I READ with distress the letter in the April 12 edition of Kidderminster Shuttle, which vilified Rev Charles Raven.

Viewing the situation regarding the Rev Raven and St John's Church in Kidderminster at a distance, I can only commend him for the stand he is taking.

I know him to be a truly genuine Christian man.

I have family in Kidderm-inster and he conducted the funeral of my father last week with the utmost sensitivity and care.

Rev Raven would be the first person to say that we should not condemn people for their sexual inclinations - we all need first to "take the plank out of our own eyes before looking at the speck of sawdust in somebody else's".

The issue is not political correctness, nor indeed "humanism".

The issue is truth, and in particular the truth about God.

The "attitudes of Christ" sum this up rather well.

Jesus made the point again and again that the most important thing for anyone to do is to love God before all other things.

This takes precedence over everything - and means that we have an obligation to find out what pleases God, rather than simply assuming that we know.

So let us not bicker pathetically about how we can all avoid offending each other's sensitivities.

Let us rather recognise the fact that if there is a God (and I believe there is), then he has absolute authority over every single one of us, and he chooses what behaviour pleases him, and what does not.

Our responsibility is to find out what pleases him, and this is what Rev Raven has sought to do.

Let us also remember certain facts about the situation in question.

The position Rev Raven has taken is the position taken by every generation of Bible-believing people since the first century AD. It is the position taken by the first Christians as they spread the Easter news. And it is the position taken by Jesus himself.

I would challenge anyone to prove to me otherwise.

STEPHEN CF WILCOX

(Formerly Queen's College, Oxford)

Rosebank Gardens

Bow, London