Welcoming and Affirming Are Different Words
This subject has faces. Many who read this love someone who is gay: a son, a sister, a coworker, a friend. Someone reading this may carry this struggle himself and may have told no one. This study is written with those people in the room, and we are glad you are here.
Of the four pressure points in this series, this is the one most people meet first at the family table. It usually comes down to two words that get run together.
A church that welcomes anyone, whatever his story or sin, to hear the Gospel, to be loved, and to find help, without blessing what God forbids.
A church that teaches that same-sex marriage and same-sex relationships are blessed by God, and that usually performs those weddings and ordains people in those relationships.
We believe that God made us male and female, that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, that sexual intimacy belongs only there, and that same-sex behavior is sin, as all sexual activity outside of marriage is sin. We also believe that no sin sits beyond the reach of the Gospel. If the body of Christ cannot hold conviction together with compassion, no one else will.
Can a church call holy what God has called sin, and can it do so and still be kind?
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For Deeper Study
- The Bible and Homosexual PracticeAmazon Robert A. J. GagnonThe most thorough scholarly study of the biblical texts, for pastors and careful readers. Gagnon writes from within the Presbyterian tradition.
- Homosexuality in the Church: Both Sides of the DebateAmazon Jeffrey S. Siker, ed.Writers on each side make their case in their own words. Read it to hear the affirming position stated by its advocates. It includes views we reject.
- Another Gospel?Amazon Alisa ChildersA lifelong Christian's account of being shaken by progressive teaching and working through its view of the Bible.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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A Biblical View of Sexuality and Gender
God made us male and female and gave sexual intimacy to the marriage of one man and one woman; everyone's desires are fallen, and Christ offers forgiveness, a new identity, and a family to all who come to Him.
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