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drbobcornwall 's review for:
The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical's Change of Heart
by Mark Achtemeier
While there is still considerable resistance to marriage equality, there is a growing sense within society and in the Christian community that the traditional arguments against it are inadequate and should be abandoned. Mark Achtemeier, a Presbyterian pastor and theologian, who is also an evangelical, provides us with one more expression of this change. Achtemeier found it necessary to re-read Scripture in light of his discovery that there are LBGT people who are seeking to follow Christ and find that what they had been taught about homosexuality was increasingly oppressive. Many tried as many avenues as possible to suppress their desires, and yet nothing worked. What they were hearing from the church did not bring joy or a sense of closeness to God, but despair.
Having had conversations with seminary students and church members, Achtemeier began to study first what the Bible had to say about marriage. What is its purpose? He found that much of what the Bible said about marriage could apply equally to gay and to straight couples. He then went and studied the texts that are traditionally used to deny LGBT folks a place in the church, its ministry, and marriage, and found that they don't apply to a modern understanding of a loving, egalitarian relationship between two people of the same gender. Instead, they speak of violence and inequality and idolatry. What he discovered is that he could affirm the intent of these passages without giving up his new found belief that the Bible permits same-sex marriage.
The book is both a personal journey and a theological manifesto. It should prove valuable to the many people who are trying to figure out how to remain true to a high view of scripture and embrace a more open stance toward LGBT people. Achtemeier offers them a way to move in that direction.
Having had conversations with seminary students and church members, Achtemeier began to study first what the Bible had to say about marriage. What is its purpose? He found that much of what the Bible said about marriage could apply equally to gay and to straight couples. He then went and studied the texts that are traditionally used to deny LGBT folks a place in the church, its ministry, and marriage, and found that they don't apply to a modern understanding of a loving, egalitarian relationship between two people of the same gender. Instead, they speak of violence and inequality and idolatry. What he discovered is that he could affirm the intent of these passages without giving up his new found belief that the Bible permits same-sex marriage.
The book is both a personal journey and a theological manifesto. It should prove valuable to the many people who are trying to figure out how to remain true to a high view of scripture and embrace a more open stance toward LGBT people. Achtemeier offers them a way to move in that direction.