Category Archives: General

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Social Justice, Theology

ALLin Podcast: Links to all the podcast platforms

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We are gearing up to start Season 2 of the ALLin podcast. Season 2 will focus on what the Bible teaches and shows us about marriage, and why we are wrong to limit it to “a natural born man and natural born woman” as conservatives now frame it. We will also look at LGBTQI-positive interpretations of Scripture.

It would be really beneficial for you to listen to Season 1 before you dive into Season 2. Season 1 consists of 20 episodes that look at the seven “clobber verses” in the Bible that are typically used to argue that LGBTQI people are somehow breaking God’s natural order and are “abomination” to God. Season 1 also looks at some key issues around definitions of gender, sexual orientation and sexual biology.

To listen to Season 1, please subscribe to ALLin on your podcast player of choice:

If your podcast player of choice does not yet list ALLin, please add it using the RSS feed: https://allinlgbtqi.libsyn.com/rss

Or, if all else fails, listen to it on our hosting platform, LibSyn: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/17429297

Church, General, Missional, Social Justice, Theology

Easter Friday: Why do Christians call it “Good Friday”?

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Around 2,000 years ago a young, 33 year old, well-known teacher who had gathered quite a following and reputation was brutally beaten and then crucified on a Roman cross outside of Roman-occupied Jerusalem, while being jeered by crowds of Jewish religious leaders and their accolytes (who left their Passover preparations specifically to come and do that). What’s good about that?

The answer is “nothing”. In the Christian faith, we don’t celebrate Friday (we commemorate it). We wait for Sunday.

The only thing “good” about this day is WHY Jesus was killed. The first actual Easter Friday was a complete horror show for everyone who supported Jesus. Their dreams were shattered, their hopes destroyed, their futures dark. They didn’t know that Sunday was coming.

So why was Jesus killed?
Continue reading Easter Friday: Why do Christians call it “Good Friday”? →

Bible, Church, General, Theology

How Evangelicals Changed The Bible To Support Their Beliefs (by Keith Giles)

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Keith Giles has written a fantastic article on the Patheos blog site titled “How Evangelicals Changed The Bible To Support Their Beliefs”. In it, he gives specific examples of the ways in which conservative evangelicals have chosen to change the meaning of words in newer English translations to fit into their theological frameworks, rather than more accurately reflect the original Biblical meaning.

You can read the article in full at the Patheos website, or an extract of it below:

Continue reading How Evangelicals Changed The Bible To Support Their Beliefs (by Keith Giles) →

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Theology

ALLin Pod: Episode 19: Other Interpretations of Romans

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Yes, we are still in the book of Romans. For many Christians, Romans 1 is the key passage against same gender sexual activity, so we need to cover it thoroughly. In this episode of the ALLin Podcast, we look at seven additional interpretative options for Romans 1.

If you’re satisfied with my explanations so far, you might want to just skip the rest of this episode. This one has a lot of detail and further options for interpreting Romans 1, for sake of completeness. While I have sympathy for these seven views, I do not endorse them all, and find some more compelling than others. I present them for two reasons. Firstly, for the sake of completeness – these are views held by committed Christians and qualified theologians alike. Secondly, and more importantly, so that those who might still be clinging to a traditional interpretation of Romans 1, despite the detail I have supplied about context and about the meanings of key words, can see that there are significant additional problems with the traditional reading of Romans 1.

There is a danger that by presenting a variety of alternative suggestions for interpretation I will bring confusion rather than insight. I hope not. I think it’s clear to see that the weight of evidence is actually pretty much overwhelming: Romans 1 does not condemn same-gender couples wishing to enter loving, lifelong, covenantal marriages.

Continue reading ALLin Pod: Episode 19: Other Interpretations of Romans →

Book reviews, Church, Fun, General

Best Modern Christmas Carols

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Every year I try and get more people interested in good, quality Christmas music (yes, it does exist in amongst the schlock that gets released every year).

This year, I think the best new Christian Christmas Carol, that’s just perfect for 2020, has been released by Sovereign Grace. It’s called “O Come, All You Unfaithful”.

For more of my suggestions for best modern Christmas carols, see my ever-updating blog entry on best Christmas music here.

What are your favourite modern carols?

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Social Justice, Theology

Part 19: The Importance of Marriage in the Bible and Christian Faith

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Whether you agree with my analysis of the so-called Biblical “clobber verses” in previous blog entries or not, the discussion about LGBTQI issues in the church is really centred on the issue of marriage (and sex). The next few entries in this series will be focused on what the Bible says – and doesn’t say – about marriage.

Since I began my work on this issue over a decade ago, most Christians have shifted from being totally opposed to LGBTQI people to now welcoming them into their churches – even if only as “sinners” who need be “healed”. But they believe and teach that LGBTQI people should be celibate, and they believe that marriage can only be between a “natural man” and a “natural woman”. For them, the actual “sin” of homosexuality is same-sex sexual activity, and since they also believe that sexual activity is confined to marriage, LGBTQI people should neither marry nor have sex.

Most countries that have legalised gay marriage have actually created a new category called “civil unions” rather than including LGBTQI people in laws about marriage – this is largely been done to placate conservative religious groups. Churches are enabled to hide behind this legal distinction, by acknowledging civil unions as legal entities but continuing to deny gay “marriages” in their churches.

Continue reading Part 19: The Importance of Marriage in the Bible and Christian Faith →

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Theology

ALLin Pod: Ep18: What the women and men were actually doing

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We are spending a lot of time in Romans 1, because this is the passage that most people point to when they want to exclude LGBTQI people from the church and Christian faith. This is the fourth part of our mini-series in Romans, and looks in even more detail at the original text and specifically at Romans 1:26-27, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

What were the women, and men, actually doing? And what did Paul condemn in these verses?

We will discover that Paul’s issue is temple prostitution and pederistic relationships. And that he is not actually condemning same gender sexual activity in these verses. That’s right: the verses don’t say what you’ve been told they say. And once you see what they do say, you won’t be able to unsee it.

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Social Justice, Theology

ALLin Pod: Ep17: Shameful Lusts and Against Nature

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In Romans 1, Paul says that women and men were “given over by God” to their “shameful lusts” and did what is “against nature”. What did he mean by this? And does that apply to LGBTQI people today who want to get married to their lifelong, loving partner?

In this episode of the ALLin Pod we do detailed word studies of what it means for something to be shameful and unnatural. Neither of them are what you might expect: they’re related to things that are socially unacceptable, rather than something that is morally wrong or evil. 

This changes completely how we should understand this passage. 

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Social Justice, Theology

ALLin podcast: Episode 16: The purpose of Paul’s letter to Rome

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This is part 2 of the mini-series in the book of Romans, Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. In the first chapter of this letter, Paul appears to list a whole lot of sins, including same gender sexual activity. But if you read on into Romans 2, and in fact the rest of the letter, the tone and purpose of the first chapter seems to change. So, what was the purpose of the letter, and what light does that shine on how we should understand chapter 1. Graeme Codrington explores these questions, and comes once again to the same conclusion: that Romans 1 is not addressing loving, consensual LGBTQI relationships at all.

This is a long episode, and we highly recommend that you have a Bible handy to follow along the readings. In fact, we recommend you read the whole letter to the Romans before listening to this episode.

Resources:

Further readings on the purpose of the letter to the Romans: