Sex and Sexuality:
The Personas of the Church ...continued
A study conducted by American watchdog Media Matters analysed how often conservative and progressive religious leaders appeared in the media and where. They found that conservative religious leaders were quoted 3 times more often in newspapers than progressive ones, and four times more often on television news.
On the subject of sex, some religious commentators have offered insights that form a stark contrast to Dr Williams.
Two years ago, the Rt. Revd. Tom Butler publicly challenged the government on the issue of prostitution, stating that the label of ‘sex offender’ did not serve to discourage women from plying their trade on the streets, but in fact made it harder for them to leave it behind and find legitimate work.
And regarding sex before marriage, the Diocese of Southwark issued a report called Cohabitation: A Christian Reflection, which suggested cohabitation was: “a new path from the single state to the married one,” adding that it was "regretful" that sex and sin had become entwined throughout the history of the church.
Aside from the image of staunch conservatism, the other media persona of the church is one of naivety in the face of a world that is markedly more realistic. In the case of the Church of England, this personality in reinforced primarily through its own propaganda.
In one such publication, Understanding Generation Y, the church went about an investigation into how young non-church-goers got by without spirituality in their lives.
Initially anxious to discover exactly what filled the space they refer to as the "God-shaped hole", 125 in-depth interviews later the authors concluded that most young people were quite happy with life, gaining satisfaction through friends, family, and having fun through popular culture. They were not all covertly depressed and feeling something was missing.
The Church heralded these decidedly unremarkable results in its newsletter as “groundbreaking”.