What the Bible Says about Homosexuality

[beatrice_otter]

If you have any interest in the topic of Christianity and homosexuality, this is a very interesting and thoughtful lecture by Bishop Dave Brauer-Rieke of the Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, making the case for inclusion and welcome and against literalism.  He does a very good even-handed explorations of the Biblical texts at stake and why the common usage of them as knee-jerk "homosexuality is bad!" proof-texts is, at best, problematic.  It's a 95-minute podcast with accompanying powerpoint, but it's well worth listening to.

Hope Homosexuality Hospitality

Comments

[thothmes]

Thank you for posting this link. Things are too busy just now to carve out the time, but I will definitely put this on the to-do list. My own understanding of the matter is that the grounds for using those texts, and the way that they are utilized with insufficient regard for context, history, and the changes that are heralded by the Crucifixion and the Resurrection makes them problematic at best. I welcome the chance to see how a thoughtful and more theologically trained mind apprehends the issue.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you,

I was raised in the Canadian United Church, but haven't attended since I was a teen, because it seemed to be to be mostly rote and ritual. This man's speech really got me thinking about my (still-real-just-not-connected-to-the-church) faith for the first time in a while...

(and to think...I started reading your blog looking for updates of your wonderful fic!)

[beatrice_otter]

You're welcome! I'm so glad it got you thinking. The thing about rote and ritual is that it gets drilled into you, and so when you have a crisis, when you are in the midst of something overwhelming and don't have time or energy to think, you have something you know by heart in the deepest core of your being. And also, rituals can carry a lot more symbolic meaning than mere words alone. So ritual and rote is a good thing. The problem comes when it's empty ritual, not connected to deeper meaning.

And thank you for the compliment to my fic!