Quoting the Bible to bash LGBT equality and missing what God requires of us

July 5, 2013

Of  Clobber-texts and anti-clobber texts: The Bible is not a card game.
In his Slacktivist column for Patheos, Fred Clark talks about the way some Christians approach LGBT issues solely by quoting isolated Bible proof-texts.  Such Christians give no consideration to the original historical, cultural context and meaning of these few verses, and use such proof-texts to condemn lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. At the same time, such Christians conveniently ignore basic scriptural principles, such as Micah 6:8, viewing them as irrelevant or inapplicable to the topic under discussion. As a springboard for his thoughtful discussion of how scripture can be used and misused, Clark cited one of our Christian Feminism Today articles, “There is more than one Christian view on homosexuality” by Letha Dawson Scanzoni.  (You can read her original longer version of the article, with additional historical examples and quotations, here.)

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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