Vicky Beeching is a Christian celebrity, singer, and more recently media commentator; she has just announced that she is a lesbian. What makes this interesting – and, since I am firmly convinced that celebrities’ opinions are rarely sensible, the only thing that does – is that for a number of months prior to her unburdening herself, Beeching has been promoting same sex marriage in her blog, giving Biblical references as reasons for her support of same sex marriage. She urges us to have good disagreements: I can see her becoming a mouthpiece for Justin – it’s all about relationship – Welby.

As it turns out, though, the more probable reason for her view is an entirely personal one: she is attracted to other women. As so often seems to be the case, the Biblical texts are being read in the light of subjectivity, in this case because the reader is herself gay or, in other instances, because someone close to the reader is.

From here:

“I’m gay,” she says, confirming what is written. She has never said this publicly before – a handful of people in her private life know. She has only just told one her closest friends, Katherine, and Katherine’s father, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The enormity of the political ramifications of this disclosure scarcely have a second to sink in – a theologian who spends holy days with the Archbishop, whose God-fearing lyrics are sung by millions in America’s Bible Belt, coming out as a lesbian – before I begin to reflect on the implications for her personally.