What an intriguing title: Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community.\u00a0<\/i>[1]\u00a0 Embedded in the title is the overarching theme of the book and a bit of an indictment for the evangelical church. Historically, the conversation about and with the LGBTQ community in the evangelical church has been at a level that is less than elevated. One might call it one-sided and often not very kind. I agree that it is time to elevate the conversation and I see that happening. Here we are, after all, discussing the topic in full public view!<\/p>\n
Along these lines, Marin makes a valid point. \u201cThe purpose of elevating the conversation is not to answer those [difficult] questions for you, but rather to give you the framework for gays and lesbians to answer those questions with you\u2026\u201d [2] I\u2019m sure you can understand how radical that is. There was a time in my life when I would have called those words heresy! It was that time when everything seemed so clear and it was easy to use the Bible as a\u00a0 \u201cdefensive literary tool, instead of a powerful book written by Jehovah\u201d [3]<\/p>\n
The answers to life’s most challenging questions are seldom wrapped up in a neat little package with a colorful bow that someone leaves on our doorstep for us to discover. Life itself is often messy, confusing and full of contradictions. And, more often than not the questions and subsequent answers these situations invoke reflect that complexity.<\/p>\n
When I was a \u201cyounger\u201d pastor I had all the answers. I gave advice (from my deep well of experience!) freely, and\u2014regreattably for those who had to listen\u2014without reservation. Life was a series of events and choices that if made correctly would turn out exactly as one wished for, hoped and prayed. The older I get, and the more experience I have with life, faith,\u00a0and ministry the further I have moved from a monochromatic view of the world and God to a fuller-spectrum view. \u00a0Now a few years down the road and a lot of water under the bridge, I sometimes refer to a line spoken by the character Father Cavanaugh in the movie Rudy. \u201cIn 35 years (40 for me this year) of religious studies, I\u2019ve come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and I\u2019m not Him.” I’m not suggesting that there is no absolute truth, only that I am no longer the final authority on it!<\/p>\n
I remember finding out that one of our close friends in Europe was gay. He was and still is a fine man and friend. I had difficultly\u2014and truthfully still do\u2014reconciling my doctorial stand and what I understand the Bible to say about practicing specific lifestyles and the acceptance of those lifestyles. However, I have a greater struggle when I see the pain and suffering caused by Christians who act less than Christlike. There are no easy answers, and acting less than Christlike is not one of them. In this way, I was not unlike Andrew Marin, who was faced with the reality that some of his closest friends are gay.<\/p>\n
In an effort to engage with Marin, I must say that I grapple with the idea of \u201cembedding\u201d oneself into the LGBTQ community for the purpose of understanding and engagement for the cause of Christ. It is, however, what missionaries like me regularly exercise within cultures and people groups. I would struggle less if there were an expression of a call to a community and not simply the application of a buzz word for “evangelizing” or misunderstanding it as the only means of engagment\u2014these are my words and not Marin’s. I believe Marin exhibits that call and I know of at least one other example of that clear call.<\/p>\n
In the bigger picture, I struggle with the vitriol on both sides that leads to agenda that politicizes and diminishes people as well as their beliefs\u00a0and values. This only serves to polarize, which some might prefer\u00a0but is not a helpful preference. I\u2019m not convinced that in this context the \u201cus verses we\u201d is the proper stance\u00a0to approach engagement.<\/p>\n
To get to the\u00a0heart of what I wish to express, I am convinced that God is a God of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. I still must understand the Bible to say that the practice of homosexuality is a sin. But, I also understand Jesus to say, \u201cHe that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone\u2026\u201d (John 8:7) God is a God of grace, mercy,\u00a0and forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Second, historically, evangelical Christians have not generally acted in a Christlike manner. If we dare to call ourselves the Children of God then we must strive to look and act more and more like Christ. I am not convinced that the saying, \u201cwe love the person but hate the sin\u201d is an adequate answer to justify mistreatment of anyone for any reason. In fact, for the Christian, there is no adequate reason for the mistreatment of anyone for any reason.<\/p>\n
Finally, engagement is critical. Engagement is never one-sided. It is a conversation where both listening and hearing are taking place. It is a stance that seeks first to understand before being understood. It is a position of both respect and humility, a conversation in which one seeks to walk humbly, love mercy and do justly, in that order.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What an intriguing title: Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community.\u00a0[1]\u00a0 Embedded in the title is the overarching theme of the book and a bit of an indictment for the evangelical church. Historically, the conversation about and with the LGBTQ community in the evangelical church has been at a level that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134],"class_list":["post-17176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-marin","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17188,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17176\/revisions\/17188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}