{"id":24180,"date":"2012-06-10T08:58:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-10T15:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/?p=24180"},"modified":"2013-11-23T20:30:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T04:30:09","slug":"its-no-sin-to-be-gay-see-how-easy-that-was-andrew-marin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/2012\/06\/its-no-sin-to-be-gay-see-how-easy-that-was-andrew-marin\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s no sin to be gay.” See how easy that was, Andrew Marin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s be clear about this: Andrew Marin makes his living dancing around in the middle ground between pretending to say, and actually saying,<\/em> that it\u2019s perfectly okay to be gay. Like others of his ilk who have discovered the benefits to be had by essentially exploiting the gay issue (and even if your audience doesn\u2019t yet, you \u201cprogressive\u201d Christian leaders know who you are), Marin trades in the fuzzy, non-committal language that ultimately serves no purpose beyond allowing Christians to feel better about maintaining their conviction that homosexuality is a sin.<\/p>\n

By way of demonstrating that\u2014which I only do because I know some of you out there still<\/em> think Marin truly supports gay people, and I hate to see you wasting your affections\u2014I offer this recent Twitter exchange between Andrew and me:<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin<\/strong>: [Part 1] You don\u2019t know all the facts, neither does Dan. Pls come to Boystown & talk to me & all the LGBT folks & activists that [Part 2] love & support us. Open invite always stands. Would love to hang.<\/p>\n

John Shore:<\/strong> true! I don\u2019t know all the facts. I did read lots of your work on your site; I never saw you say gay isn\u2019t a sin. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

[Here Andrew greatly surprised me by writing that he has<\/em> never said that being gay isn\u2019t a sin. I was less surprised when he quickly deleted<\/em> that Tweet, and in its place wrote:]<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin:<\/strong> Let\u2019s hv a convo then. U seem like a guy wanting to communicate the truth & not hear-say. Shame u didn\u2019t reach out beforehand. [Part 2]<\/strong> Just wish convos happen. Problematic when respectable folks don\u2019t take 1 extra step b4 they make public statements.<\/p>\n

John Shore:<\/strong> I DID take the extra step: I read the articles by you on your site. That took real time.<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin:<\/strong> Then u noticed I focus on cultural engagement regardless of belief system; not focusing on belief alignment. So we going 2 talk?<\/p>\n

John Shore:<\/strong> Tell me homosexuality isn\u2019t a sin, and we\u2019ve got ourselves a chat. Don\u2019t, and we don\u2019t\u2013cuz then I already know who u r.<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin:<\/strong> Tell me when 2 grown men must hv a prerequisite agreement before they can hv a simple convo? U nervous to talk instead of type?<\/p>\n

John Shore:<\/strong> Why would I be \u201cnervous\u201d about talking to you? You play the middle for your own gain. Hardly intimidating.<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin:<\/strong> All I want to do is have a real life conversation. Too much scapegoating online w\/140 characters; not sufficient.<\/p>\n

John Shore:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s no sin to be gay.\u201d That was 21 characters. See how easy?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s when Andrew decided to end the conversation.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t expect to hear from him again. But I\u2019m confident that if I do, he won\u2019t say anything beyond how important it is to continue the dialogue, to keep building bridges, to \u201clive in the tension,\u201d to reach out in love, fuzzy, fuzzy, blah, blah, tastes great, less filling. Because selling that kind of sugar-powdered waffle is how Andrew makes his money.<\/p>\n

Andrew: If you\u2019d like to say about gay people what you feel you can\u2019t in 140 characters, I offer you this space to do so. I have a lot of readers who don\u2019t believe that same-sex relationships are inherently sinful. I know that they (and I!) would love to hear that you agree with them on that. I sincerely hope that I am wrong in my understanding that you would no sooner unambiguously state that than you would film yourself pushing a gay teenager off a cliff.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about sneaky and squirmy Andrew Marin, read this<\/a>. Or this<\/a>. Or watch this video<\/a> of him, in which he says this:<\/p>\n

My beliefs line up with the evangelical belief system. Scot McKnight and Dan Kimball, who are both widely recognized as leaders of the emergent movement today, are kind of breaking from that whole movement, because they\u2019re saying, \u2018Listen, we have a high view of scripture [meaning a literal, inerrant view], we believe in a real traditional interpretation of everything \u2026 and that\u2019s where I align myself with, with them two. \u2026\u00a0Evangelical Christians, look into my eyes, and just know<\/em> that I believe the same thing you believe \u2026 I just live it out in a counter-cultural way \u2026 but this doen\u2019t mean I\u2019m flying off to a different theological belief system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How anyone still takes this guy seriously is beyond me.<\/p>\n

See also: Christians and LGBT Equality: There is No Middle Ground.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So let\u2019s be clear about this: Andrew Marin makes his living dancing around in the middle ground between pretending to say, and actually saying, that it\u2019s perfectly okay to be gay. Like others of his ilk who have discovered the benefits to be had by essentially exploiting the gay issue (and even if your audience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1528,"featured_media":24181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianissues"],"yoast_head":"\n"It's no sin to be gay." 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