Little Billy Church Boy Speaks Out
William Birch
[Update 4-14-2017: The blog mentioned in this post no longer exists. The links do not work. But, because of continued interest in this post, I am not (for the time being) removing it.]
Let me draw your attention to two particularly excellent — and very personal — posts by William Birch over at his new blog, the further. William Birch has been blogging for a long time about classical Arminian theology. But, at his new blog he is addressing issues related to Christian sexual ethics. And, he has reason to: he is himself a same-gender attracted person. He writes:
Often, Christian sexual ethics is at variance with the given surrounding culture. My goal is to challenge the Church to treat the LGBTQ community with dignity, honor, and respect; yet to do so and not compromise their varied, respective, biblical beliefs.
It is especially difficult to write about these issues in the church. So much of the church is caught up in the American Culture War, that it is often hard to hear what some people are actually saying. (more…)
Ron Belgau: Honesty about “Orientation Change”
Ron Belgau
I’m reblogging this from the Spiritual Friendship site. Concerning this site: “Spiritual Friendship was created by Ron Belgau and Wesley Hill out of frustration with the prevailing narratives about homosexuality in orthodox Christian circles, which focused either on political issues, or on reparative therapy in one form or another. Neither of these approaches, we believe, represents an adequate pastoral response to LGBT Christians.”
The author, Ron Belgau, is completing a PhD in Philosophy, and teaches medical ethics, philosophy of the human person, ethics, and philosophy of religion.
Here Ron writes about the need for the Church to be honest and truthful about the prospects of (what we generally call) sexual orientation change — they are not good. He says: “Young Christians struggling with same-sex attraction deserve to receive honest answers to their questions from Christian leaders.” And: “Young Christians in their late teens or early twenties who realize they’re attracted to their own sex face a difficult and often lonely process of discerning God’s calling. It’s important that we communicate honestly with them.” (more…)