Is it ok to be christian and gay
Can Christians Be Gay?
This interrogate is a powder keg—an extremely sensitive issue. If you have homosexual or bisexual tendencies, this is not just a theological debate, but speaks to the core of how you see yourself and how God views you.
The homosexual conversation impacts not just those who name themselves as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender), but all of us. Regardless of whether you can relate with this fight, you will have to sort through your hold views on the topic. If you do not already, you will hold a good friend or family member who is gay. You will own to make decisions about whether to go to a same-sex wedding, whether to have your daughter and her partner over for dinner, and whether to attend a church with a gay pastor.
Within the last decade, the Christian opinion on homosexuality has gone through a drastic turnaround. There has been no new scientific or theological discovery; many people have changed their minds about what they believe.
In today’s changing nature, stating that homosexuality is anything but an acceptable lifestyle, approved by God
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a gay dude and a womxn loving womxn. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and identity parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a young elder. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical learning on sexuality while loving his queer parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new manual Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his book and his perspective on how Christians can excel navigate the complexities of this
The Bible and same sex relationships: A review article
Tim Keller,
Vines, Matthew, God and the Lgbtq+ Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships, Convergent Books,
Wilson, Ken,A Letter to My Congregation, David Crum Media,
The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is one of the main topics of discussion in our culture today. In the fall of last year I wrote a review of books by Wesley Hill and Sam Allberry that take the historic Christian view, in Hill’s words: “that homosexuality was not God’s original creative intention for humanity and therefore that queer practice goes against God’s show will for all human beings, especially those who trust in Christ.”
There are a number of other books that seize the opposite view, namely that the Bible either allows for or supports same sex relationships. Over the last year or so I (and other pastors at Redeemer) have been regularly asked for responses to their arguments. The two most peruse volumes taking this position sound to be those by Matthew Vines and Ken Wilson. The review of these
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Declare About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Research Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible say about attraction to someone of the alike sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even coined until the belated 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can hop into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a terse but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible