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Roy Clements

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Roy Clements (born 1946) is a homosexual British author and former pastor. Clements was a leading figure within sections of the independent wing of the Evangelical Protestant movement for more than two decades. He resigned from his pastoral role in 1999 when he refused to end the relationship he was having with his male research assistant. He is now an occasional speaker in gay evangelical circles. His theology could be said to be based on the primacy of personal feelings and postmodern relativism. Thus for Clements the biblical prohibitions on the practice of homosexuality should be ignored because they a) undermine incontrovertibly positive aspects of same-sex relationships and b) belong to a sexually naive and unilluminated period of sacred history. Truth, according to Clements, cannot be divine if it calls into question one's sexual orientation, as the latter is simply a given. However, Clements' does not address the issue of how other sexual experiences or preferences (e.g. polygamy, extra marital affairs, multiple partners, the use of male or female prostitutes, and paedophilia, etc) can be evaluated biblically if a person's sexual inclination, tastes, or orientation are ontologically constitutive. Nor does he explain why biblical notions of sin, atonement, salvation, hell, judgement, etc., should still inform contemporary Christian thinking given the bible's "unreliable" views on homosexuality.

Biography[edit]

Roy Clements grew up in the East End of London and earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, before working for UCCF (University Colleges Christian Fellowship) in Nairobi and serving as pastor of Nairobi Baptist Church in Kenya. He returned to the UK in 1979 when he became pastor of Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge, where he developed a highly significant ministry to students. Over a period of some 20 years, he gained a reputation within the international Christian movement as an accomplished preacher and teacher; he was in great demand as a conference speaker and served on the boards of a number of leading evangelical organisations, including the management council of Evangelical Alliance, which represents more than a million Christians across 30 denominations.

Being Outed[edit]

At the time of his "outing", or of his being "found out" in 1999, he was married with three children. In March 1999, he resigned as senior pastor of Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge. Three months later, he told his wife, Jane, about his homosexual orientation. She repeatedly requested that he end the relationship with the man he was seeing. Clements refused. He explained he was planning a two year study-leave to permit reflection on his sexuality. His wife suggested that he correspond with Dr John Stott, Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London, a distinguished evangelical leader and a close personal friend of Clements's. Stott urged him to resist any idea that homosexuality may be embraced as a Christian option.

In early September 1999, his wife and a group of Christian leaders at Eden Baptist, including Sir Fred Catherwood, decided (in Clements's words) "that the possibility of ... [Clements] "coming out" ... at some point in the future posed an unacceptable risk of scandal. As a damage-limitation exercise, a press release was therefore issued by the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, informing the secular media that [he] was gay. As a consequence a half-page article and large photograph appeared in the London Times newspaper".

Clements however was highly praised in the Evangelical Alliance press release for his integrity in resigning from his post. The Christian community was enjoined to give him and his family time and space to reflect on their situation and future. Roy eventually left his wife and moved-in with his male partner thus ending his ministry in evangelical pulpits.

However several of his former close Evangelical friends and associates have attempted to maintain contact with him, but do not know his whereabouts as Clements has since adopted a policy of secrecy about his private life. Roy now alligns himself with homosexual Christian advocacy groups, including Evangelicals Concerned and the Evangelical Fellowship of Lesbian and Gay Christians.

Books[edit]

Since publicly acknowledging his homosexual orientation in 1999, a number of Christian publishers and bookshops have refused to carry Clements's books. His Bible commentaries were published mostly with InterVarsity Press (IVP), Kingsway books, and the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF). His books include:

  • A Sting in the Tale (IVP), a commentary on the parables of Luke
  • Practising Faith in a Pagan World (IVP), a commentary on Daniel/Ezekiel
  • Masterplan (IVP)
  • No Longer Slaves (IVP), a commentary on Galatians
  • Turning the World Upside Down (IVP), a commentary on Acts 1-15
  • People Who Made History (IVP), a commentary on Judges/Ruth
  • Songs of Experience (Focus/Baker), a commentary on selected Psalms
  • The Strength of Weakness (Focus/Baker), a commentary on II Corinthians
  • Introducing Jesus (Kingsway), a commentary on the Gospel of John
  • From Head to Heart (Kingsway), a commentary on the First Letter of John
  • Word and Spirit (UCCF), an examinaion of the Bible and the charismatic gift of prophecy
  • Turning Points (UCCF), an overview of cultural trends
  • Why I Believe (Regent College Publishing)
  • Rescue: God's Promise to Save (Focus), with Peter Lewis and Greg Haslam, a short exposition of the five points of Calvinism

In addition, Clements published a number of papers with Cambridge Papers (a non-profit quarterly publication of the Jubilee Centre). These include:

  • Can Tolerance become the Enemy of Christian Freedom? (two papers examining a Christian response to religious pluralism)
  • Officiously to Keep Alive (two papers on the debate about euthanasia)
  • Demons and the Mind (two papers on mental illness in the Bible)
  • Expository Preaching in a Postmodern World (one paper on the relavance of preaching today)

External links[edit]

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Clements Roy Clements LGBT
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