On homosexuality: a Bible study

Spectrum Staff | October 24, 2007

By Alexander Carpenter
As is clear to anyone who’s cruised through the 130-plus comments, discussion of the proper Christian homosexual position has been pinned somewhere between missionary zeal for openness and dogged opposition.
While discussion was kicked off by a film, thus far the comments have danced around the actual scriptural support without really digging into the text.
I’m ready to tackle the text and only the text. Time for some good ol’ Sola Scriptura and Holy Spirit-blessed reasoning. And I’ve got a serious Bible study to kick it off.
Let me introduce you to Justin Cannon. He attends the Graduate Theological Union with me and he
arrived with a bit of notoriety due to his man bites dog story. Justin takes the Bible very seriously and he has a boyfriend. He runs a site for theologically conservative gay Christians called Inclusive Orthodoxy where he writes of GLBTs:
The Church needs to embrace and support this group of people, not
despite scripture and tradition, but in light of scripture and
tradition. The doors of the church need to be opened and human
prejudices set aside, so that we can truly live according to the law
that Christ taught us.

If you’re ready for a serious 15-page Bible study on the actual six texts and the issue of procreative sex, here you go: The Bible, Christianity, and Homosexuality.
There is also a rule on the comments for the post. They can only be on the textual issues, so let’s have some Sola Scriptura in practice and bring your thoughtful support or critique of the Biblical evidence.

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