I’ve just finished Via and Gagnon’s Homosexuality and the Bible: Two views. With only 117 pages it’s only a short book – but the subject it discusses has become a massive issue for the church today. The Anglican Church is pretty much split down the middle on it and the level of anger that it stirs up within the conservative churches is significant. It seems to be the issue that defines where you stand in your theology in general – if you take the traditional view that homosexuality is sin then you’re conservative, if not then you are firmly on the liberal side of things. (And however much some try and argue against labelling, the truth is we all do it, for we all want to belong to a group that is larger than ourselves and by so doing we feel safe.)

My own personal view on the issue is also indicative of my spiritual/theological journey in general. Those who read this blog regularly know that I have been inching my way away from the rather conservative context in which I have found myself. (Fundamentalism is by now a pejorative term that few in my wider church stream context would want to take for themselves and yet some of their theology does fall within that term.) I have a feeling that there are many who feel the way I do but – rather like myself – find it hard to take that somewhat painful action of finally stepping outside of this particular box. Part of the problem, of course, is what one steps into. The emerging church movement offers so much – but there’s not a lot of it emerging in north-west Wales at the moment!

As I say, my thinking on homosexuality is indicative of this painful journey. There was a time when I was very firmly of the opinion that same-sex relationships – however loving and monogamous – were just plain sinful and clearly contrary to God’s will as stated in Scripture. I even argued this point very publicly on a Welsh radio phone-in programme when I was an undergraduate theology student. And though I haven’t ventured publicly with my views since then – not even from the pulpit – I have held that line for many years. Of course, in all that time I never once met – knowingly anyway – a homosexual person.

All that changed when I became warden of one of Bangor University’s halls of residence. I don’t know how many of the 150 students who shared Rathbone with me for nine months every academic year were homosexual, but there were definitely some. I well remember one tea time when – as I was seated having my meal in the dining hall – four lesbians came to sit around me chatting away about student life in general. They had no idea what my theology was but I do remember thinking to myself, ‘How on earth did I come to be here?’ One of the four in particular taught me a very valuable lesson about how they view themselves and their sexuality. She had been to an Anglican church one Sunday morning and had heard the visiting preacher condemn homosexuality. She was visibly upset and I came to realise that she saw that not just as an attack on her actions but on her very nature and identity. It was this single event, I believe, that brought me to a place where I have concluded that the tendency within some church quarters to condemnation and harshness is so wrong and must be combated. But it also prompted me to ask again about what I believe to be the truth on this issue.

And yet the ‘again’ in that last sentence is rather misleading. For in truth – like many other Christians on this issue as many others – I hadn’t done any real studying on the subject; I had merely accepted the teaching handed down to me as being correct. The opposing arguments had had little – if any – airing. And if I accept that Scripture needs to be interpreted through the studying of historical and cultural context (as I passionately do accept!) and not just believed as literal truth on the page, then I am duty bound to study this and any other subject before I come to a decision that will see me disagree with the lifestyles of others. And so reading Via and Gagnon has been another step in this journey. I will need to read it again and possibly many another book before I am able to firmly come to any conclusions. But under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and good scholarship my mind is open to change.

So you can see how this subject is indicative of my journey away from the conservative viewpoint. How far I will travel I have no idea. I suspect I am not destined for the Sea of Faith movement! I still believe God to be an objective being outside of us and that there is, therefore, a spiritual and supernatural realm. I also believe that the book we refer to as the Bible is inspired by God but that it is neither infallible nor inerrant and neither is it God’s final word. In fact, I believe Jesus to be the Word of God and that the Bible testifies to that Word. We need to tackle the tendency within fundamentalism to almost make the Bible – and KJV in particular – the fourth person of the Trinity. Divinely inspired it may be, divine it is not.

These two core beliefs will ensure that the journey does not take me too far. But I can’t stay where I am and so the journey will have to continue.

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