Evangelical Christians continue to debate the ethics of [Christian rockstar and lead singer of Everyday Sunday] Trey Pearson coming out, given that he has a wife and two children.
What I don't hear them debating is whether and how much responsibility evangelical culture should assume. Might it be the case that Trey felt pressured to have a wife and children if he wanted to have a career in Christian music? Might it be the case that he confided in a friend or two, or perhaps a mentor? If so, what sort of responsibility do those people bear, if they "counseled" him to marry a woman with the promise that God would honor his commitment to heterosexuality?
Evangelicals should not lose the freedom to preach that homosexuality is sinful (though I and basically all of medicine and science disagree with them). But when married evangelicals finally come out as gay and leave their spouses, evangelical leadership, before they condemn anyone's choices, should first cast their critical eyes in on themselves to question whether or not they should continue to teach Christian gay men that their only two choices are straight marriage or celibacy.
God — at least in classical theism — is unchanging (of course, God changes several times on each page of the Bible, but whatever). Theology, on the other hand, is not unchangeable. Theology is done in this moment, by the grace that God reveals to us in this moment.
As Pope Francis says, theologians and church leadership must have an ear on their contemporary cultures if they are to discern the "signs of the times." Physics, biology, sociology, postmodern philosophy — all are signs of the times, and theology must proceed in dialogue with them.
Our understanding of human sexuality, like our understanding of life's origins and DNA and cosmology, has evolved a great deal since the Christian Scriptures were written. A biblical approach to homosexuality sounds to me as silly as a biblical approach to creationism. Our signs of the times are different than those at play in the Ancient Near East. We don't hold the editors of Scripture responsible for not knowing what we know; they don't hold us responsible for not pretending to not know what we know.
The Jesus event reveals that God, in enormous love, has begun to launch a new kingdom right here in the middle of this old world. That is the long and short of Scripture. Finding our place in that new kingdom, and inviting others to find theirs alongside us, is the long and short of Christian theology.
Counseling a gay person to deny his same-sex attraction, to marry a woman, to raise children with her; and then to condemn him when he discovers years later what a futile plan that was — this is not the kingdom of God. What it is is the kingdom of a particular interpretation of the Bible, the kingdom of a theological system turned in on itself, of religious people who, like the older brother in Jesus' story of the Prodigal, refuse to believe that God could be so extravagant with grace.
This post first appeared on Facebook. Read Brandon's original post here.
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