"Western society seems obsessed with sex." "We never stop talking about it." "And I believe that all this chatter stems from the religion that slowly took over the West hundreds of years ago." "Love To Love You Baby by Donna Summer." "For nearly 2,000 years," "Christian thinkers have worried away at sex, trying to lay down the law on what's right and what's wrong." "And this endless debate has turned sex into a Western obsession." "Christianity shaped and controlled Western attitudes to sex for over 1,000 years." "But people began a fundamental questioning of the Church three centuries ago - the age of Enlightenment." "Since then, sex has gone from being a sin tolerated only in marriage, to a recreational pleasure - with the option of marriage as a lifestyle choice." "Gay people have been transformed from sinners and criminals to accepted members of society." "And women - once dismissed by the Church as morally weak and unfit for leadership - are now ordained as priests." "Many in the West celebrate these more enlightened times." "But, for the last 300 years, most Church leaders have fought every single one of these radical changes." "The 18th century saw a long, slow but decisive split between Western sexual morality and what Churches had traditionally taught about sex." "For the first time in 1,000 years," "Christian authorities lost control of sex in the West." "In 1711, London finally completed its magnificent new cathedral." "The new St Paul's boasted one of the largest domes in the Western world - second only to St Peter's in Rome." "It was a monument to the wealth and power of the Christian Church." "But St Paul's also symbolised a radical new way of thinking that would gradually undermine Christianity's power." "The church's architect was Sir Christopher Wren, a leading figure of the Enlightenment - a movement which sought to usher in an age of reason." "The rational power of science and learning would banish what they saw as superstition and mindless obedience." "Enlightenment thinkers used science, philosophy and logic to question fundamental beliefs about humanity's place in the universe." "Many Church teachings came under attack - seen as oppressive reminders of a barbarous medieval past." "Most Enlightenment figures were Christians, but they loved to challenge the authority of the Church." "By questioning many Christian doctrines, they helped to transform sexual attitudes and behaviour in the West." "Christianity had long held the view that all sex was a sin." "But, at the start of the 18th century, sex was fighting back." "Just a mile away from the glory of St Paul's was a world of sleaze and scandal, with sex for sale on every street." "London had always had its prostitutes, but this was something new." "There were so many that you could buy printed directories listing the best whores and what they had to offer." "The brothels of Covent Garden dealt in every kind of sex - striptease, flagellation, and even the spectacle of topless wrestling women." "There was something to suit all tastes." "These streets were one of London's many new cruising grounds, where men gathered to pick up other men." "And, nearby, were bars where men met to drink, socialise and have sex with other men." "Londoners called gay men "mollies"." "The private rooms where mollies met were soon known as "molly houses,"" "gay fun-palaces where sex was no longer a sin." "In fact, the mollies satirised the Church." "One molly house in Vere Street even boasted its own Christian clergyman - a Baptist minister called the Reverend John Church, who presided over same-sex marriages for those who wanted more than a one-night stand." "Well, no surprise that the law did not recognise these unions." "Clearly, the Reverend Mr Church was 200 years before his time." "The mollies created their own secret language and gave each other feminine nicknames " "Primrose Mary, Princess Seraphina, and Miss Fanny Knight." "These were London's first drag queens." "They created gay spaces and the start of modern gay identities." "Today, moralising alarmists blame the permissive society for modern Western attitudes to sexuality and gender." "But it wasn't the permissive 1960s - oh, no, it was the permissive 1690s." "A time when Christianity was still the dominant force in society." "The Church of England tried to fight this tide of debauchery." "But Christianity no longer spoke with one voice." "The established Church was challenged by new dissenting Protestant rivals." "The result was that the Church courts, which had punished sexual shenanigans since the Middle Ages, started losing their authority, because the Church no longer had a monopoly." "People increasingly chose to ignore them." "Control of sex was slipping through the Church's fingers." "These new sexual opportunities emerged because of rapid changes in Western society." "Over the previous 100 years," "English and Dutch farmers had led a farming revolution." "The threat of famine receded for the first time in European history." "People ate better." "They had spare cash." "Even ordinary people could buy things, just for the hell of it." "The West was developing its first mass consumer societies - and consumerism is about choice." "For the first time, large swathes of Western society could afford the luxury of introspection, the chance to reflect on their personal identity and to make choices for themselves rather than accept the roles and rules laid down by the Church." "They had a new freedom - a freedom to decide how to live and to decide who they wanted to be." "And that included how they wanted to behave sexually." "This new-found freedom also encouraged people to choose, shape and even reinvent their religion." "In the 18th century, people in Northern Europe and North America embraced a new kind of Christianity." "In Britain, it was called the Evangelical Revival, and at its core were women, whom the Church had traditionally seen as morally weak." "Its leading figure was an Anglican clergyman, John Wesley." "His new movement became known as Methodism." "Wesley called his Methodists to a more direct and personal emotional relationship with God." "Methodist worship was full of new hymns, dramatic sermons, urgent appeals to the heart - a far cry from the formality of Anglican worship." "In fact, Enlightenment thinkers attacked Methodism for being too emotional, too irrational." "Wesley insisted that Methodism should promote social justice." "He told his followers to go out and convert people of all backgrounds." "Methodists preached Christian family values, but Wesley himself was well into his 40s by the time he married." "His bride, Mary Vazeille, was a well-off widow and mother of four." "It has to be said that John Wesley's own personal relationships with women were... tumultuous." "His marriage to Mary Vazeille turned out to be a bad mistake." "He channelled his passions into apparently chaste romances with several female followers." "Wesley's wife was particularly jealous of his relationship with the woman who became Methodism's first female preacher " "Sarah Crosby." "When Sarah Crosby heard John Wesley preach," "Methodism took over her life." "Catholic and Anglican Churches had traditionally excluded women from leadership, seeing them as second-class citizens." "Wesley wasn't generally in favour of women becoming preachers, but he encouraged Methodist women to lead small Bible groups, found schools and spread the Gospel." "Western women seemed to be becoming more regular churchgoers than their menfolk." "And it began to change the way in which women were viewed in Western society." "Early Christian thinkers had presented women as sexual temptresses." "Now women started to be seen as possessing higher moral seriousness." "Men were the ones enslaved to passion and lust." "Sarah Crosby regularly exchanged letters with John Wesley describing her spiritual progress and her work teaching the scriptures across the Midlands and the North of England." "Normally she expected around 30 people in her classes - but on the 8th of February 1761, she found that nearly 200 had turned up." "This put Sarah into difficulties." "She was a woman of her time, and thought it unacceptable that a woman should preach to a large congregation." "But she decided to go ahead anyway and preach, and later wrote, "My soul was much comforted in speaking to the people," ""as my Lord has removed all my scruples respecting" ""the propriety of my thus acting publicly."" "Sarah was a huge success in inspiring large crowds." "John Wesley changed his mind about women preachers." "She spent the 1770s travelling and preaching across the country." "In December 1777, Sarah recorded that in the course of the last year she had ridden 960 miles, preached at 220 public meetings and 600 private meetings, and had written 116 letters of spiritual advice." "She became one of the most famous Methodist preachers in Britain." "Crosby and Wesley often travelled together for weeks on end." "Methodism promoted strict self-control, especially when it came to sexual matters, but that didn't stop the gossip about their relationship." "Satirical pamphleteers had a field day." "They loved to portray Methodists as sexually debauched." "This is a classic anti-Methodist picture, and it shows a preacher presiding over general scenes of insanity, and sex is one of the big elements." "So, below the pulpit, we've got a couple here who are not listening to the message at all, but they are very interested in each other." "And, beside them, there is a telltale quotation from one of the hymns of the movement " ""Only love to us be given, Lord, we ask no other heaven."" "Now, of course, Methodists weren't like that at all." "But to all those who saw the movement as a serious threat to the Church of England, sex was a very useful weapon to discredit them." "Sarah Crosby wasn't alone in Methodism." "It had many other female preachers." "Some travelled abroad to the United States and British colonies as missionaries." "But it was difficult for male Methodist leaders to shake off the old belief that women were unfit for leadership within the Church." "After Wesley died in 1791, his successors moved to restrict and eventually silence women." "In 1803, the Wesleyan Methodist Conference officially condemned women preaching." "It was a pattern that regularly emerged in the new Protestant Churches of the 18th and 19th century, as it had throughout Christian history." "In the early days, women were given real power, only to be relegated at the back seat once the religion had become established." "Men constantly reasserted their primacy and power." "At the end of the 18th century, the other half of Western Christianity faced a sudden crisis." "The French Revolution of 1789 was a threat to the very existence of the Catholic Church." "The revolutionaries abolished the French monarchy." "But they also stripped the Church of its wealth and power." "The spirit of the Enlightenment fuelled the French Revolution - but this was not the gentle English Protestant Enlightenment." "The revolutionaries saw the Catholic Church as superstitious and corrupt, and they smeared the clergy as sex maniacs with prints like this." "They destroyed churches, killed more than 2,000 clergy and exiled over 32,000 others." "They abolished the Christian calendar and banned Catholic festivals." "They even tried a 10-day week so that people wouldn't know which day was Sunday." "France became the first secular state in Europe." "This new kind of society created its own sexual rules." "Within three years of the Revolution, marriage became a purely secular contract." "Divorce with mutual consent was introduced, and homosexuality was decriminalised." "All direct attacks on Catholic teaching about sex." "The French revolution spread these new sexual norms far beyond France." "The revolutionaries even challenged Roman Catholicism at its very heart." "In 1798, French armies invaded Rome and carted the Pope off to prison, where he died." "Yet, only three years later, once Napoleon Bonaparte was in charge of the Revolution, he decided that Roman Catholicism could be useful after all, as an excellent means of controlling and policing his new Empire." "So, Napoleon signed a deal with the new Pope, and the Catholic Church started rebuilding itself right across Europe." "The striking thing about this Catholic revival is how much it was the work of women." "One killer fact - by the mid-19th century, for the first time in the history of European Christianity, nuns outnumbered monks and priests." "The vast majority of nuns were out in the world, engaged in teaching, health care, and helping the poor." "Many Catholic women were attracted to the religious life precisely because it gave the chance to engage with the world, in a way which wasn't possible for women in other parts of society." "I'll give this a name." "I'll call it Catholic feminism." "And the chief Catholic feminist inspiring them all was Mary, Mother of God." "The Virgin Mary has always had a special place in Christian tradition." "But now, more than ever before, women across the Catholic world claimed that Mary had appeared to them in visions." "Here in Paris, in 1830, a nun called Catherine Laboure reported that she'd been woken by the voice of a child calling her to the convent chapel." "The Virgin Mary appeared to her three times." "Mary had a job for Catherine." "She gave her the pattern of a medal bearing her image." "From the Virgin's hands streamed forth rays of light, and she was trampling a snake, which embodied Original Sin." "Around the medal was inscribed, "O Mary, conceived without sin," ""pray for us who turn to you for help."" "Catherine's medal would become hugely popular." "After a cholera epidemic broke out in Paris in February 1832, terrified people snapped up copies of the medal, eventually in their millions." "People credited them with miraculous powers." "There were many cures, many conversions to Catholicism." "The cult of Mary confronted the Enlightenment rationalism which had brought such destruction to the Church." "It became the focus for a Catholic revival." "And Mary's message to Catherine Laboure played its part in strengthening an ancient Christian notion." "This tradition held that Mary did not only remain a virgin when she conceived Jesus - she herself had been conceived without the taint of sexual sin." "Her conception was said to be "immaculate."" "That made her unique among human beings." "Apart from her divine son, she had escaped original sin." "The notion of the Immaculate Conception had been around since the 2nd century, but now the cult took on a new momentum - it supercharged Mary, the uniquely sinless woman." "In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed it an article of faith revealed by God." "Now, you could see that as a triumph for Catholic feminism - or, on the contrary, a new Catholic attack on sex." "After all, according to Catholic teaching, everyone, apart from Mary and Jesus, was tainted by the sexual act in which they were conceived." "In the 19th century," "Western society's obsession with sex was turning into a constant and deafening chatter." "The Victorians turned sex into a subject for scientists to study in their laboratories." "They sought to classify all sexual practices as either "normal" or "perverse."" "And when the Victorians invented photography, it was a very happy day for pornographers." "In a society so obsessed with sex, it's hardly surprising that prostitution remained a vast industry." "Practical Victorians saw it as an unfortunate necessity that men should indulge their uncontrollable urges with what they would call whores, in order to safeguard the virtue of respectable women." "In 1864, the British parliament passed the Contagious Diseases Act." "It gave magistrates the power to order any prostitute to undergo an intrusive medical examination to check for venereal diseases." "If a woman refused to be examined, she could be imprisoned." "If she was found to be diseased, she would be detained in a government hospital." "Enter Mrs Josephine Butler " "Evangelical Christian, and wife of an Anglican clergyman." "The new legislation outraged Mrs Butler." "The Contagious Diseases Act was, she said, a "deadly poison,"" "and a "legalised degradation of women."" "She called the medical examination of prostitutes a "surgical violation."" "Not a topic for a Victorian lady to explore." "Good Christian that she was, Josephine couldn't accept that men were incapable of controlling their sexual instincts." "Good liberal that she was, she couldn't accept that men were entitled to violate the rights of women." "Butler launched a campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act." "Her deeply held Christian faith taught her to feel compassion for prostitutes - as if in the footsteps of Christ himself." "She travelled the country denouncing the fact that while women were criminalised and forced to suffer medical examinations, the men who used them for sex got off scot-free." "For a well brought-up married Christian mother to stand up and publicly talk about venereal disease made her deeply shocking." "A figure to hate." "One leading churchman called her "That dreadful woman, Mrs Butler,"" "and another said that she was "worse than the prostitutes."" "But Josephine wouldn't be swayed." "She preached a message of solidarity with her "fallen sisters."" ""The degradation of these poor unhappy women" ""is not degradation for them alone." "It is dishonour done to ME." ""It is the shaming of every woman in every country of the world."" "No other female Victorian reformer had gone this far." "In 1886, Butler triumphed." "Parliament finally repealed the Contagious Diseases Act." "She did it all in the name of her Evangelical Anglican faith." "What's striking about the activism of women like Josephine Butler is that the Church authorities didn't expect it or encourage it." "But this first wave of feminism re-established Christianity as in the vanguard of reforming social and sexual behaviour." "Christians like Josephine Butler took inspiration from Christ's message of compassion and pity." "But the official Church of England struggled to deal with changing sexual attitudes and behaviour." "From the early 19th century, it found itself under attack from what had been its greatest ally - the British State." "Since the 11th century in the West," "Christian Churches had wielded total authority over marriage." "But now this, too, was challenged." "In England in 1800, you could only get married in an Anglican parish church, unless you were Jewish or a Quaker, and there weren't all that many of either of them." "That meant that all Protestant dissenters and even Roman Catholics had to be married by an Anglican priest if their marriage was to be legal." "In the early 19th century, all the non-Anglican Churches clamoured to have this monopoly ended." "That would have far-reaching consequences." "When reformers made their first efforts to change the law, there was outcry from Anglicans." "One peer in the House of Lords objected that if you let weddings take place anywhere else but Anglican churches," ""Marriages might be contracted in every ale house."" "But, in 1836, a reforming government finally faced down the Church's protests." "A Civil Marriage Act allowed Catholics and other non-Anglican denominations to be married in their own churches." "But, more than that, marriage ceased to be a purely Christian monopoly." "Now all marriages, regardless of Church denomination, must be given civil registration." "And, for the first time in 700 years, marriages did not need to take place in church - they could be conducted in a local registry office." "This was the beginning of civil marriage as we know it, separating marriage from religion and returning marriage to the civil contract it had been for centuries before the Church had taken control." "The Church of England went on ranting against the new civil marriage law." "One bishop called it "a disgrace to British legislation."" "But nothing could stop civil marriage now." "This is the very first register of marriages in the district of Greenwich in the county of Kent." "And here we've got an official copy of the very first marriage, which happened to be a civil marriage." "It's between William and Caroline." "He's described as a "basket maker, son of a basket maker."" "She's not given a profession, just "young."" "Tiny fragment of someone's life." "I wonder if they knew that they were making history." "Gradually, civil marriage was reintroduced all over Western Europe." "Even in Catholic countries, secular minded governments brought it in as part of their campaigns against Church power." "But Church of England bishops would soon have much more to splutter about over their breakfast newspapers." "The Catholic Church has always maintained an absolute ban on divorce." "By contrast, since the Reformation," "Protestant Churches have allowed divorce in certain circumstances - except in England." "Now, in 1857, Parliament passed the Matrimonial Causes Act - a law permitting civil divorce on grounds of infidelity." "This was a revolution." "Divorce was now beyond the control of the Church of England." "Not only that, but the new law went specifically against Church teaching, because it allowed for the remarriage of divorcees." "Indeed, the Church of England went on officially opposing the remarriage of divorcees until 2002." "So, from 1857, in Britain, there was a radical split between civil law and Church law." "In the late 1800s, Western morality found itself facing a new kind of challenge." "European nations - especially Britain - were rapidly conquering worldwide empires." "And Christian missionaries who went to the new colonies got more than they bargained for from the peoples they sought to convert." "As Christianity spread across the world it encountered entirely different forms of marriage." "In Africa, polygamy was widespread." "Many of the host of new converts had more than one wife." "White missionaries fervently preached that conversion to Christianity meant putting away one's "extra" wives." "Africans thought that was cruel, and not even consistent with Biblical teaching." "African Christian men heard Old Testament stories of leading characters with many wives - including Abraham and Solomon." "Surely, they asked, Christians should obey the Bible?" "To Western Christians, polygamy was not just illegal, it was immoral and sinful." "But an occasional lonely Western voice sounded a different note." "Bishop John Colenso was an Anglican priest from Cornwall, who went as a missionary to the Zulu people in South Africa." "In 1853, he was appointed the first Anglican Bishop in Natal." "Unlike many bishops, he was inclined to think for himself." "Colenso deeply admired his Zulu flock." "He openly challenged the Church of England, and made it clear he would not force Christian converts to put away their extra wives." "In 1862, he published an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury," "On the Proper Treatment of Polygamy." "In it, he wrote that to enforce the ban on putting away wives would be "unwarranted by the Scriptures," ""unsanctioned by apostolic authority," ""condemned by common reason and sense of right," ""and altogether unjustifiable."" "That didn't go down well with other Anglican bishops." "The Bishop of Cape Town already had Colenso in his sights for questioning the literal truth of the Book of Genesis." "In 1863, Colenso was sacked." "But the debate about polygamy continued." "In 1888, the bishops of worldwide Anglicanism decided to ignore what the Old Testament had to say about polygamy, and condemned it." "Polygamy has always presented Christianity with a moral dilemma - and still does." "The Old Testament is full of examples." "In the New Testament, Jesus insists on monogamy." "But some Christian societies still practice polygamy anyway." "Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a newly emerging form of Christianity in the United States in the 1820s." "According to its leaders," "God had solemnly ordered them to adopt polygamy." "Most Mormons, in the end, found it difficult to unite polygamy with Victorian values." "Now they're among the most conservative and family-minded of Christians." "But there are still at least 20,000 Mormons in polygamous marriages in America alone." "Polygamy calls into question the Western view of marriage." "It undermines the traditional notion of a Christian marriage as being between one man and one woman." "It remains an unresolved problem for the Christian Church, especially for African Christians." "The Clouds Will Soon Roll By by Elsie Carlisle." "By the early 20th century, there was a new enlightenment challenge to traditional Christian teaching." "Science had transformed artificial contraception." "Now, the use of condoms and diaphragms made it possible to separate sexual intercourse from having children, easily and cheaply." "This brought an increasingly liberal attitude towards sex right across the West." "♪ I hear a robin singing" "♪ Upon a tree top high... ♪" "How would the Church react?" "At the beginning of the 20th century both Catholic and Protestant Churches totally condemned artificial contraception." "Indeed, Catholics still officially consider it a sin." "But one section of the Christian Church was surprisingly quick in coming to terms with the idea and accepting it." "Every ten years or so over the last 150 years," "Anglican bishops have gathered at Lambeth Palace from all parts of the globe to discuss the important issues of the day." "The resolutions of these Lambeth Conferences are a barometer of where Anglicanism stands on a variety of issues." "In 1908, the Lambeth Conference began worrying about artificial contraception." "They called it "repugnant to Christian morality,"" "an evil "which jeopardised the purity of home life."" "They repeatedly described it as distasteful, unnatural, morally weak, not to mention a danger to health." "So that was a definite no to artificial contraception." "It's what you'd expect." "12 years later, in 1920, the Bishops at the next Conference were still expressing their grave concern at the spread of "theories and practices hostile to the family."" "But this hard line on artificial contraception was beginning to give way." "The great shift in attitudes came in 1930, when the Conference acknowledged, in cautious Anglican-speak, that there would be occasions on which "a clearly-felt moral obligation" ""to limit or avoid parenthood,"" "and "a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence"" "would justify contraception in the light of Christian principles." "The bishops felt that the decision to use contraceptives should be up to the consciences of individual couples." "More importantly, the bishops no longer considered birth control sinful." "Some of them even argued that there was no real moral difference between abstinence and artificial contraception, since both set out deliberately to prevent conception." "This was a significant break with the past." "As early as the 2nd century," "Christians had linked sex exclusively to having children." "Now, within the space of a few decades," "Bishops of the Anglican Communion had decided to disagree." "Rome was hardly likely to sign up to this Protestant U-turn." "Instead, on 31st December 1930, the Catholic Church produced a papal decree called Casti Connubii " ""of chaste wedlock."" "In it, Pope Pius XI stressed the sanctity of marriage and prohibited Catholics from using any form of artificial birth control." "Secret Love by Doris Day." "♪ Once I had a secret love... ♪" "By allowing the use of artificial contraception," "Protestants had now produced official backing for the idea that sex could be enjoyed for its own sake." "And that opened up all sorts of sexual possibilities - including the great taboo of homosexuality." "♪ Became impatient to be free... ♪" "For many of us, this is revolting." "Men dancing with men." "Homosexuals in this country today break the law." "In the 1950s, male homosexuality was still quaintly described in British law as "the crime not to be named among Christians."" "But it was rapidly becoming the talk of rather a lot of Christians." "Prosecutions for gross indecency between men rose sharply in the years after the Second World War, reaching a high point in 1954." "At the end of that year, 1,069 men were in prison in England and Wales for homosexual acts." "Still more embarrassingly, some of them were members of the British establishment." "If anything, it was that which led to serious discussion of decriminalising homosexuality." "At the forefront of the campaign to decriminalise were some highly unlikely champions - respected clergy of the Church of England." "Central to the Church's position was the patient research and advocacy of a clergyman who became a canon of Wells Cathedral." "Derrick Sherwin Bailey." "Bailey was a reserved but genial man, with an enthusiasm for model railways." "Yet, he was also a very original scholar, whose theological and historical writings focused on sex, marriage, and, most unusually, homosexuality." "Not that Bailey was fighting for gay liberation." "His overriding motive was compassion." "Bailey thought that a "defective" family background was the main cause of homosexuality." "He argued that the homosexual is "often a by-product" ""of the sin of a previous generation," ""and receives an affliction" ""which closes the door to marriage and family life," ""and involves both isolation and temptations" ""unknown to the heterosexual."" "For Bailey, homosexuals weren't responsible for their condition - they were victims who needed spiritual help." "He thought that although homosexuality was a sin, it should not be a crime." "Sir John, in this long report of your committee, what are the main recommendations first of all on the subject of homosexuality, and what about...?" "In 1957, the government commissioned Sir John Wolfenden to write a report on homosexuality and prostitution." "His committee was influenced by Bailey's writings." "What we've done, or what we've recommended, is that adults, consenting males in private, should not have their behaviour in this matter brought within the criminal law." "In fact, that they should be taken out of the criminal law." "Which would be a major change in the law, of course." "Which would be a major change." "The Conservative Government of the day ignored the report." "It wasn't until 1967 that a bill passed into law to decriminalise homosexuality." "I'd suspect that a majority of the British people were then against it, but to everyone's surprise, the leadership of the Church of England, the British Roman Catholic Church, and the Methodists all came out in favour." "The Church seemed to be embracing the enlightened spirit of the age." "The Archbishop of Canterbury himself, Michael Ramsey, spoke in the House of Lords in support of changing the law." "Many wrote him outraged and abusive letters - some threatened to leave the Church in protest." "In response to one such letter," "Ramsey wrote that not all sins are to do with sex, and only some sins are crimes in English law." ""It seems to me that an enlightened Christian morality" ""does require that we avoid suggesting that sexual sins" ""are necessarily more terrible than others," ""because Christ does not suggest that." ""Equally, we need a well thought out principle" ""as to which sins should be crimes and which should not."" "Ramsey believed homosexuality to be a sin, but he also passionately believed in the need to make the law more just, more humane, more Christian." "The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 finally decriminalised homosexuality between men over the age of 21 in private." "The official support of the Church of England had helped sway the vote in Parliament and change public opinion." "In the same year, Parliament legalised abortion, again with the qualified support of Archbishop Michael Ramsey." "This time, however, Roman Catholics fought it to the end." "Social acceptance of abortion and homosexuality marked a major watershed in Christian morality." "Enlightenment values of rationality and equality trumped centuries of Christians' traditional social teaching." "But at least one section of the Christian Church showed that it was fluid enough to alter its views, keep abreast of social change, and even help influence public opinion." "All You Need Is Love by The Beatles." "♪ Love, love, love... ♪" "What the media loved to call the "permissive society"" "was now overturning nearly 2,000 years of Christian negativity about sex." "Feminists in the '60s and '70s demanded equality at work, freely available contraception, the right to choose abortion if they wished." "A few years ago people laughed at us - they don't laugh at us any more." "They take us very seriously." "♪ Nothing you can make that can't be made... ♪" "Increasingly, couples didn't feel the need to get married." "♪ Nothing you can do" "♪ But you can learn how to be you in time" "♪ It's easy... ♪" "Men off the streets." "Men off the streets." "Men off the streets." "♪ All you need is love... ♪" "In 1976, the number of children born outside wedlock was 9%." "Today, it is nearly 50%." "These rapid changes in Western society have provoked a strong reaction of angry conservatism, not just in Christianity, but in all major world faiths." "Very often it's heterosexual men who feel threatened by these developments, seeing them as a threat to their power, their dignity and even their usefulness." "Of course, many of these troubled men are in positions of power in the Church." "It's A Sin by Pet Shop Boys." "Across the Western world, both Protestant and Catholic Churches have found it hard to adapt to our new social and sexual ways." "But they've each chosen to tackle these changes differently." "Protestants tend to have their rows about sex in public, and they divide within their historic denominations between liberals and conservatives - those who want to listen to the world around them and those who want to lecture it." "Send down the Holy Spirit upon your servant Angela for the office and work of a priest in your church." "The Church of England finally ordained women as priests in 1994." "Bristol Cathedral was packed for today's historic ceremony, bringing an end to the Church of England's exclusively male priesthood." "It's taken a bit longer to get women bishops, largely because the male leadership blocked them." "Forget theology - it was a gut feeling." "Lesbian and gay Christians are using the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops to step up their campaign to persuade the Church to accept homosexuality in the priesthood." "The debate about homosexual clergy has been even more bitter." "At the present moment, we, as a communion, have said the only two lifestyles permissible is that of marriage - man to a woman - and celibacy." "♪ When I look back upon my life" "♪ It's always with a sense of shame... ♪" "A literal reading of the Bible is that it condemns gay sex." "And, for nearly 2,000 years," "Christianity taught that it was among the gravest of sins." "But by the mid-1990s, some people within the Church were seeing things differently." "I cannot see that we married heterosexual clergy have a right to deny our homosexual brothers and sisters the potential spiritual blessing of a sexual relationship when we ourselves enjoy that blessing." "♪ It's a, it's a... ♪ It's a sin. ♪" "The moment you say, like most people in the West, that gay sex isn't a big deal - let alone a sin - a traditional Christian view of the Bible needs a rethink." "For conservative Christians, that's the first crack to bring the whole structure of Biblical authority tumbling down." "That's why they're so angry about the gay issue." "The Church of England's always had gay clergy and bishops, it's just tried not to notice." "In the 1970s, it got very worried when some gay clergy started breaking the silence." "I speak from experience here, because in 1988 a bishop refused to ordain me priest because I was rather more interested in telling the whole truth than he was." "Now the Church has got itself into an absurd situation." "It says it will ordain openly gay clergy in civil partnerships as long as they remain celibate." "I'd love to be a fly on the wall when bishops start questioning their clergy about intimate details of their private lives." "In fact, surveys show that a slim majority of Anglican churchgoers have now moved on, and are in favour of the recent same-sex marriage legislation." "A pity that their leaders daren't follow suit." "But at least Protestant Churches have been open in their arguments about marriage, women, and gays." "The Catholic approach has been radically different." "Faced with the permissive society, the Catholic leadership in the Vatican battened down the hatches and affirmed old certainties - no divorce, no abortion, no homosexuality, strict celibacy for the clergy, no contraception, even after AIDS hit in the 1980s." "The Catholic Church has been buffeted by the cross currents of social change in the post-Enlightenment world." "And widespread revelations of child abuse by clergy have further diminished the authority of the Church hierarchy." "'The head of the Austrian Church, a cardinal, 'was himself revealed to be a paedophile.'" "'He was a notorious child molester, 'he was a morphine addict and he used money...'" "During the 1990s, country after country discovered that some Catholic priests had been abusing those in their care." "'The Vatican had complaints against the priest 'stretching back to the '50s 'that he'd habitually molested boys throughout his career...'" "Scandals have appeared in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain, the United States, South America, Australia..." "The list runs on and on." "Of course, it would be silly to say that clerical child abuse is a problem for the Catholic Church alone." "Protestants have experienced it, too." "But the Catholic leadership has gone much further in concealing the abuse." "Instead of attempting to stop the crimes and prosecute the perpetrators, successive popes and local bishops have seemed more worried about protecting the Church from scandal." "The Church depends on trust." "In thousands of cases, it forfeited that trust." "The problem is an institutional one peculiar to the Western Church and its Catholic successor - compulsory celibacy for the clergy, which Protestants rejected 500 years ago." "Celibacy puts Catholic clergy on a spiritual pedestal." "It's very easy to move from that to thinking you're exempt from the ordinary rules of everyday society." "Pater et Filius." "In 2013, Pope Benedict became the first Pope to resign since the 15th century." "'For 600 years, every Pope has died in office." "'Suddenly this one says he can't go on.'" "It happened at the height of the publicity surrounding the child abuse scandals." "Catholic Church officials continue to harbour sexual predators and they endanger children across the globe." "Benedict's successor, Pope Francis, has publicly apologised for the damage clerical child abuse has caused, and taken real steps to help the victims." "There have also been hints that Francis might be more open on the subject of sex." "He's the first Pope to state that it's no business of his to judge gay people." "I wonder where next." "I'd like to see Francis show more that he's listened to Catholic women theologians." "And I wish him well in riding the tiger." "When you raise expectations, you may well be swept away by them." "Over the last 2,000 years," "Christian Churches have shaped our attitudes towards sex and influenced our sexual behaviour." "But since the Enlightenment, they no longer have a monopoly in deciding sexual attitudes in modern Western societies." "Many of you would think, "Good riddance."" "The Church in the West should just say sorry and then shut up about sex for 1,000 years or so." "I must confess that in moments of exasperation, that's how I feel." "But I have to pause and say that there is more to learn from the long conversation between Christianity and Western society." "I, for one, cannot let it go." "What impresses me about the story of Western Christianity is the way that some ordinary Christians have behaved since the Church began losing its power." "They saw that something new must happen in Christian sexual teaching, long before their Church leaders." "Think of Sarah Crosby, boldly going into the pulpit where no Methodist woman had gone before." "Josephine Butler seeing that she had to say the unsayable if women were to regain their dignity." "And Derrick Sherwin Bailey, quietly thinking his way to a kinder society, in which gay men would not face prison." "These were Christians who returned to the essence of Jesus' message." "They ignored hundreds of years of later Christian bickering about sex - bickering that has shaped the way that we think about sex in the West." "Can the West learn something positive from the example of these maverick thinkers?" "Can we be persuaded that Christianity has anything useful to say to us about our sexual relationships?" "Jesus Christ said precious little about sex, and nothing about homosexuality." "But he had a lot to say about forgiveness, mercy, and love."