Christian view on gay
Homosexuality
In your book What’s so Amazing about Grace? you say about your friendship with Soulforce public figure Mel White. What is your position on gays and lesbians in the church?
You don’t pound around the bush, do you? Mel—formerly a ghost scribe for famous Christians and now a prominent gay activist—was one of my closest friends for years before he revealed to me his sexual orientation. (He still is a close partner, by the way.) He had repressed and hidden his homosexuality, and in fact was married and was making a fine career in Christian publishing and also in ministry as a pastor and professor at Fuller Seminary. Mel became a window to me into a society I knew nothing about. He tells his own story in the book Stranger at the Gate. We all grasp well how explosive this issue can be. I acquire hate letters entire of equal venom from both sides: from conservative Christians appalled that I would maintain a friendship with Mel and write compassionately about gays and lesbians, and from the other side wishing I would go further with a full endorsement of gay rights.
In my relationship with Mel White, I have to remind myself
The Great Divide: Same-Sex Marriage And The Evangelical Christian
The Great Partition, as geologists call it, is a rocky ridge that runs from the mountains in Alaska all the way through South America. The water on the west side of the Distribute runs into the Pacific Ocean; the water on the east side finds its way toward the Atlantic. Water that at one time was flowing in the same river is now separated, and never again the twain shall meet.
The decision of the Supreme Court to legalize queer marriage in all 50 states has confronted us with our own great divide: on the one side are those who hold to a biblical definition of marriage, and on the other are those who are “same-sex affirming,” insistent on providing a loving and welcoming stance toward these now-honored unions.
As one conservative law professor said, after the backlash regarding the March 2015 RFRA ruling in Indiana,
Cultural pressure is going to radically reduce orthodox Christian numbers in the years to come. The meaning of what it means to be a faithful Christian is going to come under intense heat, not only from outside the churches, but from within. There will be serious stigma attached to standing up for o
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Declare About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Research Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the identical sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even coined until the overdue 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can hop into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a little but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible is God’s very written word, it is widely understood that God produced its content
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a gay gentleman and a queer woman. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and self-acceptance parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a young individual. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical instruction on sexuality while loving his homosexual parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new guide Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his book and his perspective on how Christians can beat navigate the complexities of this issue with truth and grace.
In your publication you say that it’s time for Christians to possess the iss