In this week’s AE Blog our Co-Chair, Sigrun Wagner reviews “The Gay Gospels” by Dr Keith Sharpe.  Although not written from an evangelical perspective, it does take a fresh and challenging look at the Bible and sexuality, and comes up with some thought provoking conclusions…

The Gay Gospels: Good News for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual, and Transgendered People was published last year by Circle Books. It is one of the most comprehensive books written on the subject which not only deals with the so-called clobber verses which gay people are often confronted with but also includes the bible passages which affirm gay people. Keith Sharpe uses a biblical approach to this – His Defensive Testament mirrors the Old Testament, discussing the perceived anti-homosexual bible verses whilst the Affirmative Testament is the good news for LGBT people, uncovering “open and hidden affirmations of LGBT lives in the bible”. It is mainly written for LGBT people, and gives LGBT Christians (and non-Christians) self-defence and self-affirmation summaries after each chapter.

The defensive testament discusses the story of Sodom, the ‘abominations’ of Leviticus, the creation story (all in Genesis), St Paul’s verses in Romans and Corinthians and the story of a demon-possessed man in Mark’s Gospel. In including the creation story and Mark 10, the book goes further than traditional approaches to arguing against homosexuality according to the bible. The writing is very clear and puts the passages into context – both the cultural and historical context as well as the scriptural context.

The affirming testament takes up about two thirds of the book, showing the positive scriptural description of LGBT people and their relationships. In line with traditional pro-gay interpretations of the bible, it includes the stories of Ruth and Naomi and of Jonathan and David from the Old Testament and the stories of the Roman centurion and his servant and the character of the beloved disciple.  Again, it goes beyond conventional readings and includes some challenging material on Jesus, questioning his sexual orientation, underlining his view of the family (he was no family man!) and emphasising his view that some people are “born that way”, pertaining to Eunuchs. Furthermore, this part includes a chapter on Joseph the Transvestite, Jesus’s abolishment of the purity laws and a chapter on Paul’s verses that in Christ there is no male or female and the implications of that for our view of gender.

Whilst many texts on pro-gay readings of the bible focus on the ‘clobber’ verses and thus tend to be defensive in approach, this book provides a refreshing alternative in quickly dealing with the clobber verses and then moving on to an in-depth account of a  truly inclusive, pro-LGBT reading of the bible. It is inspiring reading that challenges traditional viewpoints and provides excellent food for thought for straight people and encouragement for LGBT people who are weary of the church’s stance on them.

Dr Sigrun Wagner

Note:

The author, Dr Keith Sharpe, is a retired educator, chairs the Changing Attitude group in Sussex (http://www.changingattitudesussex.com/). For more information on the book visit www.thegaygospels.com

Photo by Stefano Cagnoni

Benny Hazlehurst refelcts on a busy week at the Church of England’s parliament.

I spent most of last week at the February session of General Synod.  Around 500 members of clergy, laity and bishops gather twice a year to debate and make decisions on church policy and direction.

 I was there to represent Accepting Evangelicals and the LGB&T Anglican Coalition by helping to staff the Coalition’s exhibition stall.  It was a good opportunity to talk with Synod members, as well as meet old friends.

What struck me was how easy it was to talk to people about sexuality.  Most Synod members were very open to chat as I sat in the coffee room or bumped into them in the corridors.

And a surprising number of them were very supportive of what we were saying.

Then on Thursday morning, around 40 people gathered from across the country in an Act of Witness on the steps of Church House.  We were drawing attention to the 1,500 LGB&T clergy who faithfully minister in the Church of England despite often being treated with suspicion or prejudice.

There were several members of Accepting Evangelicals there including a man from Kent who had taken the morning off work to be there.  We greeted members of General Synod as they arrived for the day’s business with a cheery “Good morning”  and several bishops stopped to talk with us, expressing their support.

Although, Synod ended on Thursday, I stayed on another day join a delegation from the Anglican Coalition in meeting with the House of Bishops Review Group on Civil Partnerships.  The invitation to meet with the Bishops followed a  written submission which the Coalition sent to the review group and the meeting was constructive with real engagement taking place.

So whatever we might read in the church newspapers, there were many positive things happening in the Church of England’s parliament last week.  Not the kind of things that make the headlines – but the kind of things which can build a better future.

Dear Friends

Australian survey reveals mission damage…

 An survey by Australian evangelical organization ‘Olive Tree Media’ has revealed the extent to which church teaching on homosexuality are turning people away from the Gospel.

The survey asked people who did not identify themselves as Christian to identify the  biggest blocks to belief for them.

Among doctrinal ‘belief blockers’ , Church doctrine on homosexuality came top of the list with 69% of respondents saying that it had a negative effect and 29% saying it was a complete block to faith for them.  This was ahead of the problem of suffering, doubts over the supernatural, and the doctrine of hell and condemnation.

Only reports of Church child abuse were a bigger obstacle at 76%.

But Olive Tree Media have tried to play down the significance of the survey results placing homosexuality as 9th in its list of problem areas.   The report summary can be downloaded at Olive Tree Media    or by following this link.

Upcoming UK events…

As I write this, the Church of England General Synod is meeting in London and AE is represented there at the LGB&T Anglican Coalition stall.  There is an Act of Witness planned for Thursday morning to remind Synod members of the many hundreds of LGB&T clergy who minister faithfully in the Church of England.  For more information please see the AE Blog from 2 weeks ago.

Places are still available at the Evangelical Fellowship conference in Worcestershire  at the beginning March where the conference title will be “From Prejudice to Praise” and the speaker will be Benny Hazlehurst.  For more information and booking details visit:  http://www.eflgc.org.uk/events.asp#Forthcoming

Also in March, Changing Attitude inn Canterbury and Rochester have invited Benny to lead a day on an inclusive theology of sexuality.  It is in Saturday 31^st March at All Saints Church Whitstable.  For more information see www.changingattitude.org.uk/find-a-diocesan-group/diocese-a-e/canterbury  or email AE member Rev Simon Tillotson at [email protected]

A night in Shropshire…

Talking of events, here is a review from Dave Griffin who invited us to go to Shropshire to speak.

“Accepting Evangelicals recently travelled to Church Stretton in Shropshire to speak at one of our Engaging Issues meetings.

This is a large discussion group which invites only knowledgeable speakers. It considers serious subjects and attracts participants from all persuasions.

I was asked to share something of our personal experience which included subtle rejection by some Christians. Not because my wife or I are gay but because our daughter is, and because we love her and accept her just as God made her.  And that makes us suspect in some quarters.

As I started to speak I was delighted to see a “friend” & his wife, who hold traditional views on homosexuality, from our old Evangelical church at the back.

At the end of the evening, after Benny’s excellent talk, most folk present were sympathetic but my friend’s response was that he was uncomfortable “surrounded by enemies” who disagreed with him.

My wife gently said to him later that it was exactly how we had felt many, many times!”

If you would like someone from Accepting Evangelicals to come and speak at your church or event, please email us.

God Bless and Keep You

Accepting Evangelicals

 Accepting Evangelicals member, Rev Simon Tillotson has recently changed his membership from Confidential to Open.

 More than that, he wrote to the Church of England Newspaper to make his growing understanding of faith and sexuality public.  His letter holds firmly to the need for salvation whilst challenging a traditional view of sexuality.  It has prompted a significant response, and there is a link to AE’s letter of support at the bottom:

 Dear Sir

In the response to Tony Cullingford’s letter about being on the roundabout concerning fidelity to Scripture as opposed to our natural desire to be compassionate and accepting of gay and lesbian people – I have also been on that roundabout.

 I dislike Liberal Christianity’s tendency to water down the experience of the Holy Spirit, the uniqueness of Christ as the fullest revelation of God , the work of the atonement freeing us from the curse of sin and death, the gifts and fullness of the Holy Spirit, and so on, as without these things Christianity quickly becomes something we do in our own strength, which robs it of its spiritual power. Songs of salvation of a loving God who rescues us from our own sinfulness and brings us into a personal relationship with Him must be sung in churches up and down the land and the gospel message must be proclaimed loud and clear that Christ died to set us free and rose from the dead to give us new life.

 At the same time, whenever I meet a committed gay or lesbian couple I cannot help thinking that they often show far more fruit of the Spirit than many evangelicals show. Practical pastoral experience comes up against my past evangelical background which sees every verse of scripture as authoritative and binding.

 These two parts of me, my evangelical convictions, and my pastoral experience of gay and lesbian people, have been in conflict with each other for several years and it is like Tony’s, a deeply personal journey, and has been, and still is occasionally, a painful and bewildering roundabout.

However, a view has slowly begun to emerge that a converted gay or lesbian couple, living faithfully together, is a far cry from the sort of flagrant sexual promiscuity that St Paul is thinking about in Romans 1. The language he uses does indeed describe sexual passion of a self-centred and controlling, lustful nature – very different from the loving, self-giving relationships I have encountered here in Whitstable.

I also believe that the church has a mission to faithfully enable gay and lesbian and transgender people to come to Christ and be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, just as much as heterosexual people. Pulling up the drawbridge, as so many churches do, cannot lead to this experience of coming to faith in Christ. Conversion, I know from speaking to gay and lesbian people, does not change sexuality apart from in one or two very rare cases which cannot be seen as normative. So providing we preach the clear gospel , and do not water down the heart of our Christian theology, I am willing to warmly embrace gay and lesbian relationships in their fullness, including sexual activity within that covenanted relationship. After all, I am convinced sexuality is not a choice that gay and lesbian people make, but is part and parcel of who they are – and a very precious part at that which should be celebrated.

However, the minute we use a liberal reading of sexuality in scripture to start backsliding into liberal relativism in other areas, then we open a minefield where so much of the work of salvation is undermined. Evangelicals are therefore right to be wary of undermining the authority of scripture in a wider sense. However, an intelligent reading of scripture will see that St Paul was given insight into precious pearls, but he was not God incarnate and neither was he perfect or right about everything.

Rev Simon Tillotson

Whitstable, UK

Click below for our letter of support – published 29th January 2012

Church of England Newspaper Letter – 29 Jan 2012