Insi the Evangelil Fight Over Gay Marriage | Time

Contents:

• FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
• INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE
• WHY ARE MORE EVANGELILS SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE?
• GAY MARRIAGE DIVIS EVANGELILS ALONG GENERATN GAP
• HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• “A DEFIVE BUT UNSATISFYG ANSWER”: THE EVANGELIL RPONSE TO GAY CHRISTIANS

FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

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 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. 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.

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.

INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE

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.

WHY ARE MORE EVANGELILS SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE?

(Lee’s iendship wh Alan Chambers, former print of the ntroversial Exod Internatnal mistry, which claimed to cure gays of homosexualy, helped prompt Chambers to publicly apologize for the hurt Exod had ed, and the group shut down. ) “The creasg efforts by evangelils, and pecially a new breed of young activists, to re-exame their attus and beliefs about LGBT people is a wele velopment, ” says Gene Robson, the first openly gay and partnered bishop the Epispal Church. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Universy hired an openly gay choreographer to assist wh a mp productn of Mary Popps last sprg and then backtracked by sayg he was an pennt ntractor, not an official employee.

Eastern Mennone Universy engaged a six-month “listeng perd” 2014 to nsir changg s prohibn on hirg gay, partnered faculty, but cid to lay a fal cisn bee, as the chair of the board of tste said, “the church is currently engaged extensive discernment over human sexualy. And at the Southern Baptist Conventn’s three-day October boot mp to tra more than 1, 300 evangelils to double down agast the “moral revolutn” acceptg homosexualy Ameri, Stanley joed SBC reprentativ to meet behd the scen wh V, Robertson, Lee and a handful of other LGBT evangelil advot for an hont nversatn about whether their theologil support for–or opposn to–gay marriage puts them outsi the fah. Genis Chapter 1 says God created male and female for one another, and the Apostle Pl lls homosexualy a s, errantists say, and for groups like the Southern Baptist Conventn and s 50, 000 church natnwi, that is the biblil tmp rd.

“Discrimatory attus and treatment of LGBT people is rooted patriarchy, and orr to embrace and affirm gays, evangelils will have to addrs their own patriarchy and sexism, not jt their nmnatn of LGBT people. “As I engage private nversatns wh pastors across the untry, many adm they have chosen to dig their heels on homosexualy not as a rult of reful study or reflectn of the biblil text but out of fear, ” explas Michael Kimpan, executive director of the Mar Foundatn, a nonprof that seeks to build lks between LGBT and fah muni.

GAY MARRIAGE DIVIS EVANGELILS ALONG GENERATN GAP

Twenty (32 km) south of EastLake, at Overlake Christian Church, Lda and Rob Robertson (no relatn to Brandan), whose gay son died of plitns after a dg overdose, now n a weekly Bible-study group for about 40 LGBT adults the Seattle area.

A recent Pew survey reported that gay marriage support among whe evangelils has more than doubled, om 14 percent to 35 percent, over the last 10 years, pl, about half, 47 percent, of young whe evangelils support gay marriage. " This mol nsirs homosexualy as a fixed tra like sk lor and ti the gay rights stggle to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, a nnectn he believ rts on flty evangelils say they support gay marriage "legally" but not necsarily theologilly, but the poll qutns do not explore that dimensn, he McFarland, an apologist and a director of the Center for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at North Greenville Universy, said a phone terview wh The Christian Post Wednday that the growg Christian support for gay marriage is multi-faceted. The poll, released late Augt by the Washgton-based Public Relign Rearch Instute, found that nearly half (44 percent) of young evangelils between the ag of 18 to 29 favor allowg gays and lbians to marry.

HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

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.

“A DEFIVE BUT UNSATISFYG ANSWER”: THE EVANGELIL RPONSE TO GAY CHRISTIANS

In this ntext of unremtg cultural warfare and the unqutned celebratn of biblilly ground sexual pleasure for married upl as functnally central to evangelils’ inty, “homosexualy”—rarely discsed fundamentalist or evangelil publitns before the 1960s—beme their nemis. Recent Bible translatns ntributed to this new ont the culture war, as “homosexual” was ed several different passag for the first time, effect ventg “homosexuals” as a unified tegory and reifyg them as the Bible's supreme Other. Footnote 9 The emergence of a natnally proment gay rights movement, seemgly a threat to married heterosexual normativy, solidified evangelils’ unrstandg of gays and lbians as their existential enemi.

They regnized that many stggled agast same-sex attractn, they sometim advoted for gay people's civil rights, and they worked hard to seek nnectns between gay and straight people and to nvey passn. The prent article do not fundamentally foc on culture war polics, Footnote 13 the ex-gay movement, Footnote 14 or progrsive Christians’ support for gay people, Footnote 15 though addrs all of the topics.