EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from Love Is an Orientation by Andrew Marin (IVP).
Turn on the television at any given point throughout the day and there’s a good chance you’ll see warring entities slinging personal theology from one side to the other. In that setting the winner always emerges as the one who can speak more quickly and loudly and dominate the conversation. After his appearance on MSNBC, a Christian media figure emailed me and told me how he “manhandled” the other guest, whom I also know because he works for a GLBT organization The Marin Foundation has been involved with.
The way that the argumentative nature of the strained conservative-GLBT relationship has been publicized does more harm to both communities than it ever will do for good. But constructive dialogue just doesn’t make good TV now, does it? This “war” has been paraded around like a circus and because of that, dissension and violent opposition have become the norm that each community feels is the proper way to handle the other. I can safely say that Scripture was never meant to be used to try to beleaguer and embarrass others on national TV, or for that matter, to draw unnecessary attention to yourself.
Unfortunately none of those tactics will be easily changed because the deeply permeated ethos to the fighting cannot be escaped: the interpretation of Scripture—defined as the all-inclusive word of God that blesses same-sex relationships—no, I mean the judgmental Father who casts off gays and lesbians to their rightful place in hell—um, I’m actually talking about the Scripture that is only culturally relevant to its historical context and is not talking about monogamous same-sex relationships—well, it’s really the Scripture that accounts for behavioral choices regardless of orientation—or maybe it’s the . . .
You get the point. Evangelicals believe (as do I) that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, God-breathed by the Holy Spirit through human authorship. When I started The Marin Foundation I was twenty-four years old and had been immersed in the GLBT community for almost six years. But in those six years my experience had been purely relational—mostly through one-on-one interactions with my best friends, people I met at gay bars and clubs, and people who attended the Bible study group. I thought I had seen and experienced enough within those six years that nothing could shock me. It was not until I officially represented The Marin Foundation that I began to see firsthand how systemic and theological differences, as well as a blatant felt-hatred, were played out on a regular basis between the two communities. When I started getting involved with gay churches, gay Christians, and Christian churches and straight Christians who hated gay churches and gay Christians, and vice versa, I quickly realized that the word Christian was just a word—nothing more.
It was a bad label that communicated scorn and ridicule between the two communities who were each trying to prove that their version of Christian was the correct version. “My Christian is better than your Christian. You’re not a Christian. The Jesus I know wouldn’t do those things or say any of that!” Christian was no longer a belief; it wasn’t a religion, and it sure wasn’t what God intended it to be or what Jesus made it.
Alas, I was convinced that each day I woke up I was to be pushed, battered and thrown into a complete mess that totally tested everything I faithfully believed and thought to be true. The battlefield had been marked, the teams were assembled, and I was tired of trying to be persuaded to join one side or the other when I didn’t believe in what either was doing. My heart yearned for authentic Christianity—one where people from both communities lived together in a shared belief in Christ amidst the struggle.
