A Publication of the Reconciling Congregation Program at Trinity United Methodist Church
Volume 2, Number 2 - Fall 2000
A Publication of the Reconciling Congregation Program at Trinity United Methodist Church
Volume 2, Number 2 - Fall 2000
Scriptural condemnations of homosexuality merely reflect biblical authors' cultural biases and are not among the "essential" messages of the gospel, the Covenant Network of Presbyterians was told during a recent three-day meeting on the theme of "Biblical Authority and the Church."
Several conference speakers said the Bible's condemnations of same-gender sexuality call to mind other scriptural passages used in past centuries to justify slavery and to keep women from participating fully in the life of the church - on the basis of long-held interpretations that are largely abandoned today.
The Bible is "shot through with vested interests," theologian Walter Brueggemann warned his audience of more than 600 men and women in an address titled "Biblical Authority: A Personal Reflection." Brueggemann, a professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, said Christians should "proceed with great modesty" in interpreting biblical texts, resisting the temptation to cling to "our presumed absoluteness about things."
"We are all selective fundamentalists," he said.
Brueggemann said he reads the Bible with a sense of wonder: "It's a book that is utterly beyond me in its richness and yet held concretely in my hand - what a remarkable gift!"
Calling the Bible "inevitably disputatious," and remarking that "you can't get the interpreter out of the text," Brueggemann said scriptural interpretation is a "dynamic process," in which the text is always "refracted through human authors with vested interests."
He added: "The church ought to engage in honest, pastoral conversation about vested interests, anxiety, fear and pain. Nobody has a monopoly.
Brueggemann, a United Church of Christ minister, summed up: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
Another plenary speaker, William Placher, a professor of religion at Wabash College, said interpreters of the Bible must "draw a line between cultural conventions and the truths that Bible stories convey," and always "keep in mind the assumptions the author brought to his time and place." He said the apostle Paul, for example, was from a patriarchal culture in which it was "socially acceptable to treat homosexuals with contempt."
In some passages, he said, scriptural authors make passing references to homosexuality "in the process of teaching about something else" - using homosexuality simply as "a good example of sin," something that at the time was "taken for granted." Calling himself a "Bible-believing Christian," Placher told his audience to dispute conservative Christians' claims "that they're being more serious about the Bible than you are."
When Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said, we should understand "that this is a parable ... in the realm of an invented story ... not a crime report." While it is hard sometimes to tell what to make of particular Bible passages, he said, "If we study the whole Bible its critical truths come through loud and clear."
"The Bible helps guide us home from exile," Placher concluded, "to the love and knowledge of our sovereign God."
Police say that Hendrick Paterson, 49, and Sharon Paterson, 36, of Wickham Ave. in the Bronx, repeatedly smashed their son with a lead pipe at a relative's home as they yelled anti-gay slurs. "God will punish you for your lifestyle!" police quoted the couple as saying. "You can't be gay!"
After the attack, the son was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where he was treated for multiple welts on his body and released. The attack was apparently the culmination of a simmering six-month feud between the young man and his parents, who were so outraged by his sexual orientation that they kicked him out of the house in the Wakefield section, cops said.
The teen apparently went to live with an aunt about 2 miles away at De Kruif Place in Co-op City, where the attack took place, police said.
"He was struck with a pipe and an unknown object," an investigator said yesterday. At the parents' house, an answering machine greeted callers with the salutation, "God bless you. You have a good day."
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 1
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 2
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 3
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 4
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 5
The Spark, vol. 1, no. 6
The Spark, vol. 2, no. 1
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This newsletter is an effort to bring to the public the stories of lesbian & gay Christians, their families & their allies. We look forward to a United Methodist Church that celebrates the full participation of all Christians in the Church.