The US Supreme Court hearings this week, and evidence that Pope Francis once supported civil unions for Argentina as an alternative to full marriage equality, has highlighted both the inexorable spread of legal recognition for same - sex couples across Europe and the Americas, and the early signs by some Catholic bishops of a softening of the previously hard-line, uncompromising approach.This raises the obvious next question - where next, especially for Christians?

In the US, there is now a consensus that gay marriage is inevitable - even the conservative rabble rouser Rush Limbaugh says so. Democratic politicians are scrambling over themselves to line up in support, retired GOP politicians who no longer have to worry about primary elections have signed on, and even some current Republican senators are declaring in favour. Rob Portman of Ohio has done so, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska says she is “evolving”. Nationally, the average of all polls shows a clear majority in support of full marriage, and overwhelming support for at least civil unions. I,t’s no wonder that moderate Republicans are backing off, and saying the party should take no position, leaving it to the states. But that won’t help, when one by one, even in purple and red states, ballot propositions appear to overturn existing bans. In Florida, where the state constitution forbids any legal recognition, voters strongly disagree: a strong majority support either civil unions or full equal marriage. In Ohio, efforts are already under way to repeal the state ban. With their GOP senator supporting them, they must be strongly favoured to succeed.

In Europe, most of the Western and central regions already have at least civil unions, with full marriage on the way in both France and the UK. In Finland, equal marriage legislation was due to be introduced this year, but was unexpectedly blocked by a group of conservative MP’s in the coalition government. That now seems no more than a short - term delay: in no time at all, citizens mobilized a voters’ initiative to force the bill’s introduction to the legislature. Also in Latin America, provision for either civil unions or full marriage is widespread and growing, with at least two (Colombia and Uruguay) preparing to upgrade.

The obvious exceptions are Asia and Africa - but even here, there is more progress than would seem at first sight. I suspect that even in these regions, it’s only a matter of time.

So - faced with the expanding reality of legally sanctioned same - sex relationships - how should the Christian churches respond?

The Catholic Church’s most authoritative document is clear that no legal recognition of such relationships is acceptable - but even so, some bishops (including former Cardinal Bergoglio) have found some wiggle room for what Francis A. Sullivan once called “creative fidelity”. (Thanks to QTC reader Chris Sullivan for drawing my attention to that wonderful observation).

Among mainline Protestant denominations, there has been extensive study and debate, leading many to come out in support of varying degrees of equal treatment, in church. The Lutheran churches in Sweden, Iceland and Denmark already celebrate full gay weddings, so do the Unitarians and United Church in Canada and some American states - and individual British congregations are preparing to do the same. Some Anglican dioceses of Canada conduct same - sex weddings, and the Episcopal church last year approved a formal liturgy of blessing, which in practice may be used either for full legal marriage, or for a simple blessing of a civil union. At its General Assembly this summer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is due to debate a proposal that will permit congregations to conduct gay weddings - and it is likely to pass. A similar proposal by the Presbyterian Church of the USA only narrowly failed last year, and is likely to pass when it reappears at the next General Assembly. In the UK, the Anglican bishops’ submission to the government consultation on equal marriage was firmly opposed - but a sizeable number of their own number have broken ranks, and stated their support.

Even among the evangelical churches, there have been a number of individual pastors and theologians like Rob Bell, who have declared their support, on Biblical grounds. Progress to equality and inclusion is steady and clear - but not universal.

At Patheos, Doug Hankins has a simplistic analysis, suggesting three possible responses.

The first, discussing the a storm in a coffee cup at a Starbucks’ shareholders’ meeting over the company support for equality, I ignore.

The second, the responses of Bell and like him that Christians should support equal marriage, he dismisses as “transform(ing) Bible doctrine in a way that accommodates the gay marriage momentum”.

The third, Hankins’ favoured response, is that “Christians live in the tension of confidently proclaiming the Bible’s teaching while respectfully and lovingly pursuing relationships with those who identify as gay for the Glory of God”.

The problem with this is, that while insisting on the importance of ”proclaiming the Bible’s teaching”, he does not pause to consider just which of those teachings are most relevant, here.

Yes, Christians must respect and affirm Bible teaching - but which teaching? The Hebrew Bible verses from the Jewish purity code (Leviticus) which forbid men lying with men, along with eating shelfish, wearing clothes of mixed fibres, and shaving one’s beard? Or the story of Sodom in Genesis 19, which is incorrectly read as a punishment for homosexuality, but is in fact about luxury and idleness (the reason for the angels’ visit in the first place), the failure of hospitality to strangers and threatened violent rape? or the New Testament verses based on invalid translations of “malakoi” and “arsenokotoi” as homosexuals? Or,the closing verses of Romans 1, which take on a completely different sense when read in context, with Ch 1 & 2 as a unit (and the division into verses and chapters is a late amendment to -the original text).

OR -

Do we rather take seriously the overall and compelling message of the Gospels as a whole, of the importance of love, justice, equality and compassion for all?

There are only half a dozen or so verses in the entire Bible that even appear to condemn same - sex behaviour. Quite remarkable, when especially in NT times, the entire Biblical word was part of the Roman empire and Hellenistic civilization, in both of which sexual relationships between men was seen as entirely natural, and except for Hebrews, the Pauline letters were all addressed to Gentiles.

It is no coincidence that the churches which have agreed, or are considering agreeing, to provide some form of recognition or blessing to same - sex unions or full marriage, are those that have done so after extensive, continuing processes of listening and study, of the theological and biblical evidence. Many of those who have undertaken such careful study with an open mind, have come out of it with the realisation that the supposed “clear evidence” of biblical opposition simply doesn’t exist.

It is not the modern revisionists who are attempting to transform Bible doctrine - but the traditionalists, who insist on (selectively) preserving what earlier revisionists have done when they transformed a Gospel of love, justice and inclusion to one of intolerance and hostility to minority groups of all kind.