Greetings
"New insights" in the conversation between the LGBT Community, the Bible, and the Church rarely enrich my understanding. They come across as desperate: grand advertising about what amounts to very little of substance.
A few years back there was a strong push to re-work King David and Jonathan into being a Old Testament same-gender couple. "Stronger was their love than that of a man for a woman...", therefore, they were gay lovers?
More recently I've read a series of posts, and articles that declare the real problem with same-gender coupling is the following: "God made male and female as complementary partners. Marrying within the same gender is like marrying yourself, which is idolatry." Have they ever met a same-gender couple, or even watched one episode of "Modern Family"? Similar plumbing does not equal the same personality.
However, one "new insight" sheds compelling light on the Bible, Church, and LGBT conversation that is unforgettable.
David Gushee, a leading Ethics scholar within the evangelical community, released a book in 2015 called, Changing our Mind, that contains such an insight. (Or should I say, formerly a leading Ethics scholar within the evangelical movement: since the book's release the previously steady flow of invitations to speak to evangelical churches has all but dried up.)
I won't attempt to quote or paraphrase Gushee's insight here. I refer you to a YouTube video in which he presents the book's last chapter in its original format, a speech at an event sponsored by the Reformation Project. The entire speech lasts about an hour. You needn't listen to the whole thing, but the first 20 or so minutes present an insight that I believe is a "game changer" in this conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o3ZGwzZvk - Dr. David Gushee: Ending the Teaching of Contempt..
I have been around long enough to bear witness to the historical/biblical/cultural shift he addresses.
Blessings
Chris
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