Ten lessons learned in writing this series on LGBT issues. My series on LGBT issues and the Church is now over. A version of these essays, together with prefatory material and introductory comments by Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle and Matthew…
Gushee urges CBF to reclaim lost ethical tradition
By Bob Allen One casualty of the Southern Baptist Convention conflict that led to formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in the early 1990s was a robust Baptist witness on issues of social justice, theologian David Gushee told CBF leaders…
If this is where you get off the bus: The LGBT issue, part 6
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee It should be clear by now that “the LGBT Issue” is by no means just one issue, and that its complexity requires a sufficiently complex response. Careful readers will see that my approach in…
A proper starting place
With three parts out of several written and published, I have enjoyed reading David Gushee’s careful examination of the issue of homosexuality and the church. The care and sensitivity he is bringing to the issue combined with an obvious desire…
Gay Christians exist: The LGBT issue, part 4
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee While some traditionalist voices still dispute it, more are willing to acknowledge that the LGBT community contains a sizable population of professing Christians. However one defines a Christian — by baptism, by stated personal commitment…
What exactly is the issue? The LGBT issue, part 2
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee My topic in this new series for ABPnews/Herald is the fierce conflict in culture, religion and law related to what I have initially called “the LGBT issue.” My goal is to think through this…
Our Silence is driving millennials out of the church
David Gushee, a theologian and ethicist who teaches at the McAfee School of Theology, struck a nerve when he suggested that moderate Baptists with roots in the Southern Baptist Convention could benefit from a statement of faith. Bill Leonard, my…
I have moved on
My friend Marv Knox recently wrote a wise column in which he urged Baptists to move on from past bitterness through repentance and forgiveness. As Knox noted, others such as David Gushee and Mark Wingfield have recently written on our…
The crazy lady in the attic
Fred Phelps is dead and there is no one to mourn his passing. In the end, poor Fred was abandoned even by the cult his hate built. One is tempted to see Fred Phelps as an extreme expression of the…