The heart soul and face of gay marriage
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a queer man and a queer woman. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a fresh adult. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality while loving his gay parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new manual Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his guide and his perspective on how Christians can beat navigate the complexities of this issue with fact and grace.
In your guide you say that it’s time for Christians to own the issu Most days, I’m content you can’t glimpse the discussions that go on between Christ and Pop Culture‘s writers. They tend to consist of teasing, arguing, teasing, complaining about life and customs in general, banter, countless inside jokes, and the occasional substantial conversation. It can be a little overwhelming. When I come home from work (where the ongoing conversation is unavailable to me), I often possess to set aside over half an hour just to catch up on the flow of conversation from the day… and then I can start contributing. But I do wish there was a wonderful way to production you the age, care, thought, and flat-out work that we put into parsing difficult moral issues. Our writers have excellent minds and come from very different places spiritually, theologically, and geographically. Forging some sort of deal — or at least a harmonious “agree to disagree” mentality — takes a lot of patience, humility, and willingness to notice each other in a positive glow despite our unlike perspectives. Which brings us to President Obama’s recent statement in support of male lover marriage. Gay marriage is a complex issue that has Are we to assume that Jesus is saying that we should repress all sexual craving that falls outside of heterosexual marriage, and most people say, you realize , that’s not really that healthy. New opinion is that self-fulfillment is the rule of experience and that sexually, as in all areas of animation, each of us has the right to chart our own individual course towards personal satisfaction. If not, you’ll find yourself repressed, and as a culture, we hold developed a widespread notion that sexual gratification is inherent to person-hood and that celibacy is just unreasonable. But I want to ask you two questions as we start this morning. Should certain sexual behavior be declared morally right because I June 26, 2015 …If you complete not obey the Lord your God and accomplish not carefully follow all His commands…The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and appear to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him. Deuteronomy 28:15, 20 On this day, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court has issued a judgment saying that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. Be warned, America. A constitutional right is not the same thing as a Divine right. What should be our response to the Supreme Court ruling as followers of Jesus? The most appropriate way to respond that immediately comes to my mind is to pray. But how do we pray now that the decision has been rendered? How perform we pray for a nation that has officially, legally decided that God’s Word and God’s principles and God’s institutions and even God Himself are irrelevant? As I asked the Lord how I should pray in the face of such blatant, official rejection of Him, this is what He seemed to whisper to me… Pray for this one decision to do what even 9/11 was unable to do: Wake up God’s people! America i Recently, the Church of England General Synod voted (by a very narrow majority) to allow a trial of prayers to consecrate same-sex relationships. This compromise, a typical Anglican fudge, has, unsurprisingly, satisfied no one. On the one hand, many evangelicals believe it amounts to a rejection of biblical authority and the authorisation of heresy within the Church. Others do not think it goes far enough, evidence that the Church of England remains institutionally homophobic and abusive towards lgbtq+ people. Now, Jayne Ozanne, one of the most vociferous campaigners for the Church to conduct same-sex marriages, has resigned from General Synod. In an interview with Pink News she said that she “can no longer in all conscience stay in an institution which continues to condone the abuse of [LBGT+] people.” The Church’s purpose is to call people to repentance and faith Critiquing the trial of prayers of blessing, she called it “a very small, begrudging step” that “doesn’t mention the core issue [in the Church], which is whether sex outside of marriage is a salvation issue.” Ozanne has, perhaps unwittingly, crystalised the crucial issue that faces not How Should Christians Believe About Gay Marriage?
Homosexuality and Gay Marriage – Part 2
All right, last week, I ended by looking at Jesus’s encounter with the adulterous woman and the compassion He showed, but also the instruction when He said travel and sin no more. He didn’t say go and follow and pursue the desires of your body and the application was that people who have a gay orientation should be celibate, should abstain, so where I want to begin this morning really is by talking about human desires. Is Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ the Trigger?
The central question