Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

LGBT

To Gay-Affirming Christians Who Dismiss the "Third Way"

by in LGBT

The so-called “third way” is really very helpful. It has a lot of merit.

There. I said it. You can commence my crucifixtion now.

For those who are unfamiliar with the so-called “third way,” here’s a brief explanation. As far as I can tell,[1] the “third way” is a term popularized by Ken Wilson who is the Senior Pastor at the evangelical Vineyard Church in Ann Arbor, MI. In his book A Letter to My Congregation,[2] Pastor Wilson describes his own journey to acceptance of people who are gay. Using the apostle Paul’s example of dealing with the meat-eating controversy in Romans 14-15, the good pastor advocates allowing the sinfulness of homosexuality to be a “disputable matter” in the church (i.e., a matter on which faithful Christians can disagree). By taking this approach, the Vineyard congregation has decided to accept into full membership and leadership Christians who are in (or are pursuing) gay relationships.

Several months after Wilson’s book was published, a controversy arose when Pastor Danny Cortez wrote a letter to the estimable blogger John Shore detailing how he, too, has had a change of heart about the sinfulness of gay relationships, and how the Southern Baptist church he leads has now decided to become a “third way church” and “accept the LGBT community even though they may be in a relationship.”

Unsurprisingly, Al Mohler, the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had a conniption fit. His position is: When it comes to… [Read more…] about To Gay-Affirming Christians Who Dismiss the "Third Way"

Cutting Through the (You Know What) on the LGBT Issue

by Chuck Queen in LGBT

Until the church can come to a place of full inclusion (acceptance and affirmation) of our LGBT sisters and brothers, the church will continue to fail miserably at fulfilling Jesus’ mandate to love God and neighbor and being the body of Christ in the world. I honestly admit my personal daily failure to fulfill this mandate and to incarnate the love of Christ; I would never point to my own life as an example of what loving my neighbor as myself should look like. However, I also would not appeal to scripture to justify my failure to love, as opponents of full inclusion routinely do.

All the wrangling we do over a handful of biblical texts that condemn some form of same-sex behavior is necessary and we will continue to discuss and debate what the biblical writers’ intentions may have been; it’s what biblical interpreters do. But in terms of our practical discipleship to Jesus who made everything turn on our human capacity to love, all our exegetical endeavors to figure out what the authors/faith communities intended in these texts are largely irrelevant. With regard to our daily discipleship to Christ and in view of God’s judgment (which I believe restorative and redemptive, not punitive or retributive) all that matters is how well we love.

And anything short of full inclusion is a failure to love.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the handful of texts known as the “clobber passages” (Lev. 18:22/20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9; Rom. 1:26-27, and 1 Tim. 1:10),… [Read more…] about Cutting Through the (You Know What) on the LGBT Issue

"Queers in the Kingdom" shares the stories of LGBT students at Wheaton College

by in LGBT, Movie Reviews

Wheaton College is the flagship institution of evangelical Christian higher education. Consistently ranked as one of the best colleges in the United States, Wheaton prides itself as being “a rigorous academic community that takes seriously the life of the mind.”

But Wheaton also holds the ignominious distinction of being regularly ranked near the top of the list of the most LGBT unfriendly schools — a ranking confirmed by the troubling letter entitled “Being Gay at Wheaton: A Summary of my 9 months out of the closet” that went viral when we published it in February of this year. (See Something needs to change here.)

Wheaton’s antipathy towards homosexuality is embodied in their Community Covenant, which states:
followers of Jesus Christ will … uphold chastity among the unmarried and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman.
and goes on to say:
Scripture condemns … sexual immorality, such as … homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman.
Despite these proscriptions, there are LGBT students at Wheaton College, and Markie Hancock’s new documentary film Queers in the Kingdom casts a much needed light on the stories of Wheaton’s LGBT alumni. These men and women courageously bare their souls for the camera, describing their struggles with faith, identity, exclusion, and fear. Their stories are often bleak, but are also full of hope. Each person made it through the challenges… [Read more…] about "Queers in the Kingdom" shares the stories of LGBT students at Wheaton College

Be Who You Are and Help the Church Be the Church

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues, LGBT

Vickie Beeching, the widely acclaimed Christian songwriter and performer who recently came out as gay, is a superb example of how LGBT Christians can help the church be the church. The path forward, however, will not be without setbacks, obstacles, and many twists and turns.

Brian McLaren recently attended a forum on global human rights for LGBT persons where he recommended finding ways to help religious leaders move incrementally along a spectrum with four spaces:
Zone 1: Promote violence against and stigmatization of gay people in the name of God and religion.

Zone 2: Oppose violence but uphold stigmatization of gay people in the name of God and religion.

Zone 3: Oppose violence and seek to reduce stigmatization of gay people in the name of God and religion.

Zone4: Oppose violence and replace stigmatization with equality in the name of God and religion.
Blogger Fred Clark (Slacktivist) has noted that these zones do not reflect “a good, better, best spectrum” but “a spectrum that runs from monstrous to awful to slightly less than awful to adequate.” He summarizes the stages as:
1. Violent exclusion
2. Exclusion
3. Semi-reluctant exclusion
4. Inclusion
Inclusion is the only “adequate” position for the church that wants to model the inclusive love and compassion of her Lord. There is much, however, that impedes movement toward inclusion.

For example, three professors of biblical counseling in Southern Baptist seminaries recently gave advice to families… [Read more…] about Be Who You Are and Help the Church Be the Church

Left Behind (for being gay)

by in Christian Issues, LGBT

This guest post is by Renee P. of southern California. A technical writer, Renee describes herself as a former fundamentalist and recently converted progressive Christian.

In fifth grade I enjoyed being at a Christian school where love and peace abounded. I found favor in being obedient and striving for a world beyond this one. I loved the structure, conformity and ‘do unto others’ expectations of the school. I loved improving my penmanship, spelling tests, memorizing all fifty states, being one of the best Bible verse looker-uppers.

I gloried in all of it. I loved learning. I loved God. Life felt safe and happy.

It did, that is, until one Friday morning in the school’s chapel, when they showed a movie that caused me to fear for my soul in a way I never knew I needed to.

Thief in the Night is about what happens on earth after the pre-tribulation rapture—that is, after all the Christians have been taken up into heaven, leaving behind all those who failed to accept Christ when they had the chance.

Looking back on it now I see what a hack B movie it is. But as a highly impressionable nine-year-old I was no film critic. One particularly vivid scene from the movie that terrified me featured a little girl my age (that’s her above) who comes into the kitchen to ask her mom a question. A pan of green beans sits unattended on the stove. The girl calls for her mother. There is no answer. She calls again. No answer. Finally, fearing the worst, she begins to… [Read more…] about Left Behind (for being gay)

Baptist pastor on why the Bible supports LGBT equality

by Chuck Queen in Christian History, Christian Issues, LGBT

Of the handful of biblical texts quoted by opponents of same-sex marriage Romans 1:26-27 is the one most often referenced:
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
The problem with turning Paul into an anti-gay proponent is that Paul, along with most ancient moralists, would have regarded same-sex relations as an expression of excessive or exploitative sexual behavior by heterosexuals. It is not likely that he would have had any understanding at all of same-sex attraction as a sexual orientation set early in life.

For Paul to have known about sexual orientation is about as likely as for him to have known about atoms and electrons. He would have been totally unaware of the distinction between sexual orientation, over which one has no choice, and sexual behavior, over which one does. Paul (and everyone else in his day) most likely believed that everyone was straight. The idea of sexual orientation or the possibility of same-sex committed relationships were not even on his radar.

On the basis of Romans 1:26-27 it is common for anti-gay proponents to argue that same-sex marriage denies the natural order. This is such a weak and misguided argument. It certainly sounds lame when… [Read more…] about Baptist pastor on why the Bible supports LGBT equality

When is the Southern Baptist Convention a cult?

by Don M. Burrows in Christian Issues, LGBT

Not much that comes out of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) shocks me anymore. As a resident of the south for 15 years, I witnessed the enforced hegemony [leadership or dominance, esp. by one country or social group over others–ed]: of the Southern Baptists, and on a number of occasions was targeted by its leaders.

So it was with little surprise that I read the two biggest news items to come out of this week’s SBC convention: a resolution condemning transgender people, and the election of a new SBC president, Dr. Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark (above).

I’m familiar with Floyd, the head of a series of mega-churches, schools, and related venues in Northwest Arkansas, where I used to work as a journalist. Once, when I took it upon myself to write a column pointing out the myriad factual problems (which amounted to unbridled Islamophobia) in a series of Floyd’s televised sermons on Islam immediately after 9/11, I was met with literally hundreds of letters from Floyd’s fundie flock, each assuring me that I was going to hell, and that their pastor “spoke nothing but the truth,” and “only the Word of God.” Indeed, at the time, lest anyone doubt the authority of his words, Floyd’s lectern was emblazoned with “Word of God” in large letters across the front.

Floyd is the author of the 2004 book The Gay Agenda, an almost wildly paranoiac screed in which, for starters, Floyd: accuses other clergy of blasphemy for taking a different stance from his on… [Read more…] about When is the Southern Baptist Convention a cult?

I lost my editor's job–but marriage equality won

by Don M. Burrows in LGBT

I am proud of my home state of Arkansas this week. Not just because a circuit judge rightly ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, a pleasing albeit perhaps temporary victory.

No, I’m proud because even against a majority that seems to be against same-sex marriage, the state now has an attorney general who supports the right to marry for all, and is only defending the state’s ban out of professional obligation. I’m proud because my hometown courthouse in Fayetteville’s Washington County is gleefully still issuing licenses to same-sex couples despite the threat of a stay or appeal.

And I’m proud that, even if an appeal ends up keeping same-sex marriage illegal in Arkansas, the momentum is clearly heading in favor of marriage equality. Dozens of couples have received licenses the past few days, and Arkansans of all stripes have joyfully cheered them on. I have personally waited a long time to see this. Gay marriage is headed to God’s heartland.

The picture did not always look so promising. I was there 16 years ago when the issue of gay rights first officially arrived in Northwest Arkansas, a 22-year-old reporter for the Fayetteville newspaper and recovering fundamentalist. A plucky young alderman proposed before the Fayetteville City Council the Human Dignity Resolution, a nonbinding (except on the city) resolution that urged nondiscrimination in hiring and firing, including over matters of sexual orientation.

You’d have thought he set off a big gay… [Read more…] about I lost my editor's job–but marriage equality won

Love your neighbor as yourself–unless they’re gay

by Lynette Cowper in LGBT

View image | gettyimages.com

Jesus and the disciples who carried his message to the world had a lot to say about love. I think it’s important when dealing with any question of how to behave toward LGBT people that we take into account the following verses:

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another…. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3)

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in… [Read more…] about Love your neighbor as yourself–unless they’re gay

World Vision and Children: Love Loses

by in LGBT

Rachel Held Evans offered an eloquent summary of the World Vision debacle and the crumbling façade of evangelicalism in her March 31st piece “How Evangelicals Won A Culture War and Lost a Generation.”

Kanon Simmons’s response to Evans, “Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Response to Rachel Held Evans,” provides a typical example of the conservative’s understanding of what’s at stake regarding this issue.

Simmons asks, “What does it matter if we feed the poor, but we so mar the gospel of Christ that the poor are lost for eternity?” She closes her post with this deeply troubling challenge:
Is this fight worth it? Absolutely, because it ensures that those thousands of needy children, who are in need of salvation and nourishment, will have access to the only information that can save their souls.
Simmons believes that by tacitly endorsing homosexual marriage, World Vision would have done irrevocable harm to the gospel message that Christians are tasked with spreading. She feels that by over-emphasizing love, much of the Church has abandoned the crucial fact that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

But must a starving child be told that homosexuality is a sin while they’re being given food?

Must the one giving that food publicly profess a specific understanding of the nature of sin in order to receive our support?

The Bible never places such strictures on helping those in need; it consistently speaks out against imposing theological caveats on expressing… [Read more…] about World Vision and Children: Love Loses