At a party, he must rely on gaydar if he wants to approach a gay man. Lightsey is not overly concerned with whether students agree with her.
And those siding with condemnation of homosexuality? A multitextured approach is necessary not only because conservative churches flat-out condemn homosexuality, but also, Lightsey believes, because mainline churches, including Roman Catholicism and Methodism, preach a confusing message, damning homosexual acts as sin while exhorting members to love the sinner.
By being out about her own sexual orientation, and as a social justice activist , she hopes to be a role model for LGBTQ people.
Yet in a country whose courts and legislatures and occasionally, voters have given the green light to same-sex unions in state after state, Lightsey sees the unsettling for believers prospect that the Christian church—long a force for moral causes, such as abolition and economic justice—may have to play catch-up to secular society on this one.
But right now, unfortunately, the church is lagging behind public policy. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N. Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation.
Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours EST and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation. Three states have voted for same sex marriage in Remember, majority of states that voted against it happened almost ten years ago. These descriptions occur both in the Old and New Testaments. A surface reading of these passages would suggest to the casual reader that the Bible does in fact condemn such behavior.
However, when these passages are read in context, it is clear that all negative connotations about these persons who we now refer to as LGBTs are always secondary to a more primary message. However, if we are to have a full understanding of the verse, we must know the context in which the verse is written. The full context of Leviticus paints an entirely different picture of what this verse is intended to mean.
There were two primary reasons for this verse being in the Bible. The first reason involves difficult living conditions. This verse was written at a time when Israelites and all humans were struggling just to exist. The Israelite community was subject to attack and enslavement. They needed numbers for safety and to build their society. The average age at death for adults was in their forties.
The growth of their community was important to their survival. Life was so desperate that women typically had children in their early teens, and many women died from child birth. In short, life was very hard, and the Israelites benefited from everyone contributing to the expansion of the community. Simply put, a male who did not father children was not contributing to the growth of the tribe. Kirk, it should be noted, is leaving his position at Fuller at the close of the academic year, largely because of his progressive views on homosexuality.
Jesus and the scriptures that tell of his good news are products of their ancient environment. Or, for that matter, an elaborate position on human sexuality that takes into account all the advances the social sciences have made in the past few decades. What the bible most decidedly is not is some type of handbook for navigating the 21st century.
It is not God, nor should it be awarded godlike status. To treat it as such is to break the second commandment. Are there universal truths contained with the pages of the bible?
Are many of those truths relevant in every age and culture, and binding to Christians everywhere? Definitely—loving your neighbor, forgiving your enemies, and looking out for the weak are obligations that Christ has put upon each person who that claims to follow him. Are there passages of Scripture that should be read as if they are describing historical events that actually transpired in this world? Of course—the physical resurrection of Jesus is a non-negotiable tenet of the Christian faith.
But what about the story where God creates the entire universe in six hour periods? What about all of the laws described in the Torah, like the one that forbids wearing different fabrics together, or planting different kinds of seeds in the same field?
What about the law that demands rebellious children be stoned to death? While the six passages that address same-sex eroticism in the ancient world are negative about the practices they mention, there is no evidence that these in any way speak to same-sex relationships of love and mutuality. To the contrary, the amount of cultural, historical and linguistic data surrounding how sexuality in the cultures of the biblical authors operated demonstrates that what was being condemned in the Bible is very different than the committed same-sex partnerships we know and see today.
If neither sex differentiation nor gender complementarity are the basis for Christian partnership, then what is? From Genesis 2, to Matthew 19, to Ephesians 5, what these passages make explicit and is echoed throughout the rest of Scripture is something mentioned earlier: marriage is sacred for Christians because it can represent the enduring love between Christ and the Church. Anyone who has ever been in an intimate relationship of any kind can testify to the range of differences and resulting conflicts that are an inherent part of any two personalities attempting to integrate their lives.
All things considered, it is important to remember that throughout church history, new information about people and the world have frequently led Christians to reconsider their beliefs. This need not be a reason to distrust Scripture, but rather should serve as an invitation to wrestle with the contexts of the biblical writers and our own lived experiences.
Read about what the Bible says about transgender people here. For further reading: Cheryl B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Matthew Vines. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
0コメント