Posted on 08/05/2006 6:22:00 AM PDT by stan_sipple
One of the most divisive issues facing American churches today is homosexuality. Most major Christian denominations have debated same-sex marriage and ordination of homosexuals and most have come down in opposition to both, despite vocal dissenters on the other side. The Rev. Don Hanway, who retired in 2003 after 22 years as rector of St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church, offers a thoughtful and well-reasoned view on this volatile topic in his book “A Theology of Gay and Lesbian Inclusion” ($14.95, Haworth Press). Subtitled “Love Letters to the Church,” the book looks at societal fears and prejudices about gays and lesbians and examines what the Bible says — and doesn’t say — about homosexuality in the context of the broader Christian gospel of unconditional love. “This book grew out of my pastoral experience and my experience as a member of the Committee on GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) Concerns at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,” Hanway said. “I realized that the biggest obstacle gay people have to deal with is the Christian church.” The book includes many stories of gay and lesbian people Hanway has known over the years who talk about how the church failed to understand them and respond to their needs. Hanway is convinced that same-sex orientation is not a lifestyle choice, but a basic part of a person over which he or she has no control. “Most of the gay people I know have discovered that they were gay; they didn’t choose to be gay,” he said. “Why would anyone decide to be gay? We force people into the closet because of our own conflicts.” Traditionally, the Christian church has told gay people that homosexual behavior is a sin, citing a “handful” of biblical passages that Hanway says are taken out of context. Churches tell gays and lesbians that their same-sex attraction is wrong. It gives them no alternative but to be celibate, change their orientation (which Hanway believes is impossible), or keep their sexuality secret. “We ask people to deny who they are before we (as a church) will accept them.” Gay people are not asking the church for a license to be promiscuous or engage in risky sexual behavior, he said. Rather, they want the church’s blessing on committed relationships with a loving partner, just as heterosexual couples do. In the book, he reviews a few Old Testament verses that often are cited against homosexuality. He argues that, in fact, the passages deal either with the evils of violence or with the practices of pagan religions. The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, describes homosexual behavior as “unnatural,” but that’s because he believed all people were naturally heterosexual, Hanway said. “He could not conceive of the possibility that someone could be created gay and might honor God by accepting that sacred trust, just as we heterosexuals accept our sexual nature as an energizing and potentially creative gift, though not without some hazards,” he writes. “The Bible says nothing about homosexuality because the Bible doesn’t know anything about homosexuality as an orientation.” But Hanway continues, “If we come to the Bible for guidance on how to use the sexuality we have been given, we will find abundant counsel, following the main themes of stewardship and love that run through the Bible. We are not to exploit or abuse others in the pursuit of our sexual gratification; we are to respect the dignity of others, whether they are male or female, powerful or powerless; and we are to be supporting, as St. Paul so often urges, of those loving behaviors that build up the community and honor the goodness of the creator. Can we include faithful same-sex relationships in that recognition? I think we can.” The book is written as a series of letters, not to clergy or scholars, but to lay church members who “want to do the right thing,” Hanway said. Describing himself at one point as a “flaming heterosexual,” Hanway said he developed empathy through pastoral relationships and friendships with lesbians and gays. Parishioners often sought guidance on how to respond to gay friends or relatives, and he wished he had a book to give them. “I wrote the book for the person in the pew,” he said.
Jesus himself never mentions homosexuality, but he reached out to people who were rejected by society, he said. “He spoke to their needs, their hunger to know God and offered them acceptance.”
Noting the recent U.S. Eighth Circuit Court decision upholding Nebraska’s anti-gay marriage amendment as well as recent actions by many denominations reasserting their prohibitions on same-sex unions and homosexual clergy, Hanway agreed that both the church and society are slow to change. “My book seeks to raise conscientious,” he said. “The more understanding there is of people at large (about homosexuality) the more likelihood for change to happen in the future.”
Hanway’s own denomination, the U.S. Episcopal Church, does not prohibit homosexuals from being ordained, but has undergone widespread criticism from the worldwide Anglican community for the 2003 election of V. Gene Robinson, a gay priest in a longtime relationship, as a bishop in New Hampshire. Hanway said he believes Robinson was selected because he was best qualified to serve, without regard to his sexual orientation.
That, Hanway said, is the way gay and lesbian people want to be treated — not labeled as deviant or sinful, but fully accepted and allowed to share their gifts in the life of the church.
“Gay and lesbian people want equal treatment, an end to the double standard between straight and gay people,” he writes. “They want to be seen as more than sexual beings. They are multifaceted and complicated like the rest of us. They want an end to persecution and discrimination, especially that which is administered in God’s name and that which affects their livelihood, their health and their freedom.”
Hanway said he was encouraged to write his book after participating in a workshop led by author Mary Pipher at the First Annual Nebraska Summer Writers’ Conference in 2003. Her topic was “Writing to Change the World.”
In a short review posted on the Web, Pipher describes Hanway’s book as “compassionate, erudite and well reasoned.”
Another reviewer, the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., said Hanway “invites people to rethink their own fears or prejudices by looking at them through the eyes of Jesus. … His balanced message of hope is a powerful antidote to much of the frenzied rhetoric we often hear when Christians start to talk about sex.”
Hanway will hold a book-signing session at noon Sept. 10 at St. Mark’s on the Campus, 1309 R St.
/not sarc
Churches should read the literal Greek for what Paul was saying about sodomy, pretty specific I think for one the liberals say was ignorant of homosexuality
"Jesus himself never mentions homosexuality,..."
This one again? He also never mentioned zoophilia, pederastry, necrophilia, and smoking crack.
didnt Jesus say he associated with the unclean because "only the sick need a doctor?"
I say we welcome in compulsive gamblers, heroin addicts, illegal immigrants, Pimps etc
Absolutely - we should not hesitate to associate with homosexuals, but we should never champion their lifestyle as correct or acceptable.
Another pagan making God into his own image. Jesus clearly spoke of marriage and sex in terms of male and female, as God created them. That this "minister" claims not to know this, but bases his false teachings on his own "experiences" with homosexuals shows that he does not follow Jesus's words and so he is not a Christian.
As Jesus said, "On the Last Day many will say, 'Lord, Lord, did we not teach in Your name?"" Then I will plainly tell them, "I never knew you. Away with you, you evildoers.'" (Matt.7:22,23)
They just cannot make up the sermon to suit their own sexual habits
The Rev. Don Hanway, who retired in 2003 after 22 years as rector of St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church, offers a thoughtful and well-reasoned view on this volatile topic in his book “A Theology of Gay and Lesbian Inclusion” ($14.95, Haworth Press). Subtitled “Love Letters to the Church,”
As you welcome them in, please give them the mandate that Jesus did, "Go and sin no more."
Acts 20:29-31: "I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears."
Jesus had no need to mention homosexual sex or other perverse behavior. As an Orthodox Jew He would have followed the Torah teachings on these matters. Jesus affirm God's plan of one man and one woman bonded together in life long matrimony. He makes no allowances for fornicators either heterosexual or homosexual.
Yes His statement on marriage was in reference to the practice of divorce. But His condemnation of divorce was based on the prmise for one to divorce and remarry was the same as commiting adultry. ( I know there are Christian churches which believe this is not always the case).
In His discourse Jesus holds the listeners to a standard higher than the contemporary cultural norm. He knew that men acted against their wives because of the hardness of their hearts and He was having none of it. So if He sets a higher standard for the legitimate expression of sexuality why would He then lower the standard for illegitmate, corrupt expressions of sexuality? The idea is way too contradictory to give credence.
Jesus is always life affirming and homosexual sex is certainly not life affirming. It is not possible to have the very one who said I am the life declare anything which by its very nature is a denial of the life affirming biology of male and female union, as good. Just ain't gonna happen. I trust the Truth of God not the agenda of the GLBTQ elite. No matter what type of collar they wear.
This is characteristic of the kind of pablum which passes for reason on too many campuses today. Anecdotal supposition, devoid of facts, ending with a question meant to be rhetorical, rather than a conclusion based on intelligent ordering of information.
Most of the alcoholics I know didn't choose to be drunks, either. Why would they decide to be addicted? They just liked to drink. Guess it was merely a basic part of who they were, so we should just accept them as such.
Rev 2: "21": And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
SODOMY IS FORNICATION.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. That tells you all you need to know right there.
Campus priests are absolutely the most screaming liberal loons of their denomination, whatever it is . . . and since this is an Episcopal campus priest, he's out there in orbit somewhere beyond Pluto . . .
HORSEFEATHERS!!!! As "gay" activists themselves have said, the goal of same-sex "marriage" or "blessed unions" is to make homosexuality "normal" and "accepted" in the general society!!!! A vanishingly small number of gaysbians intend to get "married", as shown by the small numbers in Massachusetts, for example. But "gay marriage" legitmates homosexuality in general, including promiscuity.
Gaysbian activists also intend to neutralize and/or destroy orthodox Christian churches with their bogus ideologies, again with the goal of making homosexulaity "normal" in the general society, and making any opposition a "hate crime".
As for Jesus, he did say plainly that man-woman marriage has always been God's plan. 'Nuff said about homosexuality! And Paul clearly knew the Greek theories (such as Plato's) that gaysbians were "born that way". So this cracked Episcopal "priest's" tired (and often repeated by many, many others) arguments don't hold water one bit!!!!
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