Quotable

From the excellent book by Jack Rogers, Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), page 103:

"Perhaps the greatest irony in the marriage debate is that self-described born-again Christians, a segment of the population that is often vocal about supporting bans on same-sex marriage, seem to exhibit greater problems with their own marriages. Evangelical pollster George Barna found that during the 1990s born-again Christians had higher divorce rates than non-Christians. . . . The states of Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas, which voted overwhelmingly for constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage in 2004, had three of the highest divorce rates in the United States. In contrast, the state with the lowest divorce rate is Massachusetts, a state whose Supreme Court has ruled in favor of gay marriage. There is clearly a disconnect between problems facing heterosexual marriages in the United States and the conservatives' proposed solution of banning same-sex marriage."

On page 101, Rogers quotes from an article by Lewis Smedes, "Exploring the Morality of Homosexuality," in Homosexuality and Christian Faith: Questions of Conscience of the Churches, edited by Walter Wink (Fortress Press, 1999):

"What danger to straight people is posed by homosexuals? Some say they are a threat to the family, but none tell us how. Some fear that they might abuse our children, but no facts have been adduced to show that they are any more likely to do so than heterosexual people are. Do homosexuals threaten to invade our homes, steal our property, rape our daughters? What we know is that homosexual men are murdered by heterosexual people just for being gay; what we also know is that there is no record of a heterosexual being murdered for not being gay. Why then, I wonder, in a world of violence, starving children, cruel tyrannies, and natural disasters, why are Christian people so steamed up about the harmless and often beneficent presence of gays and lesbians among us?"

This is the best popular-level book I have seen on this topic. As the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he uses quite a bit of ink describing the history of Presbyterian thought on three parallel civil rights issues--racism and slavery, the rights of women, and homosexuality. This material was interesting to me as a relatively new Presbyterian. Any Christian, however, will benefit from Chapters 5 and 6, which contain an excellent exposition on the biblical and sociological case for equality for gays and lesbians in the life of the church. Chapter 4, "Interpreting the Bible in Times of Controversy," while using Presbyterian examples, is an excellent resource for any church struggling with this issue.

The eight or so verses in scripture that allegedly mention homosexuality are almost always interpreted outside their literary and social context. Even if all eight of these verses were interpreted as condemnations of all homosexual behavior (which itself requires very strained exegesis), no one can credibly argue that the subject is a priority in scripture as it is for many of today's Christian conservatives. Rogers is an evangelical who takes the Bible seriously (something that many evangelicals, sadly, don't do). He was against equality for gays and lesbians in the church for many years, until he was forced to actually study the issue because of church roles he was playing. When he did a serious study of scripture, he realized that it is wrong and unbiblical to marginalize any faithful Christian.