Gay Marriage etc.

A recent Email from my brother-in-law asked a series of questions related to gays, church and marriage:

1a. "Do you believe that your church is correct in denying membership to openly gay and lesbian congregants?"

It does not deny membership to openly gay or lesbian congregants, so far as I know. It does deny membership to anyone having unconfessed and unrepented sin of any kind, not just sex outside of marriage, but that's the focus, and definitely not the gender of a sex partner.

Personally, I have nothing against Gay marriage. It hardly seems fair to condemn sex outside of marriage among consenting adults who are not allowed to marry, and God is nothing if not fair. That Jesus appears never to have spoken about homosexuality seems quite relevant. As an Evangelical I'm not ready to declare any verse in the Bible is simply wrong, but we do find ways to value some verses more than others, for instance when we allow women to be teaching pastors despite 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.

1b. "If you disagree, are you doing anything to change it? If you agree, are you doing anything to assist with ex-gay ministries?"

I haven't felt called to that particular area of ministry, but if the Lord wants me there, I'm sure I'll get the message and try to comply.

At present I have two areas of passion in ministry: Single moms and their kids, and bridging racial divides. I consider both very close to the heart of the prophetic ministry, helping the "last, the least, and the lost" in society, as folks in our church sometimes say. Exodus 22.21-23 uses the terms, widow, orphan and alien in much the same way. The idea is that God judges us by how we try those at the bottom of society, those whom most folks either fail to see at all or treat as outcasts.

Admittedly, some of those folks in our society are Gay, but the ones God seems interested in my helping right now are from broken homes and from non-Caucasian backgrounds. I'm still somewhat amazed by the change. Three years ago I had only one African-American friend, who I'd not seen in over a year. And now I have more Black friends than White ones. We still have baggage, and issues to work through, but we are all convinced God commands us to unity.

2. "Do you believe that my acceptance and persistent expression of gay sexuality is on its face sinful, or in any way condemns me or deprives me of grace, or in any way makes my acceptance of grace any different than anyone else's?"

I am unaware of any active sexual relationship you may ever have had with anyone, male or female, so don't know of any reason to call your sexuality or lack thereof sinful. If I can put up peacefully with living together, and various other outside of wedlock relationships on both sides of my family, I expect I can put up with whatever you've been up to also. And I don't feel a bit superior to anyone, no matter what folks may or may not have done. We're all sinners, and so far below God's perfection that comparing our levels of sinfulness rather misses the point of Christ dying once for the sins of all.

That said, a common error I see made by attendees of our church (but not in the leadership) is to think Gay sex is somehow worse than other sins to which we are all prone. I understand that a substantial minority of singles who attend our church engage in sex outside of marriage. Our church teaches against that, but no more so for Gay attenders than for Straight attenders.

3. "Do you believe there is a tenable position that says that being gay is not "wrong" per se, but it's not as good as being straight?"

I don't recall ever hearing anyone suggest that, though I certainly have seen people act as though they believe it. It's usually similar to the way good liberal folks wax eloquent about how Blacks should be treated just like anyone else, until one tries to date their daughter. The word for that is hypocrite, and Jesus didn't approve such behavior.

A Methodist minister in Tennessee has a Weblog (blog) that touched nicely on the Massachusetts court case regarding Gay marriage: onehandclapping

Personally, I hope that this time, unlike with abortion, our nation will leave the issue up to the states, allowing them to act differently from one another. I'm firmly convinced that if we had done that regarding abortion in the early 1970s, we'd have reached national consensus on the matter years ago, and expect the same would be true regarding Gay marriage.