Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Reload Ethel, I feel another fundamental issue approaching!

Do we do it intentionally, or are we just innately insensitive or arrogantly self-assured that shooting ourselves in the foot is an essential part of evangelical theology?

I've just read an article, albeit a newspaper article, that reports the statement of one church leader who says, "People can be cured from being gay. Not everyone is but everyone can be.” Pass me another bullet while reload and look for another distal appendage at which to take aim.

While the rest of argument may be coherent, and biblical, this kind of language does not help the discussion. Being homosexually orientated is not a disease. And the parallel with a murderer, that's not helpful either. No wonder the gay community have issues with the church.

There must be a better way to explain our position, such as it is, to those with whom we differ. We may not be able to endorse so-called gay marriage, but do we have to sound quite so condemnatory in the process? Perhaps we've forgotten that God's love for us is not predicated upon our sexual orientation. John's Gospel does not report: "For God so loved the straight that he gave his one and only Son...."

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