Gay and Evangelical Christians

Some of the fiercest critics of homosexuality in America are evangelical Christians. They argue that homosexuality is a sin, that the homosexual lifestyle is both a consequence and a continuing cause of the decline of American values, and that the only way for people to be righteous with God is to be heterosexual. So how is it possible for a person to be gay and an evangelical Christian?

Well, some seem to manage. They even have support groups - the Seattle Times reports on Evangelicals Concerned Western Region:

“What brought about my change (of perspective) was seeing how destructive the ex-gay ethos was to people’s lives,” said Marks, 51, who is gay. “For all the devotion people made to coming to our ministry, the sacrifices they made, the effort they made to overcome — the long-term result was that nothing changed, and it brought about a crisis of faith for them. In that crisis, some lost their faith entirely.”

The thinking, Marks said, went like this: “If God does not wish people to live a homosexual life, then surely those who seek God sincerely will find a way to become heterosexual or at least be content with being celibate. Most of these people found neither. That leads to people saying: ‘I can’t choose whether or not I’m gay but I can choose whether or not I’m Christian,’ which is a very tragic conclusion to come to.”

Mainline Protestant churches are already well on their way to being more welcoming of gays, but it seems unlikely that the same will occur with evangelical denominations any time soon. Unfortunately, this is going to keep causing problems for gays who are part of evangelical culture — and those problems may cause people to turn away from Christianity entirely:

“The scary thing is, if you change your perception of what the church says about sexuality, your perception of what the church says about everything is challenged,” [Kimberly] McGill said. “That’s part of what I’m undergoing now, although the basic principles of what I believe I still find to be true.”

This, perhaps, is one of the things which conservative evangelical leaders fear the most: giving in on any aspect of homosexuality will send a sign of weakness and the potential for error; that, in turn, will give people permission to question everything else that is taught in conservative evangelical churches. Ironically, this was likely one of the reasons why Catholic leaders so resisted the criticisms of Martin Luther and others. The reformers left the Catholic Church and founded new churches based upon the principle of individual questioning and interpretation.

Reformation leaders rarely honored this principle in practice, but the principle remained strong and gave rise to a number of denominations which did take it seriously. Unfortunately, many contemporary Protestant denominations have abandoned it and are developing dogmas of their own, in contradiction to their historical beliefs.

Gay Rights & Gay Marriage: