Archbishop backs ACL comments

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, declined to reject comments made by Australian Christian Lobby managing director Jim Wallace suggesting homosexuality posed greater health risks than smoking.

Speaking on ABC1’s Q&A program on Monday, Jensen was asked if the ACL’s comments posed a greater risk to public debate than the existence of alternative lifestyles.

Jensen said he was “generally supportive of ACL” but did not support everything its leaders said.

“Rightly or wrongly, what [Wallace] has done is given us an opportunity to talk about something significant. Namely, the question of health risks,” he said.

“I think it is true to say… it’s very hard to get all the facts here because we don’t want to talk about it and in this country, censorship is alive and well, believe me.”