Brett Tilford

In response to my previous post: are you gay affirming, the question has quickly arisen, “What about the Scriptures? Where is the gay affirming position found?”

In the context of a conversation about homosexuality when the question is asked, “What about the Scriptures?” Old Testament verses, like Leviticus 20:13, that have harsh words for homosexual sex, are usually what one has in mind. There are books written on the topic that have differing interpretations of those scriptures (e.g. one argument I’ve heard is that those verses aren’t referring to committed monogamous homosexual relationships) but I agree that the deeper question this topic poses for the conservative branches of the church is, “what is our view of Scripture and will we be willing to cut loose from our more stringent standards if we feel they’re perpetuating injustice and ignoring the highest law – love?”

With that question in mind, the rest of my response won’t really be about homosexuality per se but actually about how we view the Bible, because I believe the question behind the question is this: “Brett, what is your view of the Scriptures that would allow you to ignore certain verses in the Bible and write a post like, are you gay affirming?”

In response to that question I’d say this: through the years the church – even the most theologically conservative churches – have had to reinterpret (sometimes quite creatively) our understanding of particular issues. Many of these items seem downright silly or crazy to us today. For example, one of the first questions of this kind is recorded in the early chapters of Acts, when the question of circumcision arose, “Will these Gentile converts have to become good (circumcised) Jews to truly follow Christ?” Recognize that there is a mountain of Old Testament Scripture that would answer, “Of course! This is a central mark to delineate the people of God. It’s absolutely essential that we follow all of Scripture – we can’t pick and choose which verses to follow and which to ignore.” Of course, we know that ultimately Paul won the day with his argument about a “circumcision of the heart” but if that interpretation seems ho-hum and theologically conservative to us today, it’s only because of familiarity.

A more recent example is the issue of slavery, with the question arising, “Do not the scriptures say, ’slaves obey your masters?’ And the answer, as awkward as it seems to us today, is “yes.” Of course, we know all of the cultural baggage that surrounds that verse and we could likely cite other scriptures that would argue for the equality of all men under God (which is why we could pretty easily debate it with any person at a coffee shop – assuming we could even find someone who would try to justify slavery on that basis – hopefully not). Today, it would seem not only utterly ridiculous but downright immoral for a church to hold racist views on the basis of a verse like that, but again, recognize that’s because we live in the 21st century – churches were split over questions like that.

Other examples include women wearing head coverings in church and the freedom of the faithful to get tattoos (the scriptures clearly command the former and abhor the latter). Again, I understand that we have all of our cultural reinterpretations of these verses, but I can’t emphasize enough that these were the types of issues that got pastors fired and incited flame wars on twitter and blogs around the world.

What’s interesting is that even on the topic of homosexuality I don’t know of one conservative Christian that would actually hold to a “pure” biblical interpretation of a verse like Leviticus 20:13, because of course that verse doesn’t let the people of Israel off with a simple, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” interpretation, but it commands the offending person’s instant death. My only point in bringing this up is to show that in the same way you asked me, “Brett, where in the scriptures is the gay “affirming” viewpoint found?” My answer to you would be this: the same place that the seeds of the “gay welcoming” viewpoint is found – in the law of love and the command to embrace and empower those on the margins of society – which in this case is the LGBTQ community.

As a “welcoming” Christian, you’ve already started down the path of reinterpreting what the scriptures have to say on the topic. My only encouragement would be to go a bit further.

“Are you gay affirming?” I believe this is the question for the church in the year of our Lord, 2011.

To their credit most churches have moved beyond the gay bashing & homophobic tendencies of previous generations, but it seems we’ve stalled out. By that I mean, we haven’t made the move from gay accepting to gay affirming.

Gay accepting invites people to come as they are but demands that they change. It views homosexuality as a sin that any truly godly person will eventually move beyond (or die trying).

Gay affirming sees no sin, demands no change and actually celebrates gay individuals and couples.

The terms themselves “accepting vs. affirming” may seem like splitting hairs but the descriptions above show the gulf between the two.

In the meantime church leaders continue to be quite flabbergasted by gay couples who attend their church, ask to meet with the leadership team, are told that the church is “gay accepting” – which when asked to clarify reveals the description above – at which point the couple storms out of the meeting never to return. “Why did they have to be so rude? Didn’t they understand that we accept them?” the leader bemoans. Of course if we put ourselves in their shoes for a moment we see the hypocrisy of it all.

Imagine that the year is 1970 and you and your spouse are a bi-racial couple. You’ve been visiting a local church for a few weeks and, knowing the controversy your union sometimes makes, you schedule a meeting with the elders of the church just to make sure everything is on the up and up. You arrive to smiles and small talk until finally the real question comes up: how do they feel about your marriage and are they willing to not only accept, but encourage and celebrate your union? Now the smiles are gone as you’re told in carefully chosen words that while you’re certainly free to attend the church, because after all they’re a very progressive and welcoming bunch, a marriage like yours isn’t well, God’s “best” because it’s clear in the Scriptures that God didn’t intend the co-mingling of races. However, they quickly add, everyone at the church is working through their own “issues” and so you’re welcome to come and do the same.”

That’s not a welcome – it’s a slap in the face.

You see, it’s one thing for a pastor to stand before her congregation and say, “We’re a church that’s called to love people just like Jesus would – that means all people – regardless of color, gender, or sexual orientation.” This is a statement that causes the faithful to rise to their feet in thunderous applause (e.g. Bill Hybels this week).

The bigger, and I would argue more courageous step, is for an evangelical pastor to stand before his congregation and say, “I want to extend a personal invitation to every gay, bisexual & transgender person in our city – we love and accept you as you are and we demand no change in your sexual orientation to become not only a valued member at our church, but a leader as well. We also reject any interpretation of scripture or understanding of God that views a person’s sexual orientation as sin. We are not only gay accepting – we are gay affirming.”

Right now we’re content to pat ourselves on the back for being gay accepting. In reality that takes little courage and doesn’t make anyone blink an eye (accept maybe the stodgiest of oldtimers).

In the name of love and justice, it’s time for me – for us – to come out of the closet and announce that we are gay affirming.