If anything throughout the whole of Scripture, the greatest sin is repeatedly written about as ‘turning away from God’ – and this sin has the most far reaching earthly and eternal consequences: way more than any others, including 1 Cor 6:12-20 that you reference.

Therefore I am not being circumspect in my analysis.

Just because we have the ‘capitol T’ Truth, doesn’t mean we can fling it around without reverence to other’s current situation thinking we’re doing them, us or God any good by potentially just throwing something out there. We have to earn the right to speak our Truth; something we haven’t done in most cases. Whether anyone listens to our Truth or not; that is not the point. We think way more highly of our own opinions and beliefs than does anyone else on the outside! Let’s put that in perspective first.

In the last chapter of my book I talk about “EARNING THE RIGHT TO HAVE DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS”… therefore I am not avoiding anything as you so claim.

James 2:10 is a part of humbly working towards that ‘earning’ process; starting with our own mindset of not ‘loving the sinner and hating the sin’ but ‘loving the sinner and hating the sin in your own life’. Matthew 7 is also a great place to start. None of this means you can never communicate what you belief; you just have to earn the right to do so first.

Iphimedia – I am truly humbled by your words. Thank you – you give ME hope!

Sue – pm is one of the most theologically deep people I’ve ever come across, and I’m privileged he found, and comments on this blog. His insights are profound and I encourage anyone who needs clarity from him, please, just ask and he’ll break you off a piece of deepness. Thanks for your analysis pm.

What is “Gender Culture”?

Andrew Marin wrote in LIAO Chapter 3 page 62:
“A great friend of The Marin Foundation is a former professor
of mine, Dr. John Fuder, who always teaches the importance
of exegeting the culture. We have to go to the culture before
we know the culture, and for most of us this comes in slowly
taken smaller steps towards involvement.”

Again he wrote page 63:
“Preparatory prayer and a humbled mindset of learning and
serving release much of the fear of trying to single-handedly
pave a path to make a new culture.”

Adding to this Chp5pg84:
“The GLBT community has tended to look to others for legitimacy
regarding who they are and what sexual behaviors they have
- whether that validation comes from other gays and lesbians,
from sections of the religious community or from mainstream
culture.”

When I add these quotations together, it suggests:
[GLBT community] + [validation sections] + [mainstream]
equals = “Gender Culture”

Why is “Gender Culture” a problem if it enters the Church?

Andrew wrote Chp3pg57:
“Over the years shame has been passed down through secular
culture surrounding gays and lesbians. That shame has also
imbedded itself in the core of the church. The overarching stigma
felt by GLBT people with the church is continually brought to
light by the ingrained cultural psyche that shame is supposed
to be the inherent, default feeling for all who have a same-sex
attraction – Christian or non-Christian.”

A similarity emergies in how our modern day Church Culture
shames the Gender Culture just as the 1st Century believers
who were born Jewish struggled bringing into the Kingdom
of God those who were not born Jewish (i.e., Gentiles).

Thankfully, the 1st Century Church leaders elevated their own
conversations so circumcision became a matter of the inward-heart
and not of the flesh. Perhaps the 21st Century Church can also
elevate our conversations as well.

But the effect of sin is not equal. If I were to lie and say I read my Bible today, the effect is not the same as if I got out a gun and shot you.

God is clear that the effect of sexual sin is unique (1 Corinthians 6). We might debate exactly what that means, but if it is true, that leaves me with a tension. I agree with your goal to build bridges. I agree that we should love gay individuals.Yet if sexual sin does have an impact that is harmful to them (and, I would argue, to society), I feel like I can’t be quite as circumspect as you in saying it is wrong.

Clearly evangelical Christians have a long way to go in balancing these things. And I don’t feel we have to beat anyone with a sin issue with the fact what they are doing is sin. But I am not sure avoiding saying something is actually anymore loving.

Your thoughts?

James

Peter – That is true, I do believe in a conservative interpretation of Scripture; I just live out those beliefs totally different than almost all of the people who believe like I do. It’s because I understand, and live within my Kingdom job description: Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and mine to love. The interesting part for me is that whether a liberal or conservative interpretation, shouldn’t we all be living it out the right way? People are shocked that I am conservative because since I believe such a thing, how then can I have such an impact/influence in the gay community as in the conservative world…because that shouldn’t happen. But the Lord has solidly built this thing through my incarnational comittment to build bridges among; within. No one can build a bridge from one side – it takes both sides. And that is what I try to relentlessly model everyday within the gay community. I’m stepping out on my side, and ‘crazy enough’ the gay community is responding to that boldness by boldly doing the same thing from theirs. And here we are today. It’s a shame to me that my theological belief in comparrison to how I live my life is so odd to most people. It should be the norm. Because from my perspective that is Kingdom stuff.