Burning Discussion

Relevant Magazine's panel discussion on homosexuality, including Shane Claiborne, Nancy Ortberg, Chuck Colson, N.T. Wright and Jim Wallis. There's some great, challenging thoughts in this. Here are some of the things that struck me as I read it:

• Well, Billy Graham said really well once that it’s God’s job to judge, the Spirit’s job to convict and my job to love. And if we get those right, this issue looks very different to us. -Shane Claiborne
• There's a big difference between being right and being wise. For example, you can be right on a particular issue, but be right in an arrogant or mean-spirited way.. - Brian McLaren
  
• I have a friend who says that you see a lot of fat preachers yelling at gay folks, but very few gay folks yelling at fat preachers. He was making the point that nobody has the luxury of speaking as an outsider of the human race and that our subculture has certain “acceptable sins” and others that are just not the ones for which Christ died. . Jesus said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at Him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Matthew 11:19) Today Jesus would be accused of being a friend of gays and lesbians, too. That’s because He is. If we have “fat” preacher friends, we should also have gay and lesbian friends. Jesus hung out with sinners and called us to do the same thing. - Steve Brown