On June 28, Matthew V—the face of the "gay Christiany"—will go head-to-head wh Dr. Michael Brown, thor of Can You Be Gay and Christian? Brown opens up to Charisma News this exclive terview.
Contents:
- GAY-AFFIRMG CHRISTIANS AND CHARISMATICS: A RPONSE TO MICHAEL BROWN (PART 1A)
- CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
- JEN HATMAKER’S JOURNEY OM EVANGELIL TO PRO-GAY TO PRO-ABORTN
- WHY GAY-AFFIRMG CHRISTIANS CANNOT TLY AFFIRM THE FULL INSPIRATN OF SCRIPTURE
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
- STRAW MAN OR VALID REBUTTAL, DR. MICHAEL L. BROWN’S, “GAY AND CHRISTIAN?: RPONDG WH LOVE AND TTH TO QUTNS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY”
GAY-AFFIRMG CHRISTIANS AND CHARISMATICS: A RPONSE TO MICHAEL BROWN (PART 1A)
For the last few s, there have been gay-affirmg Christians who reject the full thory of the Bible and who have no problem sayg that Mos or Pl were wrong on certa subjects. But is only the last few years that there has been a rise gay-affirmg Christians who claim to be orthodox believers the full spiratn of the Scriptur. * michael brown gay and christian *
In my origal review, I noted that Brown attempts to argue that gay-affirmg Christians errantly allow their experience to shape their readg of the Bible and unrstandg of doctre. “As Brown puts , gay Christians beg wh their gay inty and then read the Bible through the lens of that experience.
CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
I know this book has been out for a ltle while now. I wanted to review bee of what I've been readg on the ter about . It is my opn that people have been accg Dr. Brown of g the weakt, most pathetic, arguments support of the gay Christian stance, as targets to… * michael brown gay and christian *
My rponse was to pot out that gay-affirmg Christians are not the only on who e experience as a theologil crern.
My pot here was not to exonerate gay-affirmg theologil method bee I nce that experience n be ed improperly as a source of theologil reflectn. My pot was simply that sayg a particular dividual (whether gay or charismatic or anythg else) appeals to experience their theologil reflectn is not self an objectn.
My pot is th that gay-affirmg Christians do the same thg. The Jon are nvced that homosexualy is an abomatn.
JEN HATMAKER’S JOURNEY OM EVANGELIL TO PRO-GAY TO PRO-ABORTN
And the fact remas that the actual world gay-affirmg Christians and Pentestal/charismatic Christians both appeal to experience as a crern their theologil reflectn. Consequently, is, to say the least, ironic for a Pentestal/charismatic to impugn gay-affirmg Christians for echog a Pentestal/charismatic theologil method.
” He enurag people to reach out to the tensely anti-gay MassRistance as well as to other equaly-opposg anizatns like the Alliance Defendg Freedom and Liberty Counsel. Bee I heard that she and her hband Brandon had read my book Can You Be Gay and Christian? I also gave them this warng, love, wrg: “ won’t surprise me the days to e if: 1) tim of nflict between the church and the LGBT muny, you nsistently take the si of LGBT’s, even sidg agast your brothers and sisters the Lord; 2) you embrace more and more aspects of gay activism, cludg transgenr activism; 3) you beg to broan your circl of fellowship, embracg more liberal ‘Christians’ who ny key aspects of the historic fah; and 4) if I’m right about the first three, after a number of years – perhaps even a or more – the name of ‘grace, ’ you will beg to ch towards a form of universalism.
WHY GAY-AFFIRMG CHRISTIANS CANNOT TLY AFFIRM THE FULL INSPIRATN OF SCRIPTURE
”Sadly, sce then, the Hatmakers have divorced, their olst dghter me out as gay, and Jen has dropped out of, 2022, Hatmaker has issued a strongly-word statement affirmg – y, affirmg – Roe v.
She is followg the evable trajectory, and those who drift om biblil standards on homosexualy will do so on abortn as well (or vice versa). For the last few s, there have been gay-affirmg Christians who reject the full thory of the Bible and who have no problem sayg that Mos or Pl were wrong on certa subjects.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
But is only the last few years that there has been a rise gay-affirmg Christians who claim to be orthodox believers the full spiratn of the simple fact is that is impossible to fully affirm the dive spiratn of the Scriptur, which clus a full affirmatn of the y of J, while at the same time claimg that God approv of mted homosexual example, gay-affirmg Christians monly claim that while the Bible's prohibn of homosexual practice is tegoril, is not talkg about homosexualy as we know today. Instead, we are told that the biblil thors were speakg agast abive homosexual relatnships volvg perasty or prostutn or rape or excsive lt. (Another argument would be that they were nouncg homosexual practic volved idolatro r.
)It n be easily be monstrated that this is not te, as other scholars have done, and as I seek to monstrate as well Can You Be Gay and Christian?
STRAW MAN OR VALID REBUTTAL, DR. MICHAEL L. BROWN’S, “GAY AND CHRISTIAN?: RPONDG WH LOVE AND TTH TO QUTNS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY”
For the sake of argument, let's say that this was te and that Mos and J and Pl knew nothg about long-term, mted homosexual relatnships or that they had no notn of morn ncepts of allegedly born, fixed homosexual orientatn.
That would mean that God spired the biblil thors to wre such a way that homosexual men and women would be rejected and margalized and judged for almost 3, 500 years (om the time of givg of the Law to Israel until the late 20th century) would mean that God spired Mos to wre that was an abomatn for a man to lie wh a man even though he didn't mean mted men lyg wh mted men, and even though Old Ttament Israel (and relig Jews to this day) and the New Ttament church (cludg nservative Christians to this day) would thk God was prohibg all homosexual is what a lovg God would do? (I have a whole chapter Can You Be Gay and Christian? )In ntrast, there is not a sgle verse the entire Bible that says one posive thg about homosexual relatnships (I hope we're beyond people tryg to claim Jonathan and David were gay) while every reference to homosexual practice is entirely means that gay-affirmg Christians mt believe that God, who certaly unrstood "sexual orientatn" and was aware of every human relatnship that would ever exist, spired His servants to wre words that, if fairly and hontly terpreted through the centuri, would be ed to nmn homosexual 's more, gay-affirmg Christians mt believe that Hebrews 4:12 is not te, sce claims that God's Word "is livg and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercg to the divisn of soul and of spir, of jots and of marrow, and discerng the thoughts and tentns of the heart.
"Put another way, the Word of God reach to the very pths of our nature and yet somehow, acrdg to gay-affirmg Christians, entirely missed and misunrstood homosexual men and also means that Hebrews 4:13 is not te, sce the verse stat, "no creature is hidn om his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the ey of him to whom we mt give acunt. "In ntrast, gay-affirmg Christians mt believe that some human creatur have been hidn om His sight and have not been naked and exposed before God, sce the wrers of Scripture didn't wre wh sufficient spiratn to really unrstand mted homosexual terms of practil life applitn, gay-affirmg Christians mt say that Pl did not give valid stctns, sce he wrote, "'It is good for a man not to have sexual relatns wh a woman. ' But bee of the temptatn to sexual immoraly, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own hband" (1 Cor 7:1-2) and over, I have heard gay-affirmg Christians quote Pl's words, remdg that he wrote that 's better to marry than to burn wh lt, which is why we need to allow two homosexual men or women to "marry.