{"id":14944,"date":"2013-04-04T00:59:26","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T04:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=14944"},"modified":"2013-04-04T01:00:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T05:00:55","slug":"god-has-shown-me-that-i-should-not-call-anyone-profane-or-unclean-no-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/04\/god-has-shown-me-that-i-should-not-call-anyone-profane-or-unclean-no-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean’ (No. 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Slowly, but surely, we\u2019re winning this argument. Slowly, gradually, more and more Christians are coming around to understanding the Apostle Peter\u2019s rooftop vision from God the same way that Peter<\/em> understood it.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, evangelical theologian Scot McKnight shared a guest post by Jeff Cook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a kind of personal testimony in which Cook<\/a> \u2014 who serves as pastor of an evangelical church<\/a> in Greeley, Colo. \u2014 describes \u201cWhat I Have Learned From the Lesbians in My Church<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Cook begins, with his sometimes-awkward personal account from how his faith and life have been enriched by two women at his church whom he describes as \u201can absolute treasure\u201d to him and to the congregation. But Cook goes on from there, beginning, apprehensively, to question whether this experience ought to lead him to rethink his thinking.<\/p>\n

Here is Cook\u2019s conclusion:<\/p>\n

In the early church, the Jewish Christians became convinced that God desired to save Gentiles through faith in Christ alone, because they saw the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of the Gentiles. The common understanding of conversion in the first century was that one needed to physically change \u2014 to be circumcised and give up certain foods in order to be acceptable to God. \"\"<\/a>But the early church shifted its perception of this entire group of people, not because of the Bible (the Bible was clear that all males needed to be circumcised and eating shellfish was a no-no), but because they saw the work of the Holy Spirit bursting forth from the lives of these Gentile believers.<\/p>\n

After seeing the Spirit\u2019s work, they changed the rules of inclusion.<\/p>\n

I do not have a clear conviction from Christ on this point, but I wonder if that same lesson is being offered to the American Church, who so clearly sees the Holy Spirit alive and awake in some of our gay friends. I wonder if empirically we might make the same move as the first Christians who disregarded the many verses on circumcision and food laws, disregarded traditional mores, and embraced the present activity of God\u2019s Spirit in their midst as authoritative.<\/p>\n

I think if we did, we would not only begin to see God in new ways, we might gain many new sisters, many new brothers \u2014 just as the early church did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This makes me very happy. Scot McKnight is a respected and influential theologian in evangelical circles, and while he doesn\u2019t quite endorse the conclusion Cook doesn\u2019t quite come to, I\u2019m very pleased to see both of them giving some serious, thoughtful consideration to this argument.<\/p>\n

It also makes me very happy to see another mainstream evangelical blog, Internet Monk, with a follow-up post titled \u201cIs Jeff Cook on to something here?<\/a>\u201d IMonk, like McKnight, has the attention and the respect of the evangelical mainstream establishment, and it\u2019s good to finally see that establishment beginning to contend with the parallel between the early Christians\u2019 inclusion of us unclean Gentiles and the imperative for the church today to include LGBT Christians as full participants.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Peter was against including Gentiles in the beloved community. He wasn\u2019t a bigot<\/em>, necessarily \u2014 it was simply a matter of the authority of scripture. He could recite dozens<\/em> of clobber-verses to show that such inclusion would have been \u201cunbiblical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile,\u201d Peter said. The Bible said it. He believed it. And that settled it.<\/p>\n

Until a vision from God and a knock on the door unsettled it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile,\u201d Peter said, \u201cbut \u2026<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

That, right there, is what will get you in trouble with the evangelical tribe every time. If the scripture says something is \u201cunlawful,\u201d the tribe insists, then there is no \u201cbut\u201d about it. It is unlawful. Period. Full stop. No excuses. No exceptions. No buts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unlawful,\u201d Peter said, \u201cbut<\/em>\u00a0God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.\u201d<\/p>\n

See earlier:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0The Abominable Shellfish: Why some Christians hate gays but love bacon<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Al Mohler says the Apostle Peter was wrong and that\u2019s why evangelicals should \u2018focus on homosexuality\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Slavery, seafood, sexuality and the Southern Bible<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Slavery and same-sex marriage (cont\u2019d.)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0P.S.: Please don\u2019t eat the chimpanzee<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Selfish Gentiles and \u2018Shellfish Objections\u2019: Timothy Dalrymple vs. the Apostle Peter<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Evangelical Alliance responds to Simon Peter\u2019s dangerous sermon in Acts 11<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slowly, but surely, we’re winning this argument. Slowly, gradually, more and more Christians are coming around to understanding the Apostle Peter’s rooftop vision from God the same way that Peter understood it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[81,11,17,53,52],"class_list":["post-14944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-acts-10","tag-bible","tag-equality","tag-gay-rights","tag-homosexuality"],"yoast_head":"\n'God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean' (No. 2)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Slowly, but surely, we're winning this argument. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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