I really appreciate how you say twice that your goal is not to make people think what you think. As Christians are goal shouldn't be to be right but to to treat others as Jesus would treat them.
Thank you again, Zach, for such a clear and loving explanation of affirming theology! This is written in such a way that makes it perfect for me to share with family and friends who question how we balance our family’s love of Jesus with our full acceptance and celebration of our daughter’s queer identity.
I appreciate this (and you, Zach) so much! I likely would have agreed with this 100% 3 years ago, when I wrote my own "why I'm affirming now" post, and if more Christians agreed with this, the world would be better off. I still agree with most of it!
AND... I'd encourage you to consider engaging in the same work again when it comes to norms like monogamy within marriage and abstinence outside of marriage, which your post seems to maybe still endorse? When I started looking at the Bible, it actually became very difficult for me to find a way to justify demands for either of them. The other thing I discovered was that the “anything-goes ethic in a morally libertine culture” was not at all what I found people to be practicing. Whole books have been written about ethical non-monogamy, and what that needs to look like. If anything, I was shocked to find that the people I thought believed “anything goes” actually had thought much more deeply about sexual ethics than most evangelicals I knew.
In general, my ethic now is to promote the well-being of others, while avoiding harm to them. I find this to be more easily tied to “Love your neighbor as yourself”. So things like sexual abuse or sex under false pretenses (promising marriage, or claiming no other partners) are to be condemned, but intimate relationships between enthusiastically consenting informed adults are to be supported and honored.
If you’d like to chat about this, I’d be more than happy to, as well as sharing resources that were helpful to me! There’s also usually sessions about polyamory and ethical non-monogamy at the Q Christian Fellowship conference, and it’d be awesome to see you there next January!
I really appreciate how you say twice that your goal is not to make people think what you think. As Christians are goal shouldn't be to be right but to to treat others as Jesus would treat them.
Another great post I hope people will read! The topic of divorce is a great example of the double standard LGBT Christians are held to. For those interested, here is a post I wrote last year “Divorce, Double Standards and Debates on Same-Sex Marriage” https://open.substack.com/pub/ryanclarkself/p/divorce-double-standards-and-debates?r=7y31d&utm_medium=ios
I appreciate the distinction that it’s not homophobic to hold a non-affirming view.
Great work, Ryan!
Thank you again, Zach, for such a clear and loving explanation of affirming theology! This is written in such a way that makes it perfect for me to share with family and friends who question how we balance our family’s love of Jesus with our full acceptance and celebration of our daughter’s queer identity.
Very interesting. Sexual perversion is certainly not the same thing as either homosexuality or heterosexuality.
Sodom and Gomorrah is about rape.
BTW I think you meant 'conversion therapy', not 'conversation therapy'. Google strikes again?
Good catch! Not google, his editor (me!) just missed this one :)
I appreciate this (and you, Zach) so much! I likely would have agreed with this 100% 3 years ago, when I wrote my own "why I'm affirming now" post, and if more Christians agreed with this, the world would be better off. I still agree with most of it!
AND... I'd encourage you to consider engaging in the same work again when it comes to norms like monogamy within marriage and abstinence outside of marriage, which your post seems to maybe still endorse? When I started looking at the Bible, it actually became very difficult for me to find a way to justify demands for either of them. The other thing I discovered was that the “anything-goes ethic in a morally libertine culture” was not at all what I found people to be practicing. Whole books have been written about ethical non-monogamy, and what that needs to look like. If anything, I was shocked to find that the people I thought believed “anything goes” actually had thought much more deeply about sexual ethics than most evangelicals I knew.
In general, my ethic now is to promote the well-being of others, while avoiding harm to them. I find this to be more easily tied to “Love your neighbor as yourself”. So things like sexual abuse or sex under false pretenses (promising marriage, or claiming no other partners) are to be condemned, but intimate relationships between enthusiastically consenting informed adults are to be supported and honored.
If you’d like to chat about this, I’d be more than happy to, as well as sharing resources that were helpful to me! There’s also usually sessions about polyamory and ethical non-monogamy at the Q Christian Fellowship conference, and it’d be awesome to see you there next January!
Again Zach gives a beautiful, loving, well thought out presentation to ponder and absorb.