Praying that the meeting is a good one.

Well, I had a chat with my paster. The church office happens to be right next door, in one of the buildings of the bible college my work is at. So it is quite convenient.

Best quote of the meeting: “I need you to educate me”

He’s pretty much as accepting as you can get given that he hasn’t thought through the issues and thus maintains the default “homosexuality is a sin” position. I’d say he is around the tolerance / acceptance part of the scale AVB has.

He didn’t try and talk about theology at all. Rather focused on the practical stuff. He said that he fully believed I was a Christian and that I am fully welcomed but if it ever came to leadership it would be an issue (not that that is likely). He was also interested in what happened to people who accepted homosexuality down the line (i.e. did they adopt a lesser view of scripture, how did their stance change on various topics like sexual exclusivity).

He thinks that the question of what causes homosexuality is irrelevant, because he doesn’t believe we are born perfect anyway.

I raised concerns about the official baptist position being that a practicing or non-practicing gay person is banned from all forms of service (incl. cleaning or being an usher) and he said that was ridiculous and wouldn’t be the case there.

He also said that he didn’t know of any high profile people he respected who believed that homosexuality was not a sin. I offered Phillip Yancey and Desmond Tutu but I couldn’t think of many more.

Unfortunately he did a lot of the talking, hehe. (He wanted to let me know that I didn’t need to freak out)

But yeah, I’d say he is about as good as you can expect of someone who has never thought through it. i.e. He’s obviously never through about what it means for a gay person if he is right.

I gave him a document I had written up to explain why I changed my views on homosexuality. I have mentioned it a few times before. And it has proved really helpful for some people. I’ll post it here soon. I didn’t have time to read mrg’s article so I didn’t give him that. I don’t think he’ll read it soon anyway.

I think that is mostly everything. He never said the “hate the sin love the sinner line” which is nice. 🙂

I have several people around the world using my PowerPoint Presentation in these situation to create a space for respectful dialogue…..If you want to use it as well email me.

Hi Mr Summit

Good for you! This is a great start. 🙂

You said:

Forgot to mention. He also said he doesn’t oppose gay marriage (he doesn’t believe in legalizing morality) and that divorce is killing the family, not us gays.

That’s refreshing that he’s not against gay marriage. I agree it’s not us that are killing family. I’m not sure that marriage has as much to do with morality as Christians think though. Originally marriage was set up to help with division and acquisition of property etc. And I don’t believe that marriage makes someone more moral.

Anyway, you could suggest any of the 100 Revs as people he might contact. There’s an interview on our site with 3 of the pastors that I found to be a great example of God’s love toward LGBT. Here’s the link: http://www.freedom2b.org/topic/800

Blessings,

Ann Maree

If I were i that position, I’d be helping your pastor as much as I can.

I might also be mentioning that I had nothing to do with those coincidental wall posts, just so he knows you’re not out to make his life hard all of a sudden :p