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:
- THE POPE SAYS GOD MA GAY PEOPLE JT AS WE SHOULD BE – HERE’S WHY HIS MENTS MATTER
- 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
THE POPE SAYS GOD MA GAY PEOPLE JT AS WE SHOULD BE – HERE’S WHY HIS MENTS MATTER
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.
10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
From Genis on, the Bible prais the marriage of a man and a woman, but speaks only negatively of homosexual behavr whenever is mentned. The New Ttament agre, listg “homosexual offenrs” among a list of people who “will not her the kgdom of God” unls they are cleansed through Christ (1 Corthians 6:9-11).
However, is important to note that the Bible speaks only of homosexual behavr (which would clu lt—choosg to fantasize about behavr), not unchosen feelgs. Sometim is said that the Bible do not rerd any words of J about homosexualy, and therefore mt be acceptable to God. 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. ” 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.