Sex and Henry VIII

So, I came across this on the inter-webs the other day, it's a brilliant example of how religion attempts to insert itself into our intellectual and biological existences in order to boss people around and remain relevant. The CofE says that sex is for married heterosexual couples ONLY! For those of us who feel that our state religion has zero authority anymore I guess the simple answer is to ignore things like this, which most of us usually do! But, just for fun, let's unpack this statement for a moment and see what we think about the assertions contained within it.

- So, we're to follow the moral teachings on sex of a church founded by a medieval-monarch essentially because he wanted to shag more (fertile) foreign birds?

- I notice that the article states that the "Christian" definition of "Marriage" is a lifelong union between a man and a woman and it's only this relationship where sex is appropriate. Most "Christians" I know have been divorced (at least once) So, "lifelong" is a bit of a stretch and there's no definition of "man" and "woman". Since words (like "marriage") seem to be able to be defined willy-nilly by the church to suit their own preferences we wonder where this leaves trans people who do the same with the words like "man" and "woman", are we to think that the CofE is trans-phobic?

- Same-sex marriage is apparently verboten, but civil partnerships sans sex are OK.. If sex is the issue what about marriage without sex (I know a few like that) or marriage where either partner pays for sex with someone other than their partner (I know a few like that too) or even people who redefine the word "sex" to mean something entirely unconventional. The whole thing needs the application of Occam's razor if you ask me, hetero and homo-sexuality are forms of "love" as well as sex, if the CofE stuck to pronouncements and definitions on that subject instead of drifting into Biology it might get closer to the allegorical stuff talked about in it's books perhaps?

- I thought people were supposed to be created in the image of "God"? And I'm told that God creates us and is "perfect", so, how can LGBT people therefore be faulty in some way and not permitted to follow their "god-given" nature?

- Didn't "Christians" used to say stuff like this about black and white men and women and also about mixed-faith couples too? Either these people know what their God wants or they don't, sounds a lot like they don't to me? Can we assume that a change will come at some time in the future, like it always has on these matters?

Oh well, I guess the establishment will continue to prevaricate as they seem to insist on doing, and people will continue to evolve their morality according to what went before and matters to them at the time, eventually the establishment is forced to catch up. This seems to be the way of things, i.e. exactly the way you'd expect if it were all invented by men in the first place.