Over the past couple days I read “God and the Gay Christian”by
Matthew Vines and “God and the Gay Christian?” edited by R. Albert
Mohler Jr. (a collection of critical responses to Vine’s arguments by
several prominent SBC theologians, released nearly simultaneously with
Vines’ book in free eBook form).
I am disappointed that the response from the SBC
so fully ignored several of Vines’ core arguments. For example, I would
have liked to see a discussion regarding the cultural shift in
understanding related to human attraction (specifically that same-sex
attraction was believed to occur for anyone when pleasure was pursued in
excess, rather than being an orientation in which one either is or is
not attracted to the same sex). They dismissed his points regarding
enforced celibacy point blank without providing any response to his main
point.
However,
the most disappointing aspect for me dealt with a misunderstanding that I
have seen crop up before – the phrase “gay Christian.” This particular
misunderstanding has been on my mind for several years now, and this is
my first attempt to write up an explanation of my thoughts. I apologize
if this ends up being a bit “stream of consciousness.”
The
authors land on the side of the argument that appending the adjective
“gay” to one’s Christian identity somehow indicates a desire to cling to
one’s sinful nature; as if to say “I am a Christian, but being gay is
not something that I am willing to turn over to Christ.” This line of
reasoning is particularly troubling to me as I identify as a gay
Christian, and it attributes motivations to me which are inaccurate
while completely missing my intention in using such identification.
Here is a quick first draft of what “gay Christian” means to me:
It
means I am Christian. I ascribe to the tenets of Nicene and Apostles’
creeds and hold tight to the promises found in Scripture. My faith rests
in the belief the God loves me and provided the means to be in
relationship through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
It
means I am gay. We’ve probably had this conversation before. If not, ask
me about it or read my previous note about proposition five from March
of 2012 (wow…that was over 2 years ago…wow…).
It means
that I desire to be honest in my interactions with others – I don’t want
to hide the things I struggle with. I may not broadcast them, but I do
want to live life with others and that involves honesty in the hard
things.
It means that I bring baggage to the table when
reading scripture and hearing sermons. My struggle with Romans 1:26-27
has less to do with whether or not I can have sex with a man and remain
true to my faith – my struggle is whether the concept of “against
nature” means that I would be trading truth for a lie if I pursued a
relationship with a woman.
It means that in some sense I
have reconciled being attracted to men with my faith in Christ. I
believe that I am loved and accepted as I am – and that challenges me to
pursue the truth of how I live my life. When I finally turned over to
God the possibility that I would need to remain celibate for life, I
began to have peace with being gay (and I began to have peace about
possibly falling in love with and marrying a man).
It
means that I acknowledge that this particular “thorn in the flesh” may
never be taken away from me. I have no doubt in my mind that a miracle
could cause me to wake up in the morning and be attracted to women and
not men. My faith is no longer contingent on that possibility. For many
years, I prayed that I would be made straight. I have often thought
about leaving the faith specifically because I felt that I was caught – I
never chose to be gay (which seems to indicate God made me that way),
but God didn’t want me to be gay.
It means that I am
particularly burdened for our witness to the LGBT community. I love
Chic-Fil-A, but don’t want to eat there because of the militant response
of the church in supporting the chain. I don’t feel safe at Cracker
Barrel any more because of the backlash they suffered when they removed
Duck Dynasty trinkets from their stores. Franklin Graham wrote in
Decision magazine that Putin is right on “these” issues. In my opinion,
Mr. Graham is either woefully uninformed regarding how gay people are
treated in Russia, or he is broadcasting a message of hate toward LGBT
people.
How can we claim to be speaking the love of God
when our words and actions towards LGBT people push others away from
the church and the message of the Gospel?
***copied from my Facebook account***
