment of the Rev Scott Rennie, who lives with his gay partner, to a church in Aberdeen. And there is a bid to bar the Kirk from accepting as a minister anyone in a sexual relationship outside marriage between a man and a woman.

But the whole issue of sex and marriage will be raised again when the Assembly discusses the report on "singleness" next week.

It has been produced by a working group which included Mr Rennie as well as some leading evangelicals.

The report notes the number of single people is growing, with people marrying later and marrying less, and rates of divorce and separation rising.

And it quotes a survey which found 85 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds considered sex before marriage to be "rarely/not at all wrong".

The report says the church's traditional teaching is that "sex is more than sex – it is a union of two people" and therefore a view which separated sex from marriage was fundamentally mistaken.

But it goes on to describe an alternative approach. It says: "A revisionist Christian ethic of sex would emphasise that sex be consensual, with adequate provision for contraception, that it involve genuine intimacy rather than a simple physical thrill, that it be generous and self-giving, and that it not involve infidelity to an already-held relationship of trust and commitment."

The report says some churches have become comfortable with the idea of sex in long-term committed relationships.

A Kirk spokesman said: "The report is more descriptive rather than prescriptive, and while it cannot pretend to be exhaustive or definitive, it encourages the church to take up the opportunity to reflect on these issues and how they impact upon belief and practice."