42 Questions for the Inclusive Church

If you consider yourself a Bible-believing Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, and you are a supporter of the LGBT Community and same-sex marriage, there are some important questions to consider before you pick up your rainbow flag and wave it. These questions aren’t meant to be pedantic or just rhetorical. They are challenging questions asked in earnest, that I hope may cause my brothers and sisters with the new rainbow themed avatars to take a breath and simply think about the rainbow flag being flown. My hope is that you will understand the difference between being simply tolerant of those who are different from you, and actually being inclusive of others.

1. How long have you believed that gay marriage is something to be celebrated?
2. What Bible verses led you to change your mind?
3. How would you make a positive case from Scripture that sexual activity between two persons of the same sex is as holy and sacred as heterosexual sex and a blessing to be celebrated?
4. What biblical verses would you use to show that a marriage between two persons of the same sex adequately depicts Christ and the church?
5. Do you think Jesus would have been okay with homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in a committed relationship?
6. If so, what do you understand from Christ’s reasserting the Genesis reference of partnership/marriage as being one man and one woman?
7. When Jesus spoke against porneia (literally ‘fornication’, but also applied to anything considered sexually immoral) what do you think he was forbidding?
8. If certain homosexual behaviour is acceptable, how do you understand the “exchange” between what is ‘natural’ and what is ‘unnatural’ in Romans 1, as expressed by Paul?
9. Do you believe that passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Revelation 21:8 teach that sexual immorality can prevent you from entering heaven?
10. What sexual sins do you think these verses were referring to?
11. As you think about the long history of the church and the near universal disapproval of same-sex sexual activity from the 4^th Century, what do you understand about the bible that Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther failed to grasp?
12. What arguments would you use to explain to Christians in Africa, Asia, and South America that their understanding of homosexuality is biblically incorrect and that your understanding of homosexuality is not culturally conditioned?
13. Do you think children do best with a mother and a father?
14. If not, what research would you point to in support of your conclusion?
15. If yes, does the church or the state have any role to play in promoting or privileging the arrangement that puts children with a mom and a dad?
16. Does the raison d'etre of marriage point to something more than an adult's emotional and sexual fulfilment?
17. How would you define marriage?

18. Do you think close family members should be allowed to marry each other, and how do you define and support that understanding?
19. Should marriage be limited exclusively to only two people?
20. On what basis, if any, would you prevent consenting adults of any relation and of any number from getting married?
21. Should there be an age requirement in this country for obtaining a marriage license?
22. If yes, which age should it be and why?
23. Does equality mean that anyone wanting to be married should be able to have any meaningful relationship they desire defined as marriage?
24. If not, why not?
25. Should your brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with homosexual practice be allowed to exercise their religious beliefs without fear of punishment, retribution, or coercion?
26. Will you speak up for your fellow Christians when their jobs, their accreditation, their reputation, and their freedoms are threatened because of this issue?
27. Will you speak out against shaming and bullying of all kinds, whether against gay men and lesbians, bisexual, transgender, or intersex people, or against (anti-gay) Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics?
28. Since the evangelical church has often failed to take unbiblical divorces and other sexual sins seriously, what steps will you take to ensure that same-sex marriages are healthy and in accordance with Scriptural principles?
29. Should gay/lesbian couples in open relationships (ie those not excluding other intimate or sexual relationships) be subject to church discipline?
30. If not, why not?
31. Is it a sin for LGBT persons to engage in sexual activity outside of marriage?
32. What will open and affirming churches do to speak prophetically against divorce, fornication, pornography, and adultery wherever they are found?
33. If “love wins,” and “there is no fear in love,” how would you define love in the context of discrimination?
34. What Biblical verses would you use to establish that definition?
35. How should obedience to God’s commands shape our understanding of love?
36. Do you believe it is possible to love someone and disagree with important decisions they make or if they have an ‘anti’ or ‘pro’ attitude towards something?
37. If supporting gay marriage is a change for you, has anything else changed in your understanding of faith?
38. If you are an evangelical, has your support for same-sex marriage altered your passion about traditional evangelical distinctive issues like the emphasis of being born again, the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the total trustworthiness of the Bible, and the urgent need to evangelize the lost?
39. Do you hope to be more committed to the church, more committed to Christ, and more committed to the Scriptures in the years ahead?
40. When Paul at the end of Romans 1 rebukes “those who practice such things” and those who “give approval to those who practice them,” what sins do you think he has in mind?
41. In your understanding, why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?
42. How should Lev. 18:22 and 20: 13, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; how should we understand, “it is an abomination”?