historical irony: ur doing it rite
Posted By fidesquaerens on February 8, 2013
For all the complaining I do about memes being reductive, I really should share ones I love more often. Brava!
I’m not sure who created it originally; I found it through Ellen Kushner’s wife Delia Sherman. So true!
My only comment here is based upon the information I got while studying to be confirmed as an Anglican.
Henry VIII did NOT simply create a new Church of England out of thin air to suit his sexual appetites. Joseph of Aramethea (sp?) had come to the British Isles after the crucifixion and established a branch of Christianity there that was subsumed when the Catholics invaded with the Normans in 1066. FWIW, there is ample archeological evidence to back up this claim (of a Christian church being present in England prior to the Catholic invasion).
What Henry did, when he wanted to put aside Catherine of Aragorn, was to go back to the liturgical laws established under the OLD church – which did NOT allow for a brother to marry his brother’s widow.
So, when I saw this meme, it just reminded me of how little is known of the Anglican history outside Anglican establishments. It’s merely convenient for non-Anglicans to think Henry VIII used sex as an excuse to create a new church.
Just a quick FYI.
Namasté!
I’m afraid I fall in that ignorant group on this one. This is fascinating history. Thanks for bringing it up.
Even with the fuller picture, I still think the Anglican church would have been amply aware of the way there had been conflicts over what marriage meant in the past. It wasn’t as simple as there being one definition of marriage from Adam and Eve to the modern day that LGBT advocates are trying to move away from. And at the risk of imposing an American model on the UK, that seems to be an assumption in the way a lot of conservative religious folk approach this issue.