Category Archives: Gender

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Theology

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

Leave a comment

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

2 Comments

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

Leave a comment

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:

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

ALLin Pod: Ep 15: Romans Part 1: Reading the Plain Text

Leave a comment

We finally get to the book of Romans in our study of the verses that have traditionally been used to oppose gay marriage and the inclusion of the LGBTQI community into churches. This is the start of a four part mini series on Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, and in this episode we read through the text looking at the plain meaning of Romans 1 and 2. We’ll get into more detail in the next episodes, but even on the plain reading of the text, it is clear that Paul is not talking about loving, committed, monogamous same gender relationships – he’s talking about something else.

For more details, read my original document on this topic.

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

ALLin Podcast Episode 14: Malakos means soft

1 Comment

In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul says that those people who are “malakos” are outside of the Kingdom of God. This is a Greek word that means “soft”. It is a strange choice of word for Paul to use if he meant to describe homosexuals. In the context of the passage, and with understanding of the culture of the day, this word makes a lot more sense if it is describing effeminate young men who made themselves available as “call boys”. 

Resources:

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

ALLin Podcast: Ep13: 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1 and ‘arsenokoites’

Leave a comment

In his letters to Corinth and Timothy, the senior pastor at Ephesus, Paul lists a number of sins that will keep people out of the Kingdom of God. Included in these lists is a word that Paul made up. Why did he make this word up, what does it mean, and how should we understand it today?

NOTES:
See here for the table of vice lists referred to in the podcast.

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

ALLin Podcast Episode 12: A Community of Radical Inclusion

2 Comments

A Community of Radical Inclusion is a sermon preached by Graeme Codrington at the Melrose Campus of Gracepoint Methodist church in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. It lays out both a Biblical and historical case for including LGBTQI in our churches, and affirming them as made in God’s image. 

Resources:

Gender, General, Podcast, Social Justice

ALLin Podcast: Episode 11: Gender and Sport

Leave a comment

Sport is about finding the fastest and strongest human. Almost always, this turns out to be a man. In order to allow women to compete in elite sports, we created a category for “women”, and have excluded men from competing in this category. But for over 100 years, we’ve battled to define who a woman is in sport. Back in 1936, for example, both the gold and silver winners of the 100m accused each other of being men. A “nude parade” was required for all elite women athletes – to literally stand naked in front of a panel of judges to prove they were women. This was changed in the 1960s and 70s to a “female passport”. It then shifted to chromosome testing, and today a court has confirmed it relates to hormone levels. But none of these are adequate, and all have been flawed.

This bonus episode of the ALLin podcast looks at the fascinating history of how sport has tried to define who a woman is, and what it means for us that they have essentially failed to do so in over a century.

Of course, sport is merely an example. This also applies to how we might define who can go to a girls school, or who gets counted as a woman on your Board or Executive leadership team if your country requires a specific quota of women in those positions.

This bonus episode concludes the mini-series on “Are there only two genders?”. The answer, it is clear, is NO.

Resources:

Bible, Church, Gender, General, Podcast, Theology

ALLin Podcast Episode 10: Did God create only two genders?

2 Comments

Genesis 1 and 2 tell two different creation stories, both culminating with the creation and marriage of two people. This was a Middle Eastern, black haired, brown eyed, cisgender man and woman. But does that mean all people have to Middle Eastern, black haired, brown eyed and cisgender? And does it mean all marriages must be between only a man and a woman? If not, how should we be reading Genesis 1? 

This is another one hour long episode, and you should ensure you’ve listened to Episode 9 before you listen to this.

Once you’ve listened to it, please let me know your thoughts and questions.