A Christian Case for Gay Marriage?

Contents:

• THE CHRISTIAN SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• A RPONSE TO ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN: THE BIBLIL CASE SUPPORT OF SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS’
• THE GROUND HAS SHIFTED ON GAY MARRIAGE FOR NSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS.
• A CHRISTIAN CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE?
• GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
• TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT
• U.S. SUPREME COURT LEANS TOWARD WEB SIGNER WH ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE STANCE

THE CHRISTIAN SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

So the fact that many churchgoers have changed their views about gay civil rights recent years is one of the major unr-reported reasons why same-sex marriage is now legal ne stat. It is also one of the reasons that the nstutnal challenge to Proposn 8, which took away gay Californians’ right to marry, may get a hearg the Supreme Court this term (an announcement is expected on Monday).

So when our more nservative Christian k claim that gay marriage is agast God and agast the Bible, we beg to differ.

TIMELINE: Gay marriage chronologyAlthough each of the beliefs was based on the leral words of a particular Bible passage, all of them were opposn to the msage and life of J and the prophets. Most New Ttament Greek scholars now pot out that there are only three passag that al wh homosexualy the New Ttament — Romans 1:23-27, 1 Corthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 — and those passag don’t al wh homosexualy as we fe today but rather wh temple prostutn and other ab. But most of acknowledge that if we took all of the Old Ttament’s orrs lerally, at least half of wouldn’t make to age 40, bee of mands to kill those who m adultery (Levic 20:10), kill rebell sons who disobey their parents (Dteronomy 21:18-21), kill anyone who works on the Sabbath (Exod 31:15) and the never addrsed the subject of homosexualy, other than what n be ferred om his example of lovg and acceptg everyone, pecially the opprsed and those whom the relig tablishment nsired Christians will disagree, potg out that J said marriage was between a man and a woman.

A RPONSE TO ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN: THE BIBLIL CASE SUPPORT OF SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS’

He was not sayg anythg about same-sex marriage, which didn’t exist at the never spoke agast homosexualy, but he did speak very clearly agast divorce. But why not make the same cultural allowanc for gay upl 2, 000 years later that Christian church have long ma for the divorced (as well as women, the disabled, and others who faced discrimatn back then)?

”An ever-growg number of Christian clergy and lay people now believe that rejectg gay civil rights bee of a leral adherence to certa vers directly ntradicts the them. They pot out how the views are hurtg all of the church, pecially s most vulnerable members: young gay people who are nvced that their very sence is sful. Furthermore, they n no longer support unjt laws that penalize mted same-sex upl and their more and more church members thoughtfully and prayerfully nont the evince, will only be a matter of time before the majory of Christians of all strip bee alli rather than antagonists for jtice and equal rights for gay people.

Pearce is the thor of “This We Believe: The Christian Case for Gay Civil Rights, ” and the director of media relatns for Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Lln Universy. The se follows the Supreme Court's 2018 lg favor of a Christian Denver-area baker who refed on relig grounds to make a weddg ke for a gay 's se giv the jtic an opportuny to answer a qutn that has been raised other disput cludg the baker se but never fively rolved: n people refe service to ctomers vlatn of public acmodatn laws based on the ia that fulfillg a creative act such as signg a webse or bakg a ke is a form of ee speech unr the U.

THE GROUND HAS SHIFTED ON GAY MARRIAGE FOR NSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS.

Smh had asked the urt to overturn s important 1990 lg that limed the abily of people to ce their relig beliefs seekg exemptns om laws that apply to ON GAY MARRIAGESmh ns a web sign bs lled 303 Creative that she wants to operate acrdance wh her Christian fah. She believ that marriage should be limed to oppose-sex upl, a view shared by many nservative addg weddg webs to the servic she offered ctomers, Smh sued Colorado's civil rights missn and other officials 2016 bee of her ncern she would be punished unr the anti-discrimatn 's lawyers have said that any state actn punishg her for refg to sign webs for gay weddgs vlat her right to relig exprsn and her ee speech rights. Circu Court of Appeals a July 2021 jtic are set to hear oral arguments and ci the se the Supreme Court's next term, which begs October and ends June Supreme Court legalized gay marriage natnwi 2015 and 2020 expand protectns for LGBT workers unr feral law.

Requirg that all gay Christians rema celibate for life bee of their sexual orientatn is at odds wh the Bible’s teachgs on celibacy. Contue Readg >> and Gomorrah addrs gang rape, not a lovg stctn of Sodom and Gomorrah is monly assumed to have been the rult of God’s wrath agast homosexualy, but the only form of same-sex behavr scribed the story is an attempted gang rape (Genis 19:5)—nothg like the lovg, mted relatnships that are wispread today. Further, we are nvced that the Bible leav no room whatsoever for nfn or ambiguy where homosexual behavr is ncerned.

A CHRISTIAN CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE?

“There is no place for hatred, hurtful ments, or other forms of rejectn toward those who experience same-sex attractn or intify themselv as gay, lbian or bisexual. There is no place for hatred, hurtful ments, or other forms of rejectn toward those who experience same-sex attractn or intify themselv as gay, lbian or bisexual. In our opn, the clary of God’s tth on this matter remas unchanged spe of hermentil methods signed to jtify homosexual behavr.

GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS

Logil nsistency mands that dividuals and groups who want to reterpret Scripture to sanctn ee sexual exprsn among homosexuals should extend the same ncsn to heterosexual sgl; and, fact, some have already taken this next step. For further rmatn on our perspective, we ve you to vis two other areas of our webse, Sexualy and Unrstandg Homosexualy.

”V is the thor of the book God and the Gay Christian and founr of The Reformatn Project, a nonprof group that aims to give LGBT people nservative, Christian muni and their straight alli the tools necsary to argue favor of gay rights on strictly biblil terms. He se a pro-gay terpretatn of biblil scripture, one that rpects the reverence many evangelils feel toward the text self. He was gay, and he wanted to be open about to his muny, but there was no precent for young people who had grown up his church and then e out immediately separated themselv om the spirual fay that had nurtured them.

TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT

” Like how crics of anti-gay relig arguments will pot out the hypocrisy of how people will pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to follow to the letter. But wh the publitn of the ntroversial tle God and the Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex Relatnships by Convergent Books, one of Multnomah’s sister imprts, Christians mt wake up to the fact that the sexual revolutn is not ad. “If I were mappg a playbook for the gay rights movement, this book is an important pot the strategy, ” wr Andrew Walker, director of Policy Studi for the SBC’s Ethics & Relig Liberty Commissn, his review of God and the Gay Christian.

“It has to be wrten orr to troduce nfn wh the evangelil firmament, one of the last remag nstuenci Ameri that has not embraced homosexualy wh gto. There is no qutn about : Matthew V’ book, God and the Gay Christian, and the movement reprents, is threateng to dismantle the church’s tradnal unrstandg of Enic sexualy, the only type of sexualy that is sanctned by God.

When V, a self-profsg nservative evangelil, admted to his fay and his church that he was gay, he was not ntent wh the passn they showed him. In God and the Gay Christian, V v his rears on the same journey that led nservative Christians his hometown of Wicha, Kansas, to support monogamo relatnships between same-sex upl.

U.S. SUPREME COURT LEANS TOWARD WEB SIGNER WH ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE STANCE

“It isn’t gay Christians who are sng agast God by enterg to monogamo lovg relatnships, ” V clar. The missn of the Reformatn Project, which V lnched 2013, is to change the church’s stance on gay marriage.

But now, for the first time, a profsg nservative evangelil wh a high view of Scripture is fendg gay marriage, popularizg liberal biblil scholarship an effort to normalize gay relatnships the church.