Scripture Can Be Broken<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paul Wallace posted about how his view of same-sex relationships began to change when someone he viewed as a mentor responded to his use of proof-texts on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/scripture-can-be-broken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scripture Can Be Broken\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Wallace posted about how his view of same-sex relationships began to change when someone he viewed as a mentor responded to his use of proof-texts on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/scripture-can-be-broken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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{"id":26652,"date":"2014-10-16T09:17:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T13:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=26652"},"modified":"2014-10-16T09:17:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T13:17:39","slug":"scripture-can-be-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/10\/scripture-can-be-broken.html","title":{"rendered":"Scripture Can Be Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Paul Wallace posted<\/a> about how his view of same-sex relationships began to change when someone he viewed as a mentor responded to his use of proof-texts on the subject by insisting that he was starting in the wrong place.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must start with the person.\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate that this approach is in fact reflected in the Bible, Wallace considers\u00a0Deuteronomy 21:23. The early Christians had two options. They could have said (as the author of the Gospel of John depicts Jesus as saying) \u201cthe Scripture cannot be broken,\u201d and determined that\u00a0Jesus was accursed of God and not the anointed one they were hoping for.<\/p>\n

But they started with the person.<\/p>\n

So convinced were they that Jesus\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the anointed one, that they chose to find ways of viewing him as\u00a0not<\/em> accursed, and even as willingly bearing a\u00a0curse that he did not deserve.<\/p>\n

Christians took this further<\/a>. When Gentiles who were not circumcised showed evidence of having received God\u2019s Spirit, they decided that God must accept them as they are \u2013 despite what Genesis clearly says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And so, when you meet someone who is gay or lesbian, and in a committed relationship with someone of the same gender, and shows evidence of the Spirit at work in their life, what will you do?<\/p>\n

Will you respond in the Christian manner illustrated above? Or will you adopt an approach<\/a> to them that would, in an earlier era, placed you on the side not just against the acceptance of Gentiles in Christianity, but the acceptance of Jesus himself?<\/p>\n

$\"inclusive\"$ <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"