The Humans Rights Campaign, a national organization
that credits itself as “America’s
largest civil rights organization working to
achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
equality” placed an ad in Presbyterians
Today Magazine in April of 2007.
The Human Rights Watch is not a religious organization,
and yet they have made a concerted effort to
target the Church’s mainline denominations.
Their ad described their new resource called
Out in Scripture.
Out in Scripture is the first major weekly
preaching and devotional resource written from
a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight-supportive
perspective. Each week a diverse group of professors
from leading theological schools listen for
how God is connecting the world of the Bible
and the world of LGBT people in church and society.
The weekly commentary is a summary and celebration
of their prayerful – at times comforting,
often challenging – conversation.
It is admirable for Human Rights Watch to provide
a devotional resource that attempts to point
to Scripture, but their interpretation of Scripture
affirms homosexuality as a gift from God. This
interpretation can and should be disputed. The
fact that professors are “listening for
how God is connecting the world of the Bible
and the world of LGBT people” is presumptuous
at best, considering Scripture has already made
this connection clear.
Jesus said, “A new command I give you:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another” (John 13: 34),
and “If you love me, you will obey my
commands” (John 14: 15), and “Woman…neither
do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life
of sin.” (John 8:11).
Out in Scripture’s director, Sharon Grove,
says, “There has been this kind of equation
where if you’re Christian, that means
that you’re against gay people…[and
there’s a sense] that it’s unbiblical
to be supportive of gay folks.” I agree
with Groves that the Church has long avoided
offering healing in place of condemnation for
those who experience same-sex attraction. However,
Groves fails to make a distinction between Christians
who hatefully condemn gay-identified people
vs. Christians who are offering hope and healing
to those who desire to be healed from same-sex
attraction.
Being “supportive of gay folks”
does not mean a person must accept and celebrate
homosexuality. Ministries such as OneByOne and
Exodus International are very “supportive
of gay folks” in that we offer them the
love of Jesus Christ and hope for emotional
and sexual healing if that is what they seek.
As director of OneByOne, I proposed an alternative
article to be placed in Presbyterians Today
Magazine via an article on Layman
online. In response to this article, three
individual members of Presbyterian churches,
Presbyterians for Renewal, and the Presbyterian
Coalition offered to pay for the ad.
Please see our ad here in the December 2007
issue of Presbyterians Today Magazine.
