Changing Our Mind - David P. Gushee

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Beans)

This book is written by a leading scholar/pastor/ethicist who is calling for full inclusion of LGBTQ+ Christians in the church. He’s a white straight dude but I think it’s more powerful coming from him because he can and will reach more people who need to hear stuff like this. It’s a big claim and one I have struggled with for a long time. Anytime I have ever really talked to people about it, both sides seem to be majorly lacking in their reasoning. People who are allies couldn’t get past the tricky scripture that seems to condemn it and their theology around it seemed shallow, while people who condemn that lifestyle couldn’t say that it’s ok to actively hate these people and oppress them when the bible calls us to love above all else. Gushee outlines how he came to this inclusive theology and goes through scripture and experience arguing why we need to be inclusive.

He starts with the tricky verses in scripture that seem to condemn it, although there are very few and it’s hard to count the ones in the Old Testament because we don’t use it as a base for most of our other morality. The word abomination is used over 100 times but never outside of Leviticus regarding same sex acts, yet we never hear of these other acts of abomination.

He goes on to say that it is a somewhat slippery slope to get out sexual ethics from genesis (one man one woman), because the way we understand gay relationships today is totally different. He argues that gay people within a covenantal, monogamous relationship are being just as faithful as heterosexual couples. It’s also key to note that no one follows the biblical example of marriage anymore (in the OT especially, marriage was between an old dude and young woman who was literally sold as property and used to pop out male babies, so ya, no one can argue for biblical marriage in that sense).

He then goes onto the very few verses in the NT where Paul lists a set of sinful vices and homosexuality is within that list. The Greek and Hebrew words used there are very contested. There is a lot of nuance around what the words mean, and it is very hard to definitively say that Paul is condemning homosexuality, especially given how we understand loving gay relationships today.

He notes that human experience also adds to ones theology. His sister came out as a lesbian which totally changed his thinking. He then met more and more gay people and was confronted with how is theology was hurting these loving Christian people. And we do it all the time, let our feelings affect our thinking and theology, so why should this be different? Tradition and the bible cannot be our only source for morality and information, and we have learned that church tradition has and can be wrong (slavery for example was supported by scripture for the longest time). We need to listen to experts in the field, so when psychologists say that you can’t turn a gay person straight, it might be good to listen to them.

Finally, he calls for a theology that is loving. If our theology finds ourselves being hateful and excluding people from the kingdom, Jesus probably doesn’t approve. Simple yet important.

So ya, it was an incredibly informing book. I can’t say exactly where I land because I think I need to sit on this for a while. It did present the best argument I’ve heard for inclusion, and I think all of you would greatly benefit from reading that. Don’t tell my family I’m such a heathen lol