Where Christian church, other religns stand on gay marriage | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
• 3 OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMATNS THAT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
• WHO ARE THE GAY EVANGELILS?
• HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD
• U.S. HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST WEBSE PROVIS LIST OF 'GAY FRIENDLY' CATHOLIC PARISH
• WHY ARE MORE EVANGELILS SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE?
• PRAYG AWAY THE GAY: “THIS IS WHAT LOVE FEELS LIKE?”
• WHERE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, OTHER RELIGNS STAND ON GAY MARRIAGE
• MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY
• 'IT WAS VASTATG': QUEER EVANGELIL SURVIV GAY NVERSN THERAPY AND HELPS OTHERS HEAL
• THIS EVANGELIST ASKED A GAY BAKERY TO MAKE A TRADNAL MARRIAGE KE. NOW HE MAY FACE CHARG.

FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE

Our First Speaker was Elr Leatrice Caldwell, Founr of Christian Women’s Semars, Burlgton, NJ, and also Evangelist Mary Gay, founr of Prayer Vigil of Philalphia, PA and Elr Vernell Ricks of Willgboro, NJ.

If you said someone was evangelil you knew pretty much what you were gettg – errancy of the Bible, importance of preachg, a foc on evangelism, warngs of hell and most of all – opposn to gay marriage.

3 OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMATNS THAT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE

While still far om the mastream and the overwhelmg majory of self-scribed evangelils are still opposed to gay marriage, there are a growg list of pastors who scribe themselv as evangelil and yet support same sex upl. 'It has taken untls hours of prayer, study, nversatn and emotnal turmoil to brg me to the place where I am fally ready to ll for the full acceptance of Christian gay upl to the Church, ' he wrote. In a bate at San Francis's Grace Cathedral 2013, the thor and pastor Rob Bell, already discreded by many evangelils for his book Love Ws, gave a blanket endorsement of gay marriage.

An outspoken cric of the Relig Right and print of the Sojourners magaze, Jim Wallis reversed his stance on gay marriage an terview wh the Huffgton Post  2013. Several of Jen Hatmaker's books have been produced by LifeWay's B&H Publishg, who announced they would no longer work wh her after she changed her stance on gay marriageFacebook / Jen Hatmaker. One of the relatively few proment female voic on the evangelil scene, Hatmaker received a fierce backlash when she said she thought God saw monogamo gay relatnships as holy.

WHO ARE THE GAY EVANGELILS?

In an terview wh Relign News Service she said: 'From a spirual perspective, sce gay marriage is legal all 50 stat, our muni have plenty of gay upl who, jt like the rt of , need marriage support and parentg help and Christian muny.

'In Augt of 2013, on a sunny day at the beach, I realized I no longer believed the tradnal [church] teachgs regardg homosexualy, ' Cortez said a letter published on Patheos blog. 'And was pecially the ttimony of my gay iends that helped me to see how they have been margalised that my ey beme open to the jtice that the church has wrought. He fend tradnal marriage a 2008 Christiany Today article, sayg he wasn’t sure he’d perform a same-sex blsg, although he did exprs support for gay and lbian civil rights.

HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

After takg a leave of absence om Harvard Universy to study the Bible and homosexualy, Matthew V gave a speech at his church about acceptg gay Christians that has amassed over 1 ln views on YouTube sce 2012. He also started The Reformatn Project, a nonprof tryg to “reform church teachg on sexual orientatn and genr inty, ” and wrote the book “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex Relatnships. In a post on his webse tled “My Comg Out Letter, ” Christian rock mician Trey Pearson told fans that he intified as a gay man, spe beg married wh children.

In one of her old posts, “An Evangelil’s Rponse to Homosexualy, ” she ref to chose a si of the issue but do adm to wonrg if the evangelil church “has wrong.

While he said recently that his church, Northland, A Church Distributed, will mata that the Bible prohibs gay relatnships, he now believ nservative church should wele and support those of all sexual orientatns.

COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD

Then there was the time that he said the September 11th attacks happened bee God was angry at Ameri's acceptance of, among others, "the abortnists, and the femists, and the gays and the lbians who are actively tryg to make that an alternative liftyle. Angley has prevly been acced of operatg a cult where followers are tght that enough prayer n heal HIV and "childls men are enuraged to have vasectomi and Angley — who preach vehemently agast the 's' of homosexualy — is himself a gay man who personally exam the genals of the male parishners before and after their surgeri.

In sayg so, he jos a proment group of Christians whose views on same-sex marriage and LGBT issu have popular Christian wrers, pastors or micians, no particular orr, have publicly broken om the tradnal hard-le posn agast same-sex HatmakerEvangelil lear, thor and HGTV star Jen Hatmaker publicly changed her views on gay marriage 2016. He fend tradnal marriage a 2008 Christiany Today article, sayg he wasn't sure he'd perform a same-sex blsg, although he did exprs support for gay and lbian civil rights. Matthew VAfter takg a leave of absence om Harvard Universy to study the Bible and homosexualy, Matthew V gave a speech at his church about acceptg gay Christians that has amassed over 1 ln views on YouTube sce 2012.

U.S. HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST WEBSE PROVIS LIST OF 'GAY FRIENDLY' CATHOLIC PARISH

He also started The Reformatn Project, a nonprof tryg to "reform church teachg on sexual orientatn and genr inty, " and wrote the book God and the Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex BellThe former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church publicly stated his views on gay marriage while speakg at San Francis's Grace Cathedral 2013.

He scribed "a very narrow, polilly tertwed, culturally ghettoized, evangelil subculture" that he se dyg PearsonIn a post on his webse tled "My Comg Out Letter, " Christian rock mician Trey Pearson told fans that he intified as a gay man, spe beg married wh children. Sce g out, he has wrten about life as a gay Christian and created a mic vio pictg his RodgersAlthough she has intified as gay sce high school, Julie Rodgers has officially supported gay marriage for only a few years. In one of her old posts, "An Evangelil's Rponse to Homosexualy, " she ref to choose a si of the issue but do adm to wonrg if the evangelil church "has wrong.

It has weled gay people sce 1976, when s General Conventn cid that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim wh all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral ncern and re of the Church. Conservativ’ sistence that the Bible proscrib homosexual acts and their claim that protectg gay rights g on their own relig liberty have pend on another assumptn not found Scripture: that homosexualy is not a blogilly rooted inty but a sful temptatn, an addictn that one mt noisy backlash agast the Supreme Court’s legalizatn of gay marriage nnot mask the signs that this assumptn is losg s grip. But some young Christians rist the notn that embracg queer sexualy as an inty — not a disease — perms them to embrace homosexual dissenters proudly ll themselv gay or queer or bisexual.

WHY ARE MORE EVANGELILS SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE?

Participants often acknowledged their stggl wh “relapse, ” and their ttimoni “pot to the stabily and changeabily of their own inti rather than serve as a ttament to heterosexualy, ” the ethnographer Tanya Erzen wrote her study of ex-gay mistri, “Straight to J. In an era when the right worships the nuclear fay and the left celebrat sexual thenticy and gay marriage, celibate gay Christians have no fortable home on eher si of the polil spectm.

Wley Hill, an assistant profsor of biblil studi at Try School for Mistry Pennsylvania and a celibate gay Christian, told me he draws spiratn om Catholic thkers like the Dutch prit Henri Nouwen, who was attracted to Hill left his childhood nomatn, the Southern Baptist Conventn, for the Anglin Communn, which emphasiz s Catholic past and has a monastic tradn.

In his most recent book, “Spirual Friendship, ” he followed the footsteps of historians like John Boswell, who argued that the medieval church was a surprisgly hospable place for gay Christians. “They thk would be a way of smugglg same-sex erotic attractn, to fd an acceptable way of beg gay, havg a lover, ” he told and Ldsey, a celibate lbian uple who don’t reveal their last nam on their blog “A Queer Callg, ” worshiped Eastern Orthodox church for several years.

PRAYG AWAY THE GAY: “THIS IS WHAT LOVE FEELS LIKE?”

“Words like ‘iend’ and ‘sister’ don’t aquately scribe every stance of meangful relatnship between one Begue woman and another, ” they who seek to persua evangelil church to embrace gay celibacy face an uphill battle, and not only bee Mart Luther wrote that “to spurn marriage is to act agast God’s llg” and “agast nature’s urgg.

“If you end up acceptg the progrsive posn, you then have a future: Gay people, you’re supposed to get married, have romance, have children, and that’s how you get secury and stave off lonels, ” said Eve Th, a celibate Catholic lbian wrer who has a growg followg among evangelils.

WHERE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, OTHER RELIGNS STAND ON GAY MARRIAGE

“But if you don’t change your sexual ethic, then the challenge to your cultural md-set is very ep bee you’re no longer able to offer gay people the forms of adult love that our culture regniz. ” If the ex-gay mistri ironilly troduced evangelils to more fluid ias of sexualy, the liberal mpaign for gay marriage has rerced the grip of tradnal “fay valu.

MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY

We often nflate passn and pleasure wh gay Christians I terviewed stick to an olr ia of votn: the ll to obey a higher will that is not your own, one that may leave earthly sir ungratified. ”In an era when gay marriage is legal and a range of gay Christians are molg different ways to rencile sexualy and fah, are the cisns of young believers like Lanira Postell still a rult of ercn and nfed self-hatred?

“Most people know and love someone who’s openly gay, ” said Julie Rodgers, a Christian wrer, activist and lbian whose story is featured the new documentary on Netflix, “Pray Away.

In ntrast wh most male Prottant nomatns where LGBTQ members are routely ordaed and their marriag solemnized church (the Uned Methodist Church beg the exceptn), whe evangelil nomatns such as the Southern Baptist Conventn, the Prbyterian Church Ameri, the Anglin Church North Ameri and dozens of others have risted offerg gay people equaly.

'IT WAS VASTATG': QUEER EVANGELIL SURVIV GAY NVERSN THERAPY AND HELPS OTHERS HEAL

Jonathan Merrt, a senr lumnist at Relign News Service and a ntributg wrer for The Atlantic, who recently me out as gay, said he fore a gradual evolutn evangelil circl. Ellt Rossomme, a 26-year-old gay man who had been attendg a nonnomatnal evangelil church while studyg for a graduate gree chemistry at the Universy of California, Berkeley, ma the break two years ago. My magaze story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart, ” is a ep dive to the changg allegianc and divis evangelil church and muni over homosexualy.

THIS EVANGELIST ASKED A GAY BAKERY TO MAKE A TRADNAL MARRIAGE KE. NOW HE MAY FACE CHARG.

Support for gay marriage across all age groups of whe evangelils has creased by double digs over the past , acrdg to the Public Relign Rearch Instute, and the fastt change n be found among younger evangelils—their support for gay marriage jumped om 20% 2003 to 42% 2014.

“I refe to go to a church where my iends who are gay are exclud om Communn or a marriage venant or the bety of Christian muny, ” Meeks tells me. At the Southern Baptist Conventn’s three-day, October bootmp to tra more than 1, 300 evangelils to double down agast gay marriage, Stanley met together wh both LGBT evangelil advot and SBC lears for a closed-door nversatn about whether their different views on gay marriage put them outsi the fah.

Brandan Robertson, 22, is the natnal spokperson for Evangelils for Marriage Equaly, an effort started by lennials to help evangelils support civil gay marriag, if not marriag church. Jt Lee, 37, of the Gay Christian Network hosted his 11th annual nference last week Portland, Ore., and 1, 400 people attend, double the number who me last year. Lee’s iendship wh Alan Chambers, the former head of the ex-gay anizatn Exod Internatnal, was one of the key factors that led Chambers to apologize for the hurt his anizatn ed, and the anizatn shut down.