and why the church does not know how to respond:
The interview is long, and they spend almost the whole time dancing around the issue.
Jen finally hits the nail on the head in the last video around the 4-5 minute mark. She says (paraphrased), “You want that teenage girl in your church struggling with feelings of faith and sexuality to choose faith over and against sexuality.”
This is the first issue. Churches preach a lifestyle which is quite often just what is convenient. Because I don’t want my kid to be gay I support the preacher who says that being gay is bad, and take my kid to listen to them invoke a magic book that says being gay is bad. But the key is the motivation.
The second issue, which they did not get into, is the political motivation. There is a problem when Christians more highly value the marriage contract they have with the state than the covenant they have with God and the church. The fight for maintaining the status quo in terms of the legal definition of marriage has two political motivations, at least.
The first is the idea that if America chooses laws which reflect Biblical laws then it will enjoy a special blessing. This blessing extends beyond the mere natural good consequences of good rules, but also invokes a special blessing. I don’t know that God has extended that kind of a blessing to any nation since Israel.
The second is selfish guarding of political privileges afforded to some and not to others. My marriage certificate from the state is no better than a discount coupon on state services (which reflects efficient bundling of contracts), and a signal to other institutions, such as insurance companies. This set of contracts should either be extended to all or to none.
I listened to Knapp, and played her records on-air back when I was in the business. Her lyrics are powerful and creative. Honestly, in my shallowness, I was less interested in her work because I didn’t think she was “cute.” But I’ve been listening to a lot of Derek Webb lately, and Knapp started her US tour with Webb last month, and his new album is very challenging, especially on the issue of homosexuality.
Christians keep missing the beat by falling into the patterns listed above. They key is to center in on the peculiar nature of Christian marriage. We understand marriage to be a peculiar covenant designed to reflect the relationship between Jesus and the church. Jesus is depicted as a bridegroom and the church as a bride. Male and female. Whether this metaphor is strict in its use of gender may be the center of the debate. I take it to reflect a hierarchy which does not imply superiority, and believe some of that meaning is lost by moving away from the particular gender employed in the passage.
Does this mean that homosexual Christians are not saved? No. But it does mean that they have a broken understanding of sex and marriage. They are missing out on that. But 99% of evangelical pastors cannot articulate the profundity of the meaning of marriage and its peculiarity in a Christian context, either. The pastor on Larry King could not articulate it. Haggard could not articulate it. Knapp did not deal with it. Chances are, none of your pastors have, either. I learned it from Derek Prince’s book, “Husbands and Fathers;” and from Elizabeth Elliot’s books, “Passion and Purity”, and “The Mark of a Man.”