Category Archives: Podcast

The ALL IN podcast: Christians affirming LGBTQI

ALLIn Podcast: Four Stages of Faith

It’s been two years since we ended Season 1 of the AllIn pod: twenty episodes that looked at how we can apply a conservative evangelical approach to Biblical interpretation and see that the so-called “clobber verses” against LGBTQI inclusion are not what we were taught they were. Season 2 of ALLIn was intended to be a return to the Scriptures to look at the positive, affirming verses that we find there. I think I may now only do that as Season 3.

The episode is available here, or on your podcast player of choice:

In this episode of ALLIn, I explain why it is probably a fools errand to try and convince conservative evangelicals to change their view of Scriptures about LGBTQI people. Instead, I think we need to invite them to a new stage of their faith development, and using the Bible as a weapon, dissecting verses and parsing verbs, is not going to get that job done.

Listen to this episode, and let me know if you agree with the four stages of faith outlined: moving from Simplicity to Complexity, then deconstructing to Perplexity and ultimately resolving to Harmony. Brian McLaren might have the best work on these four stages in his book, “Faith After Doubt”. Listen to his discussion with Pete Enns and Jaryd Bayis on “The Bible for Normal People” here: https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-174-brian-mclaren-the-four-stages-of-faith/.

ALLin Podcast: Links to all the podcast platforms

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

ALLin Pod: Episode 19: Other Interpretations of Romans

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

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

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.

ALLin Pod: Ep17: Shameful Lusts and Against Nature

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. 

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

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:

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

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.

ALLin Podcast Episode 14: Malakos means soft

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:

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

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.