We had quite an open dialogue...
There is certainly more conversation to be had on the subject. But it seemed like good progress...
We do have people who are clearly wrestling with what they think, but everyone seemed committed to an open conversation, and God's will. Just about everyone in the room participated in some way (and those who didn't were clearly attentive!) and many had some deep insight, or more often, expressed deep emotional concern.
I was quite blessed to be a part of such a dialogue!
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We spent a little time addressing the specific details of what scripture says about sex and homosexuality, but spent more time talking about how we should approach people, how we should approach scripture, and how we should approach God.
The focus was predominantly on homosexuality, and so was perhaps less practical for most people than a discussion of sex, gender, and sexuality more broadly...
We could easily spend several Sunday's on the topic!
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I did, however, have one of my friends suggest we intentionally include a voice from the affirming perspective. We had a few in the room who were ambiguous, and many who were of the conservative perspective. But no one who was arguing that same-gender sex acts aren't sinful.
It made me think about doing some sort of forum with two or three other pastors in town, but I don't know how public I wanna be on this topic!
;-)
It wouldn't be fun to be on record as a bigot in my neighborhood...
2 comments:
We haven't done much pulpit time on the subject. I don't know how fruitful that would be... gosh such a sensitive subject around here... everywhere I guess.
This is the first time we have addressed homosexuality so directly and in depth...
We talk about sexuality directly at least yearly...
It comes up somewhat regularly in other contexts, but I am careful in addressing homosexuality because it is such a powder keg. We have people in our church who are gay, and others who have gay family members. We live very near the 'gay neighborhood.'
In short, it is a deeply divisive issue, that happens to be very personal for many people we know...
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