In November 2013 a report from the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality was published. The group consisted of three other bishops and others. I realised in the summer of 2013 that I couldn’t sign up to its recommendations, and said I would need to submit a dissenting opinion.

In our culture, if you say something that others perceive to be wrong, you can provoke a verbal lashing or a social media storm, or worse. This article explores why God allows opposition to his people and shows how the Bible presents this as the normal Christian experience.

This article is an edited extract from a much longer conversation about disagreeing well with those holding to a revisionist view of scripture. Stuart Parker was in conversation with Andrew Goddard for the Ascend Higher podcast. Andrew is an Assistant Minister at a church in London and a tutor in Christian Ethics. Over the last three years, he has deeply involved himself in the Church of England’s project “Living in Love and Faith”, which has brought together church leaders from both traditional and revisionist perspectives.

The intention of this article is to help same-sex attracted Christians to get their particular challenge(s) in perspective, and to recognise that many other Christians also carry significant burdens resulting from their faith. Comparing the relative sizes of the crosses we bear with those of other Christians is an unhelpful exercise. If we judge that our particular burden is greater than that of others, it’s likely to fuel self-pity, resentment and pride.

It would be preferable to write the article “How I Dealt with Disappointment” as if I had gone through all the disappointment and come out the other side – “It’s in the past; just peace and joy from here on in.” Unfortunately, I would not be able to write that with much integrity. 

Some people are childless by choice, but for those who would like to be parents, whether married or single, it is a bereavement. We grieve for the child we never had. We watch parents interacting with their children and see what we are missing. We listen to our friends talk about their children and now, at our age, their grandchildren, and we feel we have nothing to say. But being childless does not have to be less.