How Evangelils Are Changg Their Mds on Gay Marriage | Time

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE
• THE BATTLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE ALREADY WON | APR. 8, 2013
• INTERNATNAL GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW GAY MARRIAGE WON
• THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

GAY MARRIAGE

“It would be a ep psychologil and emotnal blow to a lot of gay, lbian, and bisexual people to be told that even if their state has to regnize a marriage formed out of the state, that their state nohels disapprov of their relatnship and effectively nsirs them send class cizens, ” says Michael Boui, a law profsor at the Universy of Buffalo. ’s gay operative class, there’s the quiet rignatn that the right to wed is likely to be on the docket the next five years, and there’s not a whole lot protectg .

Glenn Thompson voted agast buttrsg marriage rights earlier this month, and three days later attend the weddg of his gay son; he isn’t likely to suffer any real nsequenc outsi of fay rnns.

It’s not that there are many sgle-issue voters on those topics, but vot supportg the rights of pregnant dividuals or gay upl may be ed as a proxy for character and morals—and Washgton overreach. If evangelil Christiany is famo for anythg ntemporary Amerin polics, is for s plete opposn to gay marriage. My magaze story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart, ” is a ep dive to the changg allegianc and divis evangelil church and muni over homosexualy.

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. “I refe to go to a church where my iends who are gay are exclud om Communn or a marriage venant or the bety of Christian muny, ” Meeks tells me.

INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE

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. Brandan Robertson, 22, is the natnal spokperson for Evangelils for Marriage Equaly, an effort started by lennials to help evangelils support civil gay marriag, if not marriag church.

Jt Lee, 37, of the Gay Christian Network hosted his 11th annual nference last week Portland, Ore., and 1, 400 people attend, double the number who me last year. 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. For the past six months, the church has played a short wele vio at the start of every service that clus the le “Gay or straight here, there’s no hate here.

” One of the pastors now sends a weddg gift on behalf of the church every time she hears that gay ngregants are gettg married. Pastor Ryan Meeks, 36, regularly preach an unual brand of evangelilism that prais J but steers clear of pro-Ameri, pro-gun and anti-gay rhetoric.

THE BATTLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE

“I refe to go to a church where my iends who are gay are exclud om Communn or a marriage venant or the bety of Christian muny, ” he says.

” EastLake’s pivot is a signal that change is g to one of the last redoubts of opposn to gay marriage Ameri.

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. But the fastt change n be found among younger evangelils, whose support for gay marriage jumped om 20% 2003 to 42% 2014.

GAY MARRIAGE ALREADY WON | APR. 8, 2013

Seattle has a higher percentage of gay-uple hoeholds than San Francis–1 17 upl livg together the cy is gay. –based effort by 24-year-old gay evangelil activist Matthew V to raise up LGBT-affirmg voic every evangelil church the untry.

The Gay Christian Network’s Jt Lee, 37, hosted his 11th annual nference this month Portland, Ore., and attendance swelled to 1, 400, double the size of last year’s. (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. Now Lee and Chambers have been workg together wh the Colossian Fom Grand Rapids, Mich., to help evangelils warm to the gay nversatn.

INTERNATNAL GAY MARRIAGE

) “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. When Dan Haselte, the lead volist of the wily popular Christian band Jars of Clay, tweeted April, “I jt don’t see a negative effect to allowg gay marriage. Baptist pastor Danny Cortez of New Heart Communy outsi Los Angel told his church Febary that after thkg about for 15 years, and after his son me out to him, he cid to bee gay affirmg.

Illois’s Wheaton College, Billy Graham’s alma mater, do not regnize alumni gay marriag, but this fall hired a celibate lbian to work s chapla’s office.

HOW GAY MARRIAGE WON

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.

The same reasong that nclus that homosexualy is s is also behd the tradnal evangelil view that hbands are the spirual lears of marriag and men are the lears church. Lbians face the double whammy–an evangelil world where learship has long revolved around straight men has twice the trouble hearg them bee they are both female and gay.

THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

“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 the gay-marriage wave begs to lap at the door of evangelil church, many evangelil legal thkers have ramped up the argument that eedom of relign is nstutnally equal to eedom of speech. ” It may help their e that for many evangelil pastors, admtg support for gay marriage is often perceived as reer or legacy endg.