I have an email subscription to Ron Goetz’s blog, “Bible - Thumping Liberal“, where he often has useful posts on biblical passages relating to same - sex relationships (and on countering the infamous clobber passages that don’t, but are believed to condemn them). See for example, his series of posts on gays and lesbians in Luke:

I tell you, in that night,

there shall be two men in one bed;

the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

Two women shall be grinding together;

the one shall be taken, and the other left.

(Luke 17:34-35, KJV)

This week he placed a post about his personal journey to LGBT advocacy, as a straight ally in faith, which illustrates several themes familiar from other such journeys: how for many years he never thought of himself as prejudiced, but his ignorance and insensitivity could on occasion give offence; how the subject became personal for him when his own son came out as gay, and experienced direct discrimination from Christians, leading to three suicide attempts (in an earlier post, he described how A Pastor and a Teacher Nearly Killed My Son); how he then used his existing skills in bible study to re-examine for himself the biblical evidence against- and found as so many others have done, that it is scant to non-existent:

Two or three years later I decided it was time for me to look at the Bible verses used by anti-homosexual Christians. It is, after all, one of my strengths. Romans and Leviticus were relatively easy, the others took some time. My main take-away from studying the Clobber Passages was how incredibly flimsy they were. Each proof text was flawed, weak to the point of irrelevant, in no way justifying the campaign being waged against lesbians and gays.

We as LGBT Christians, and our allies, need to know and understand this, how flimsy are the arguments based on these texts of terror, but that is not my main concern today. Also important, is simply sharing our stories - our own, and those of our families. We need to honour and thank the people of PFLAG (and, for Catholics, Fortunate Families), who are our most valuable allies.

Rational, abstract arguments I can sometimes summarize, but personal stories are - personal, and need to be read in a personal voice. Read Ron’s story, and his telling of his son’s experience, here and here.

Related articles / websites

• Gays for Jesus: Catholic and Evangelical (queeringthechurch.com)
• “Blessed Are the Queer in Faith”: Quest Presentation, 2012 (queeringthechurch.com)
• Queer Lessons in Cardinal Martini’s Warning From the Grave (queeringthechurch.com)

• LGBT Personal Testimonies (Bible Thumping Liberal)
• Who is Ron Goetz? (Bible Thumping Liberal)
• Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
• Fortunate Families
• Leviticus: Religion can lead to violence (jesusinlove.blogspot.com)
• 22-Year-Old Helping To Rewrite The History Of Homosexuality In Christianity (queerty.com)
• “Blessed Are the Queer in Faith”: Quest Presentation, 2012 (queeringthechurch.com)
• Queer Lessons in Cardinal Martini’s Warning From the Grave (queeringthechurch.com)