When I started wrg my new book, God and the Gay Christian, I was well aware that Christians who oppose same-sex marriage the church have long ed the Bible to fend their pot of view. As a gay Christian om an evangelil church Kansas, that stat quo has had a damagg impact on my life, which is one reason I'm settg out to change the flty perspective. Here are 10 reasons why God accepts gay Christians.
Contents:
- WHAT DO GOD THK ABOUT GAY PEOPLE?
- DO GOD HATE GAYS / HOMOSEXUALS?
- WAS J GAY? PROBABLY
- JACKIE HILL PERRY: GOD IS NOT CALLG GAY PEOPLE TO BE STRAIGHT
- 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
- “WHY DON’T GOD ANSWER PRAYERS TO TAKE AWAY GAY FEELGS?”
WHAT DO GOD THK ABOUT GAY PEOPLE?
The Bible vers aren't about nmng homosexuals, gays, lbians, or transgenr people. Rather, read God's lovg warng and grace for those who have strayed om His will for sex * god is not gay *
This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a progrsive lear when to, among other thgs, gay Catholics.
As a biblil scholar, I would suggt that church lears who e their cultur and theology to exclu homosexuals don’t read Scripture refully. Those who would exclu homosexuals om God’s kgdom choose to ignore J, turng stead to the Old Ttament – most particularly to Genis 19, the stctn of the ci of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Levic 18:22 and 20:13, for example, are not about “homosexualy” as we now unrstand – as the rg, lovg and sexual relatnship between people of the same sex. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Pl and extend to the heterosexual-homosexual distctn. A mon argument for the acceptance of homosexualy and same-sex marriage is that, if God is love, He would not nmn the love of others.
DO GOD HATE GAYS / HOMOSEXUALS?
The followg blog is wrten by Greg Col. Greg is part of The Center's llaborative team and is the thor of the book Sgle, Gay, Christian. “Is God anti-gay?” Many people expect the answer to this qutn to be a simple bary, eher y or no. If you’re a nservative ( the totalizg sense of the word), the answer is absolutely y: God mt be anti-gay, bee * god is not gay *
The world and maybe even our own sensivi might say that allowg others to live a homosexual relatnship is to see to their well-beg. First Corthians 6:18 says that sexual immoraly, cludg homosexualy, is a s agast one’s own body.
WAS J GAY? PROBABLY
Do God hate gays? Do God hate homosexuals? Do God hate lbians? Do God hate those the LGBTQ+ muny? * god is not gay *
If homosexualy rults a dishonorg, harmful separatn om God’s blsg, then the lovg thg to do is to stay away om . Even if they agree wh the Bible that homosexualy is a s and rolve not to seek fulfillment of their sexual sir, they mt still fd love other relatnships—the self-sacrificg love of agape and the iendly pannship of phileo.
The need for love is no different for sgle heterosexuals than is for those wh homosexual attractn. At the heart of the claim that the Bible is clear "that homosexualy is forbidn by God" is poor biblil scholarship and a cultural bias read to the Bible. Although s unlikely that the biblil thors had any notn of sexual orientatn (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even ed until the late 19th century) for many people of fah, the Bible is looked to for timels guidance on what means to honor God wh our liv; and this most certaly clus our sexualy.
JACKIE HILL PERRY: GOD IS NOT CALLG GAY PEOPLE TO BE STRAIGHT
<p><strong>Pl Otreicher:</strong> I preached on Good Friday that J's timacy wh John suggted he was gay as I felt eply had to be addrsed</p> * god is not gay *
Hermentics is what we do when we take a text and ask not jt “what do this say,” but “what do this mean?” In askg, “What do the Bible say about homosexualy” (or more appropriately stated, “what do the Bible say about attractn to someone of the same sex,”) our task is to explore what the relevant biblil passag on the topic meant their origal ntext and what they mean for today.
God and The Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex Relatnships (Convergent Books, 2014)Jam V. This is squarely le wh the church’s official posn on homosexualy, which is that is “patible wh scripture”.
10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
* god is not gay *
Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God.
The excerpt om Corthians, above, lists alongsi homosexuals, adulterers, the greedy and dnkards to jt name a few.
Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God.
“WHY DON’T GOD ANSWER PRAYERS TO TAKE AWAY GAY FEELGS?”
At this moment history, ntrary to the other ss listed here, homosexualy is celebrated by our larger society wh pneerg excement. But not homosexual practice, not by those who are now speakg loust and holdg posns of promence. As Christians, we believe wh ept scery that the embrace of homosexual practice, along wh other ss, keeps people out of the kgdom of God.
This means is an oversimplifitn to say that Christians — or nservative evangelils — are simply agast homosexualy.
We are agast any s that rtras people om everlastg joy God, and homosexual practice jt gets all the prs bee, at this cultural moment, ’s the ma s that is so hly endorsed our ntext by the powers that be.