The Church (and individual Christians) are not immune from making mistakes - sometimes horrible ones. In the past, the Bible has been misused to defend - and even promote - some indefensible beliefs and actions. There was a time when most Christians believed slavery was the will of God. There was a time when most Christians believed women should not be allowed to vote. There was a time when most Christians believed that interracial marriage was wrong. Each position was elaborately supported with biblical arguments - and each position, we now know, was dead wrong. In each of these cases cultural prejudice was at work and it shaped the way Christians read the Bible. It is important that we learn about the errors in our history so that we never make those kinds of mistakes again. Precious lives are at stake and we simply can't afford to be so wrong again. If we know how these mistakes were made in the past, we have a better chance of recognising and avoiding the same errors today.
In acknowledging that parts of the Bible, when applied in isolation without the context of the whole of Scripture and without the guidance of the Spirit, have been used to justify slavery, segregation, racism and the subjugation of women, we need to ask, Is that same error being committed today when the same arguments are used to condemn gay and lesbian relationships?
All of these historical arguments about race and gender sound hauntingly familiar to gay and lesbian Christians who have been told that we're contrary to nature, condemned in Scripture, and that any recognition of our rights or relationships will bring about the ruin of all social order.
As this website seeks to make clear, there are spiritual, intellectual and sound ways of reading the Bible that are gay-affirming. You can hold to an anti-gay interpretation, but that's your choice - the Scriptures do not compel it.
The Bible has been used by fallen humans as a tool for both oppression and liberation. God, however, promises to be on the side of the oppressed and the liberators.
Would Jesus Discriminate?
Our campaign was launched at a public rally on
Saturday 6 October 2007
Click here to find out what happened
The book The Children are Free: Reexamining the Bilbical Evidence on Same-Sex Relationships by Rev Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley is recommended for further study and excerpts from it can be viewed on the following links. You can borrow a copy of this book from Living Springs MCC or order directly from the publisher.
How Language is Interpreted Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 Genesis 19 and Jude 7
Romans 1:21-28 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 & 1 Timothy 1:10
Jesus affirmed a gay couple Acts 8:26-40 The book of Ruth
Matthew 19:10-12 II Samuel 1:26
Sexuality & the Bible - four part sermon series & essay on Judges 19
