First published on Benny’s Blog in 2010 and adapted for Accepting Evangelicals.

I remember the first negative comment I had on ‘Benny’s Blog’.

Anonymous said “You are an Evangelical and you presumably know your Bible yet you say homosexuality is fine ?

Accept the people, sins and all, but the practice is not OK and you should know it. Goodness, there are plenty of Biblical admonitions about it.  I`m not even an Evangelical and it seems crystal clear to me.”

I was actually amazed that it had taken so long.  When we launched Accepting Evangelicals in 2004, we immediately had a flood of the most awful emails expressing that hope that we would die a slow painful death and burn in hell – so actually, this mildly negative comment was not only long overdue, but also extremely polite and reserved.

What has not moved on however, is the mistaken belief about what the Bible does and does not say on the subject of same sex relationships.

It reminds me of the Little Britain sketch where the unhelpful bank clerk just keeps repeating “Computer says no”  – no discussion, no debate, no reasons – just no.

Far from there being ‘plenty of Biblical admonitions’ on the subject there are only a handful of verses which talk about homosexuality, and understanding  exactly what they mean or refer to is by no means straightforward.  Yet the perception remains in many people’s minds that this is an open and shut case.

Even Theologians  who are committed to a conservative line against same sex relationships, acknowledge that there is not much in the Bible to go on.   One such theologian is R.Hays, quoted in the Church of England’s official document on the subject “Some issues in human sexuality” (2003).   He talks about the “Slender evidence of the New Testament” in relation to homosexuality -and he is right.  It is mentioned on only 3 occasions, and only one of these contains any attempt to portray a theological explanation for why such attraction might be wrong.

The Old Testament is no better.  There are only 2 clear references, both in the same section of Leviticus (18:22 and 20:13) and the second is merely a reiteration of the first for the purpose of setting down a penalty for the ‘crime’.  Other references in Deuteronomy are almost universally understood to be about temple prostitution whether heterosexual or (by inference) homosexual, so contribute nothing to the current debate on sex relationships.

Other passages – eg the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 – whilst having a sexual component to them, are not principally about homosexuality, but about rape, inhumanity, and breaking the laws of hospitality which were deeply ingrained in fabric and culture of the Middle East.  Hence it was considered acceptable(even proper) for Lot to offer his daughters to be gang raped by the mob in order to protect his visitors!

On top of all this, Jesus appears to have been entirely silent on the issue, and if you are a lesbian, you can rejoice that there is even less to go on.   Leviticus refers exclusively to men, and only one of the three references in the New Testament (Romans 1) includes sexual attraction between women. 

So far from there being plenty of Biblical admonitions against homosexuality, the reality is that the Biblical evidence is both flimsy and fragmented.  We need to delve deeper to see what exactly is being considered in those verses and to see to what extent it might apply today.

The problem is, just like the Little Britain  sketch where the bank clerk says over and over again ‘Computer says No!’ –  there are many too many Christians who are content to roll out the same mantra time after time – ‘Bible says No!’ – without ever considering the evidence and what the Bible actually says.

That doesn’t mean that what the Bible says is unimportant however.  As an evangelical, I consider it  vitally important to build my understanding of the Christian faith on the Bible.

So over the next few months, we will be taking a close look at what the Bible says on same sex relationships, and what that means today.  We know, of course, that we are not doing anything new here, as many have trod this road before, but as long as there are people out there who think the same way as Mr/s Anonymous, I think it needs to be done.  We just hope and pray that all who care about this issue will be a little more responsive than the bank clerk in Little Britain.

Next time – Leviticus 18…

This week’s blog was written on Pentecost Sunday by AE member Hazel Russman.  You can also read her story by following this link….

Today is Pentecost, so the Gospel reading in our church was John 20 vv.19-23. I listened to the familiar words “…as His disciples were gathered behind closed doors for fear of the Jews” and, as always, I mentally cried “Ouch!”.

For a Jewish Christian, parts of John’s Gospel are always hard to hear. It is different when I read them for myself because then I can remind myself of the background. John was writing for a Church that was still substantially Jewish; not only was there still a large ethnically Jewish minority, but most of the Gentile members had been converted by Paul or by one of his circle and had been taught to consider themselves as Jews by adoption (see for example Romans 11vv. 16-18).

However many Christians were bitter at the official Jewish leadership because of the recent decision that Christianity was a new religion and that Jews who professed it were apostates who should be expelled from the synagogues. Against this dual background, the use of the phrase “The Jews” in an opprobrious sense to describe the Jewish leaders, as distinct from the Jewish people, who are always show as supporting Jesus, is understandable and probably unlikely to be misunderstood.

But I have the burden of hindsight. I know what all these sneering references to “The Jews” eventually led to when John’s Gospel fell into the hands of a Church that John never envisaged – a 100% Gentile Church that saw itself as a replacement for Israel,  rather than an extension of it. Listening to the Gospel being read today, calmly and matter-of-factly, as if fear of the Jews were the most natural thing in the world for Christians to feel, it was almost as if the priest were saying to me, “What are you doing here? You are not one of us. You are the Enemy.”

And that was when these words suddenly sounded in my brain: “In those days the Church shut the doors for fear of the Jews, and now they shut them for fear of the gays”.

The fear and hatred of Jews that distorted the Church’s message for so many centuries was utterly irrational, but that did not prevent it from taking a powerful hold. And John shows us how, right from the very beginning, it inhibited the Church’s calling to spread the Good News. While the disciples were cowering behind closed doors, they were not able to reach anyone outside. Nor did they wish to.

Fortunately, closed doors cannot exclude Jesus. He came in anyway and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them in spite of their fears. And when the meaning of that gift became manifest a few weeks later, the first thing they felt driven to do was to fling the doors open and pour out into the street to tell everyone that Jesus was the Messiah and that He was risen from the dead.

Today, the Church’s mission is hampered just as much by closed doors and by fear. While so many Christian groups are protecting themselves from contamination by gay people, the world looks on and says, “Well, if that’s what Christians are like, I don’t want to be one!”. They react in much the same way when traditionalists show their fear of women (who might be menstruating, God help us!) presiding at the Eucharist or ordaining priests. We are gradually losing our hold on an entire generation of British people because they see us behaving in ways that they consider weird at best and downright immoral at worst.

Those people out there have a pretty shrewd idea of what should be important to Christians. They expect Christians to care about God and about Jesus. They are not particularly surprised that this has sometimes led to quarrels about who Jesus really was, and about the meaning of His death and resurrection. They are surprised and contemptuous when they see us quarrelling about women bishops and gay priests. They expect Christians to love each other and to show love for the poor and the excluded. They don’t expect us to effectively exclude each other from the Church for having different opinions on subjects so trivial in Jesus’s own eyes that He never saw fit to mention them.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 2 v.7): it’s time to open the doors!

This week, Jeremy Marks writes on being Evangelical and Gay…

Having spent most of my adult life in the evangelical church, thinking, believing and living as an evangelical Christian, being an evangelical is second nature to me. In recent years, my view of the gay issue has radically changed—from a traditional viewpoint, believing that to call oneself a “gay Christian” is an oxymoron—to full acceptance of my homosexuality as a gift from God. 

Many of my evangelical friends (who believe me to be seriously deceived in this) tell me that I cannot call myself an evangelical anymore, insisting that I have given up the true orthodox faith as entrusted to the saints (Ephesians 3:8).  It has been extremely painful to lose many friends who I have truly loved as brothers and sisters in the faith, because they now believe me to be deceived. Worse still, they see my ministry of pastoral care and support as “misguided” and to be leading vulnerable people down a slippery slope into deception. “Faithful are the wounds of friends” (Proverbs 27:6)!  Or are they?

It has taken me years to recognise this, but I have begun to see that it is surely they, not I, who should be questioning their evangelical credentials. Because as I understand it, the word “evangel”, from which the word comes, simply means “Good News”, or “Gospel”, and an evangelical is one who believes in and shares the good news of Jesus Christ. In fact, being an evangelical has nothing whatever to do with what you believe about being gay or straight; nor has it anything to do with rejecting or accepting one’s homosexuality. It is all about receiving the Good News of Jesus Christ by faith and making Him known to others.

When I began “Courage” in 1988—a ministry that provides a safe place of fellowship for lesbian and gay Christians to develop their spiritual journey, through worship, prayer and Bible study, I accepted the traditional view, as taught. In those days, we saw homosexuality as a diabolically-inspired temptation to pursue a deviant lifestyle that parodies heterosexual marriage in defiance of God’s good creation plan—in which all are created heterosexual. As gay people, we believed ourselves to be deviant heterosexuals (Romans 1:26,27) who had somehow been tricked into believing a lie about ourselves. We believed that we needed to be renewed in our minds, and that to achieve this we must uncompromisingly set our face against any worldly temptation to live a “gay lifestyle” (Romans 12:1,2).

From our traditional evangelical standpoint, seeking to resist such temptation and to encourage one another to overcome seemed to be a laudable goal. In reality, it subtly shifted our focus away from the joy we had found in Christ to the pursuit of “self-improvement”, which became an idol. The fruit of such idolatry was a miserable reward for all who pursued the ‘ex-gay’ process. Many became deeply depressed and full of inner conflict; some lost their faith altogether—the complete opposite of our objective, which was to help people to grow in their Christian lives. We were slow to learn; but after years of seeing the catastrophic consequences of such an approach, we eventually came to understand the concept of “overcoming” in a different way: it had to mean embracing our true God-given sexual orientation, overcoming our neurosis about sexuality, and finding healing from the corrosive damage of internalised homophobia, brought about by years of trying to conform to social pressure. Then we can serve Christ fully as the people He wants us to be.

Over my 24 years of ministry, I have come to see so clearly that when people take their eyes off the all-important task of making the Good News of Jesus Christ known (ensuring of course that one’s own life is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ—Ephesians 3:16), then they become plagued with inner conflicts and lose heart.  This happens, I believe, when we allow our focus to be misdirected into preoccupation with our failings and the need for self-improvement. 

 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12) 

We lose our joy in Christ when we devote our time and energies to fighting who we are— and eventually lose our faith altogether.  When Jesus said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Matthew 12:25), the context was a little different, but the observation could not be more apt for our situation. Repentance is not about trying not to be gay; repentance is about turning away from living by our wits and our own understanding (Proverbs 3:3-7). A holy and righteous life is a life lived by faith in what Christ has done for us. In serving Christ we become whole. This is the Good News that every evangelical Christian is glad to share above all else.

As a gay Christian man I give thanks to God that I have been able to rediscover my true evangelical roots and recover my joy and salvation in Christ. It has been a great privilege to help others find their way along this path too. Thanks be to God—my sins have been forgiven, including those covert sins of internalised homophobia and self-hatred that tempted me into the spurious pursuit of self-improvement through my own endeavours. My hope for life in Christ has been restored together with my self-respect. This is the fruit of true evangelicalism I believe. 

For further study, may I recommend an excellent article by Dr Roy Clements, “What is an Evangelical?” (www.courage.org.uk/articles/article.asp?id=147 ). 

Jeremy Marks: [email protected]

You can also read Jeremy’s talk “A Change in the Tide?” which he persented to our Second Annual Meeting  AE Annual Meeting talk June 2011

This week we feature two stories from women which powerfully express the anger, frustration and hurt which discrimination causes in the Church.

The first is a new story on the AE Stories page, from a lesbian who does not yet feel able to be open in her church, but who has felt powerfully affirmed by God in both her faith and sexuality.

• Dear Church… Yours Sincerely, Angry Christian Lesbian

The second is via a link to Lesley’s Blog and is written by a bisexual Christian who has suffered as result of being open about her sexuality and same-sex partnerhip.

• What does it feel like to be bisexual and a Christian?

Both stories evoke strong reactions, and cannot be ignored.  Please read them and pass them on.

Dear Friends

AE Annual Meeting  …

Our Annual Meeting is almost upon us – for the full agenda for the afternoon  click here – Annual Meeting Agenda – 11th June 2011

Saturday  11th June  3 – 5pm 

 St Andrews Church Waterloo  – less than 5 minutes walk  from either Waterloo Station or Southwark Tube (Jubilee Line)

Jeremy Marks – the founder and Director of Courage will be speaking on “A Change in the Tide” and there will be opportunity to review the past year as well as plan for the future.  

It would be great see many of you there.  If you are able to come, it would help us if you could let us know by email:  [email protected]   

Follow this link to find the venue –  St Andrews Waterloo.  

Presbyterians and Lutherans signal change…

As we reported in the AE Blog, The Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to remove the ban on openly homosexual ministers, elders and deacons. but now there is more.

Soon after, the Church of Scotland took an important step towards recognising that God can call homosexuals to ministry.  Its General Assembly has voted to allow the appointment of openly gay ministers already ordained to new posts, while it further looks into the issue of training and ordination.

And the Lutheran Church in Italy also decided last month to offer services of Blessing to homosexual couples.

More controversy in the Church of England…

Meanwhile the Church of England has seen a new round of controversy arise as more details have immerged about the blocking of Dr Jeffrey John as a potential Bishop of Southwark last year. 

Members of the Crown Nominations Commission who decide on such top jobs are bound by strict confidentiality, but following the death of Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, his family have chosen to make public his account of the meeting.

The story was broken in the Guardian newspaper, and has caused a flurry of responses, few of which make comfortable reading for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pilgrimage of repentance for homophobia

Symon Hill, a Christian writer and activist, is walking from Birmingham to London this month as a pilgrimage of repentance for his former homophobia. He will speak at churches on the way, praying with others and engaging in dialogue.

 The walk will run from 16th June to 1st July. Symon, who is associate director of the Ekklesia thinktank, will join the Pride march in London the day after his arrival. There will be three city centre events, open to people of all religions and none, whatever their views on sexuality.

• Birmingham – 7.00pm, Wednesday 15th June, Carr’s Lane Church (the evening before the walk starts)
• Oxford – Sunday 26th June, St Columba’s United Reformed Church (time to be confirmed)
• London – 7.00pm, Friday 1st July, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church (the day Symon arrives in London)

 Symon will pass through other towns and cities, including Coventry, Leamington Spa, Daventry, Banbury, Bicester, Chesham and Watford. Find out more at http://www.repenting.wordpress.com or watch out for details on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walk-of-repentance-for-homophobia/172048302829171.

 Christians at Pride …

And finally, there will be a strong Christian presence again this year on Saturday 2nd July at London Pride, organised by Christians at Pride.

Last year over 120 people LGBT Christians, their friends and relatives marched together at London Pride, wearing T-shirts which proclaimed “Christian and Proud”.  It was a powerful statement to the LGBT community that there is support for LGBT Christians and that God loves us with, rather than despite, our sexualities.

 Accepting Evangelicals is proud to be part of this organization.  Come if you can – further information and T-shirts are available from the Christians at Pride website.

 God Bless and Keep You…

Accepting Evangelicals