I recently found myself in a conversation on facebook with a friend
of mine from my evangelical days. I was a youth minister at a
particular church, and this friend was a recent high school graduate
from the church when I knew her. She messaged me to ask a number of
questions about being Episcopalian and about my views on certain
Christian themes in general. In this series, I'll simply restate the
questions I was asked and then my reply. These are pretty off-the-cuff
responses, but precisely the kind of thing a blog is for. In other
words, they're pretty rough around the edges.
2. The second set of questions was, Do Episcopalians use the Catholic
or Protestant canon? Where do I personally and the Episcopal Church at
large stand on homosexuality? If we are welcoming of homosexuals, how
does that work biblically?
My reply:
The Episcopal Church mostly uses the Protestant canon, but occasionally also uses the Apocrypha.
Homosexuality
is a large issue. I would say the church generally recognizes it
exists, and that homosexual Christians exist (as do, say, divorced
Christians). I think the question you are asking is whether the
Episcopal Church condones homosexual relationships as fitting with the
way of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Episcopal Church at large
has no official teaching as yet, and each church differs. That said, in
general the Episcopal Church tends to accept the healthy expression of
homosexual partnerships as compatible with Christian discipleship. (As
do I.)
How does that work biblically? This could take a long
time to unravel, so I will have to be brief. In short, I am not
convinced that any passage in Scripture trumps any other. Jesus did not
come and the New Testament was not written and canonized under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit to give us more rules to follow. Jesus as
often as not hung out with the outcasts, of course, and he doesn't
always tell them to "go and sin no more." Biblically, the foundation of
our faith and our way is love--the love of God poured out for we
sinners and the love of Christ that shattered death on the cross. What
are the two greatest commandments? Love the Lord your God...and love
your neighbor as yourself.
I understand that Paul seems to have
some harsh words for homosexuals. That is, Paul seems to think men with
men or women with women is disordered desire. But I confess that I see
no more nor less disordered desire in my homosexual friends who are
Christian than I see in myself. (One might want to claim that any
desire not directed to God is disordered, but where would that leave
marriage...or the second greatest commandment?) In 1 Cor 6:9-10, Paul
outlines the works of those who will not inherit the kingdom, two of
which have been taken to be potentially about homosexual acts. In
Galatians 5, Paul outlines a similar list of the works of the flesh
(though without those questionable terms). But notice what he says
after. The works of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I have
met homosexuals who evince these marks of the spirit. I have met
heterosexual, Bible-believing, evangelical Christians who display far
more of the vices Paul mentions (fornication, drunkenness, envy, wrath,
selfishness, for instance) than my homosexual Bible-believing friends. I
find it hard to believe then, based on the testimony of Scripture, that
these friends are not or cannot be or should not be Christians when
their heterosexual counterparts are considered "good" Christians.
I
will have to leave it there, but that is the short story. If we were
to disqualify as Christian everyone who lusted after a woman in his
heart (which is adultery in Jesus's book) or everyone who was wrathful,
envious, selfish, drunken, etc. (the works of the flesh according to
Paul), then we would be left with very few Christians, I think. But if
we turn it around and look for the fruit of the Spirit, a relationship
with Jesus, and a love for the Word, then we will still find Christians
who do not think it any worse to be in a committed relationship with a
member of the same sex than it is to be in the same kind of relationship
with a member of the opposite sex. I take the Spirit's lead on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment