13 Saturday Nov 2010
Posted in Theology
Tags
culture, Gospel, homosexuality, Jim Swilley, Law, repentance
Recently, Charisma magazine published an article by J. Lee Grady asking, Is It Ok to be Gay and Christian? You can read the article here. A friend of mine sent me the link and I have a response that I initially shared via email with the 2 or 3 of us to whom he’d sent the link.
16 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Book Discussion, Personal
Tags
First, I haven’t fallen off the radar completely. I’ve been swamped with reading for my Covenant Theology class, as well as learning Greek and doing my first outline for Sermon Preparation and Delivery. Pretty stoked.
I’m also a reader for another student (meaning, I read their assignments onto an mp3 file and then send it to them). It pays pretty well and it’s a class I’ll have to take in the future, so I’ll have read most of the materials for those classes when I get there. Pretty excited about that, actually. But what that means is I fell behind in reading a little bit this week and spent 8 hours reading, 2 for the other guy, 6 for me…just to get caught up. Then I came back from class today and read for over 2 hours for the other guy. Now I’m taking a break from Greek to write this.
Washed and Waiting, by Wes Hill
But another distraction has arrived. Amazon just sent me the copy of Washed and Waiting by Wes Hill. I couldn’t put it down and spent an hour this afternoon reading it. It warrants its own post, but allow me to quote from page 42 (which is, of course, the answer to life, the universe, everything):
A sexual orientation is such a complex and, in most cases, it seems, intractable thing; I for one cannot imagine what ‘healing’ from my orientation would look like, given that it seems to manifest itself not only in physical attraction to male bodies but also in a preference for male company, with all that it entails, such as conversation and emotional intimacy and quality time spent together.
23 Monday Aug 2010
Posted in Personal
Tags
About a month ago, a man who purports to be a brother in the faith wrote this on my mother’s facebook wall:
In his blog, your son says he is a homosexual and says his primary attraction is to men. He does not say that he has struggled with temptations to such sins…he calls himself a full fledged homosexual.
I have no idea about his state of repentance but I’m sure you would agree…..that it is totally inappropriate for one who calls himself a homosexual to be teaching in church or leading worship. This is exacerbated by a purposeful hiding of this lifestyle so that he can participate in church leadership roles that would never be knowingly allowed by our elders. Continue reading
20 Friday Aug 2010
Posted in Personal
I went to dinner last night with a couple of guys who are starting seminary with me this fall. I don’t know them very well, but I invited them to join me for a drink at Bar Louie. We had a good time talking about the Gospel and necessity of its clear proclamation.
We also talked about the Church’s response(s) to homosexuality. And we talked about our dating types. One of them asked me mine…and I pretty well shut up. I described the girl I’d liked in college because, in all truthfulness, she does tend to represent an ideal for a potential mate to me. But I wasn’t forthright about my attractions. I hesitated and then back-pedaled.
Why did I do that? Was I afraid of being dismissed? Was it that I don’t want to be “that guy?”
20 Sunday Jun 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Alert: this is another gut-level post. You’ve been warned.
So, I’m watching New Moon whilst drinking a Vanilla Coke. And the scene just went by where Bella says something to the effect of, “the pain is the only thing that makes him feel like he was real.” Edward has, immediately previous to this scene left Forks (where Bella lives) and removed all evidence he was ever there in her life.
Sometimes that’s what I feel like. I once had a friend…my best friend. I wasn’t attracted to him, but I loved him. I would’ve moved half-way across the country for him. I’d take a bullet for him.
15 Tuesday Jun 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
The words of the title still echo in my ears. I’d been called to my previous pastor’s office over the contents of my December 1st blog post, simply because a couple of people had forwarded the post to him. These individuals hadn’t understood fully what I meant in my post and were not, according to my pastor, seeking to accuse me of any sin.
23 Sunday May 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
experience, Gospel, homosexuality, music, Scripture, theology, witnessing, worship
Many folks in evangelicalism who routinely ‘share their faith,’ go about telling their story. They talk about how Jesus has saved them from this or that sinful behavior or thought pattern. Some folks’ sin of choice involves alcohol, some are sidelined by homosexual behavior, others by drugs, anger, or nicotine. Whatever they wrestled with before, they have the victory over now…all thanks to Jesus.
Here’s the problem: even if we are to grant that God has wrought such life-change through sanctification, this is still not the Gospel. Such life-change is potentially a fruit of the Gospel, but the Gospel and its fruit must never be confounded. Someone recently asked me to summarize the Gospel. Here’s what I answered:
That Christ, acting outside of me, apart from my will, died for me in history and that he rose again, giving me his righteousness which covers me like a robe would. His righteousness is always and always will be alien to (outside of) me.
28 Wednesday Apr 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
culture, experience, Gospel, homosexuality, Jennifer Knapp, music, politics, repentance, Scripture, theology
In view of recent events regarding Jennifer Knapp mentioned on Chris Rosebrough‘s program, I believe the following words from Jerram Barrs, while not being the final word on the subject, are in fact, relevant to the discussion.
17 Saturday Apr 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Will, at the Sojourns with Jesus blog, continues his reflections on Jennifer Knapp and sexuality in the Church.
Jesus in divine obstructiveness has refused for whatever reason to leave me alone especially in my sexuality. I have loved Jesus since early childhood and believed in Jesus even when I did not believe in God. I walked away from him but he never walked away from me. Jesus invaded my life including my imagination, desires, and struggles at seventeen. My only problem with Jesus has always been that he wants to be in charge of all my life including my sex life. He is thoroughly un-modern in his insistence that he is the Lord of my heart and I am not {suppose to be}.
14 Wednesday Apr 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Will, at the Sojourns with Jesus blog, writes about Christian singer Jennifer Knapp’s coming out as a lesbian. I’m looking forward to hearing the remainder of his comments.
My spiritual journey with God can best be described as wrestling. I am by nature a skeptic. It is hard for me to believe in a invisible being called God that is a Sovereign Lord. That belief goes against my nature and my culture. The virtue of our society is that we are our own lords and anything goes as long as its “consensual” and “no body gets hurt”. Sovereignty implies submission and the idea of submission goes against my very nature. I love music and it has been a great influence on my spiritual journey particularly in my late teens and early 20s. I really fell in love with the raw honesty of Jennifer Knapp’s music at a time I nearly walked away from the Church. She spoke in her music about struggles with a sovereign God. I’ve struggled too.
Click here to read the rest of Will’s post.
Gay and Evangelical 