We are now ready to return to “hard texts.”  On August 5^th, I wrote my comments on the second part of Peter Gomes hard text of the Bible regarding strong drink.  His argument is that the Bible does not literally support the idea that alcohol use should be totally prohibited. 

Then we moved on to Kevin DeYoung’s discussion of Sodom and Gomorrah [August 17] , scripture that is used by “nonaffirming” Christians to support their case that there is something very wrong with LGBTQ+ individuals.

From there Preston Sprinkle looked for evidence in Scripture that opposite sex relationships are necessary for God-ordained marriage.  He did not find what he would call “rock solid” evidence.

Now we are ready to return to Peter Gomes, who will discuss the “hard text” of Christian attitudes toward race relations. 

Is this confusing? 

Two authors [DeYoung and Sprinkle] zero in on homosexuality in the Bible and Gomes talks race? 

The reason I believe he does this is that he is taking a long view.  The essence of his strategy is “look how the Bible does not support the prohibition of hard drink, look how the Bible does not support negative attitudes toward race, look how the Bible does not support Anti-Semitism.”  Then he will make the argument: look how the Bible also does not support LGBTQ+ discrimination.

This is where we are going next—the idea that Scripture does not support the idea that one man is better than another just because one person’s skin color is white and another person’s skin color is black.

Today many people say they accept this and can they can claim that racism is over? I don’t think so.  Today all people will say that slavery is a practice of the past but the fact that many who practiced it used God’s word to justify the practice needs to be understood. Gomes will take us there, to that awkward discussion.

But do not lose sight: he will eventually lead us to the idea that the most heinous discrimination today is against LGBTQ+ people.

As I move from one book to another it is easy to get confused. Maybe we need a “scorecard.”

My long view is a fair and balanced discussion of the issue that is at the forefront of Christianity today: the LGBTQ+ community and the church.