OTHER?MEN of the cloth are outraged over an Anglican cleric’s claim there is nothing wrong with premarital sex and that the Bible never deemed it a sin.
But Rev. Charles Morris, the man at the centre of the controversy, maintains he has nothing to apologize about, and has accused his critics of not knowing the Scriptures and hiding “the truth” from the public.
Morris espoused the view while on a panel on the television programme Religious Reasoning last Sunday. It immediately outraged many Barbadians – from the pulpit to the pew – going contrary to the church’s long-held belief and teaching of abstinence before marriage.
Rev. Vincent Wood, of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, President Kennedy Drive, St Michael, indicated that if Morris was a Baptist minister and had shown no remorse, he would be kicked out.
“There are young people out there struggling to make the right decisions, and when they hear ‘the man of God’ saying this on national television, it confuses [them]. A minister should never go down that road and lead the island astray!”
Citing biblical verses like 1 Corinthians 6:15 and Ephesians 5:3, the veteran minister said “fornication is definitely a sin against God, and premarital sex is definitely wrong”.
Wood, immediate past president of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship of more than 1 000 churches and 50 000 members in the Caribbean, added: “If he was not willing to say he was sorry, he’d be excommunicated. It is as serious as that!”
Rev. Wayne Webster, of Calvary Temple in The Crane, St Philip, in a letter to the editor, said he was also incensed by a reference Morris made to shoes and sex.
“He stooped to a level that still embarrasses me and makes me wonder how young men, and in particular, young ladies, would have felt when they heard a religious leader refer to premarital sex by using the analogy: ‘How many of you would buy a pair of shoes without trying them on first?’ I find that remark repulsive and disgusting.”
Webster hoped an apology would be forthcoming from Morris.
Monsignor Vincent Blackett of the Catholic Church said while he would not be condemning Morris, “I totally disagree with him”.
“This is very unfortunate, especially when the person is said to have compared such a sacred activity like sex with an activity like the trying on of shoes.”
However, an unrepentant Morris said he was sticking to his guns.
“I can’t say sorry for something that is true. If you can find where the Bible condemns premarital sex, I will be the first to call and recant [my position],” he told the SUNDAY?SUN in a telephone interview on Friday evening.
He said it was not a question of confusing or misleading young people, but declaring what was “the truth”.
“The most licks I am getting is from the Pentecostals and it is because they don’t know how to interpret the Scriptures. I am prepared to take the licks because I know I am standing on solid ground.”
Fellow Anglican Rev. Errington Massiah, who sat next to Morris on the panel,
told the SUNDAY SUN he was taken aback by the comments. Massiah said he knew of no other Anglican minister who held such a view.
Morris, a priest for more than 25 years, though he is not currently attached to any church, said he feared no rebuke or censure from the Anglican hierarchy.
He said while he had not been contacted by Anglican Bishop Dr John Holder on the matter, “I believe the bishop is intelligent enough to deal with this from a scholarly perspective as well”.
When the SUNDAY SUN tried reaching Holder last Thursday for a response to the row, he only issued a verbal statement through his secretary: “No comment to make at this time.”
Dean of St Michael’s Cathedral, Dr Frank Marshall, also referred the SUNDAY?SUN to the bishop for the church’s position on the matter.