Justin Welby has abandoned his own church’s teaching on sexuality

Why has the Archbishop of Canterbury changed his mind on gay sex? Peter Lynas believes it’s because the Archbishop has adopted a view of morality which is based more on personal preference than objective standards

In a recent podcast interview Justin Welby appeared to deny the long held Anglican doctrine of marriage, not to mention the Church’s Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.

Meanwhile on an entirely different podcast, John Mark Comer inadvertently exposed the fundamental problem with Welby’s comments. I listened to both recently and was struck by the contrast.

The Archbishop joined Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart on ‘Leading’, a spin off from their popular ‘The rest is politics’ podcast. Much of the interview was a helpful modelling of Christian engagement in the public square. Justin Welby has a good relationship with pro-faith atheist Campbell and church-going Stewart, and he shared openly about his family past and his own struggles with mental health. He was a little sketchy on theodicy, suffering and revelation but then came the question about “gay sex”.

Everyone knew this moment was coming, not least because Campbell had asked Welby about it previously in a 2016 GQ interview. Campbell wondered if the Archbishop had a better answer now. Welby thought he did.

Sadly, he was wrong.

The Archbishop answered…