Obergefell<\/em>.<\/p>\nBy coincidence, that same day the Substack column of political scientist Ryan Burge, U.S. religion\u2019s top trend-meister, crunched numbers from the University of Chicago\u2019s standard General Social Survey. Support for same-sex marriage increased at an astonishingly rapid rate, from 31% in 2004 to 68% in 2018. But since then a slight decline, driven by Republicans, tells Burge that any further increases have \u201chit a brick wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drama in 2023<\/h4>\n
On the religious aspect, 2023 brought dramatic decisions by both Pope Francis and the Church of England to let clergy bless same-sex couples. But technically that did not alter their marriage doctrine, on which a contentious moral debate continues among U.S. Protestants.<\/p>\n
Since the 2018 apex of support, Burge noted, major U.S. religious blocs have been evolving. Evangelical Protestants went from 45% same-sex support down to 36%, \u201cMainline\u201d Protestants from 75% down to 67%, Black Protestants held steady at 54% then 55%, Catholics from 73% down to 68%, followers of non-Christian religions from 70% up to 75%, and non-religious Americans from 85% up to 88%.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, support among active weekly worshippers in the relatively liberal Mainline Protestant groups has plummeted from 75% to a mere 50%. Regular churchgoers among self-identified evangelicals went from 31% down to 22%. As Burge summarizes things, Christian support is generally slipping after the strong, steady 21st Century rise.<\/p>\n
In official policy-making during this era, all the major U.S. Mainline denominations have switched to morally affirm or allow same-sex relationships and openly gay and lesbian clergy. The last to move, last year, was the huge United Methodist Church. That happened due to the largest U.S. church schism since the Civil War as the UMC lost 7,631 conservative local congregations, roughly a fourth of the denomination.<\/p>\n
\u201cMainline\u201d war no more<\/h4>\n
Though the Mainline wars are over, there\u2019s ongoing tension elsewhere. A current example is the small schism off the Christian Reformed Church because it defined traditional beliefs on sexuality as mandatory doctrine and enacted a clampdown. Dissent against those decisions is focused on teachers and students at Calvin University, which is controlled by a board of CRC delegates. [Disclosure: The Religion Guy was a longtime member of a Christian Reformed congregation, since disbanded.]<\/p>\n
At a November Calvin debate between two theologians, CRC conservative Jeffrey Weima said the Bible is clear that sexual acts are limited to heterosexual marriage (per Old Testament law upheld by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-27 and I Corinthians 6:9-11). David Lincicum from the University of Notre Dame proposed what has emerged as liberals\u2019 central argument. Yes, we agree on what the Bible said but it\u2019s \u201cnot a text written in our time,\u201d and \u201clove requires\u201d Christians to move beyond Paul\u2019s \u201cculturally limited\u201d teaching.<\/p>\n
Two recently issued books pursue the evolving Protestant debate.<\/p>\n
Notable authors<\/h4>\n
\u201cThe Widening of God\u2019s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story\u201d (Yale) features fascinating father-and-son co-authors, Richard Hays and Christopher Hays. Richard, a prominent New Testament professor and later dean at Duke University\u2019s Divinity School, famously opposed same-sex behavior in \u201cThe Moral Vision of the New Testament\u201d (1996, HarperOne). But in this new book, published months before he died \u00a0January 3, he profusely apologized for that stance. Meanwhile, Christopher is an Old Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school that expects teachers, students, and staff to shun \u201cunbiblical sexual practices,\u201d including homosexual conduct.<\/p>\n
The Hayses do not grapple with sexuality texts so much as challenge the classic doctrine that God is immutable (biblical proof text in Malachi 3:5: \u201cI the Lord do not change\u201d). Like Lincicum they note, for instance, that the Bible accepted slavery but eventually Christianity viewed abolition as God\u2019s will. (Southern Baptist exegete Thomas Schreiner responded that the Bible regulated society\u2019s deeply ingrained slavery \u201cbut never endorsed or commended it.\u201d) If biblical rules can change, the Hayses wrote, then moral judgments rely far more upon contemporary experience.<\/p>\n
The second book of interest has equally notable authorship. Rebecca McLaughlin, a married mother of three, depicts her \u201clifelong history of same-sex attraction\u201d and yet concludes \u201cthe Bible leaves no room for followers of Jesus to pursue same-sex sexual relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
The academic magnum opus defending Christianity\u2019s 2,000-year-old tradition remains \u201cThe Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics\u201d by Robert Gagnon (2001, Abington). Instead, McLaughlin, a Briton with a theology degree and a literature Ph.D., takes a more popular approach in \u201cDoes the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality\u201d (Good Book Co.), a finalist in the new Christianity Today<\/em> magazine \u201cbook of the year\u201d awards. She concisely answers standard arguments the Protestant Left has employed over past decades:<\/p>\nAnswering the Left<\/h4>\n
\u201cChristians should just focus on the Gospel of God\u2019s love\u201d (as in the Hays book).<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus was silent on same-sex relationships\u201d (which ignores what he taught about marriage in Mark 10:6-9 and Matthew 19:4-6).<\/p>\n
\u201cGod\u2019s judgment on Sodom isn\u2019t a judgment on same-sex relationships.\u201d (Conservatives often agree it isn\u2019t.)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201cinconsistent\u201d to obey Old Testament law on sexuality but not kosher diet. (The latter change for Gentile converts to Christianity was by direct revelation from God contained in Scripture.)<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul condemns exploitative same-sex relationships, not consensual ones\u201d or else denounces \u201cexcessive lust.\u201d (Then why didn\u2019t he say so?)<\/p>\n
The English word \u201chomosexual\u201d in I Corinthians translations is a \u201cmisinterpretation.\u201d (Patheos last year re-posted a 2018 column arguing this though, as above, liberals admit what Paul was referring to.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u201ctrajectory of the Bible is toward rejecting slavery and affirming same-sex marriage.\u201d (See above.)<\/p>\n
\u201cUnchosen celibacy yields bad fruit.\u201d (Traditionalists insist that, nonetheless, Scripture requires those with same-sex attraction to avoid such relationships.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE RELIGION GUY\u2019S ANSWER: Not yet, and not quite, even as President Trump\u2019s agenda instead puts the news spotlight on transgender issues. Though the Supreme Court\u2019s historic 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision to legalize gay and lesbian marriage nationwide was by a narrow 5 to 4, the law appears very unlikely to change. And yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1275,"featured_media":4817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[608,614,620,617,605,611],"class_list":["post-4811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible-and-sexuality","tag-gay-and-lesbian","tag-rebecca-mclaughlin","tag-richard-hays","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-sexual-morality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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