Monthly Archives: March 2013

News broke yesterday that the popular author, preacher and film maker Rob Bell, has spoken in support of same-sex marriage.

Rob Bell is well known for thinking ‘outside the box’ and has been an inspiration to huge numbers of Evangelicals in the USA and around the world.   In 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of its Top 100 influential people.

His open thinking style has however, also drawn criticism from more conservative Evangelicals.

Responding to a question at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, he said,

“I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs… to affirm people wherever they are.”

According to the Huffington Post, Bell went on to say that while it used to be fair to equate evangelicals with social conservatism, that assumption no longer holds true.

You can read the full article at the Huffington Post here, where there is also a link to an audio recording of the meeting.  There is also an article in the Washington Post here.

I spent yesterday evening at Oasis Waterloo.  It was their first event to promote open conversation on sexuality following Steve Chalke’s call for a rethink on same-sex relationships.

He opened the evening with an impassioned plea for a change in our theology of sexuality.  Setting out his stall, he painted a picture of dire pastoral care for gay people in evangelical churches.  He went on to say that it was not enough for evangelicals to say that our theology is right but our pastoral care needs to improve.  “God is love – He is the great Pastor” he declared, “We can’t out-pastor God.  We can’t draw a line between the pastoral and the theological – they are one and the same thing…. It’s our theology which needs to change.”

Talking about the burdens which the church has placed on LGBT people, and the terrible pastoral consequences which have often followed, he said “The real scandal is that we have not faced up to this issue.”

Also speaking during the evening was a gay man who told of his sense of call to be a Pastor – a call which started is search for God, and ultimately his Christian commitment.  “God called me” he said, but he knew that would never be recognised by the church in which he came to faith because he was gay.  He also talked movingly about a young man of 16 who was thrown out of his church after admitting that he was gay, and subsequently threw himself under a train.

During the question and answer session, Steve was asked how he could overturn 2000 years of Bible teaching.  In reply he affirmed that he takes the Bible very seriously but that taking individual verses out of context was not the way to discern God’s will.  “God is still unfolding his truth to us” he said, citing examples of ways in which our understanding of the Bible on slavery, the role and women, and even the flatness (or not) of the earth have changed after hundreds of years of ‘good Biblical teaching’ had been overturned.  “We need to see things through the lens of Jesus” if we are to continue to grow in our understanding of God’s will.

His talk finished by quoting Acts 10 and the story of Peter going to the home of the gentile Cornelius.  Until then the early church thought that only Jews could be the people of God despite Jesus commanding them to go into all the world.  It took a work of the Holy Spirit to open Peter’s eyes to the fact that God’s grace extends to everyone.  We need the same work of the Holy Spirit now to open our eyes to God’s grace at work in gay, bisexual and transgender people.

At the end of the evening Oasis launched a DVD resource for small groups to continue the conversation.  The DVD is available from Oasis online and costs £5.

It includes sections on the authority of Scripture, what the Bible says about same-sex relationships, and questions for discussion.

We were also encouraged to continue the conversation via Twitter using the hash tags #MOI and #inclusion.

It was certainly a memorable evening and signalled Steve Chalke’s and Oasis’s continuing determination to engage in this issue.  Well done Steve!

Benny Hazlehurst

Dear Friends

UK Parliament votes for same-sex marriage

On 5th February the House of Commons voted in favour of same-sex marriage after a full and lively debate.  MP’s were given a free vote without political party instructions, and voted by 400 votes to 175 for the new law to proceed to the next stage of parliamentary scrutiny.  For some of the key speeches, please see our blog post ‘Reflections on parliament’s debate’

The Bill now goes to the Committee stage where MP’s consider its provisions in detail.  If you want to write to the committee, they are inviting submissions until 12th March – follow this link for more information

Accepting Evangelicals continues to encourage prayerful reflection and debate on the nature of marriage.

Books from the States…

There are two books from America which have been recommended recently by our members.

The first is by Justin Lee, the founder of Gay Christian Network and is called ‘Torn’ in the USA and ‘Unconditional’ in Europe – and both have the tag line- ‘Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays Vs Christians Debate’.   The book has received considerable acclaim since its publication and we will be posting a review of it on the AE Blog in the near future.  Justin comes from a Southern Baptist church setting and part of the book charts his own struggle to reconcile his faith and sexuality.

The second has been recommended to us by an AE member who said “Gay or straight, affirming or non-affirming, everyone needs to read this book”.  Having read the reviews on Amazon, I can see why.  The book is called “Homosexianity: Letting the Truth Win the Devastating War between Scripture, Faith and Sexual Orientation” by Pator R.D. Weekly.  It is available in both paperback and Kindle formats.  Follow these links for ordering from the UK and USA.  Let us know what you think…

Campus Pride vs Chick-fil-A: a lesson in dialogue?

Also sent in by one of our members this article in the Huffington Post shows the power of dialogue to resolve conflict.

When Campus Pride Director, Shane Windmeyer, received a call from the President of a company they were campaigning against, he didn’t know what to think.  But it was the start of a dialogue which brought real change.

Read the story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-l-windmeyer/dan-cathy-chick-fil-a_b_2564379.html

Women wanted…

Ellen is a Journalism student completing her degree in the UK and is interviewing LGBTQ Christians about church reaction to their sexuality, their current situation, view of gay marriage, and any experience of ex-gay groups.

Having already interviewed numerous men, she really needs to speak to some women aged 18+.  Interviews can be conducted on the phone.

If you could help, please email [email protected] and we will pass on your email to her.

AE skyrockets!

Last year was a good year for Accepting Evangelicals.  Not only did our membership grow by over 25%, but our website traffic has rocketed!

From around 10,000 page views per month at the beginning of the year we saw our hits rise to almost 50,000 per month by December.

And in January 2013 they rocketed again to over 90,000.

So keep up the good work in telling people about Accepting Evangelicals.  It is definitely working!

God Bless and Keep You…
Accepting Evangelicals