Are the Bible, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Paul "anti-gay"? Labels can often morph into pejoratives, cause more confusion than clarity, and produce more heat than light. Divisiveness inevitably follows. Not everything in the bible can be reduced to slogans, catchphrases, and epithets. Nuance is the casualty of over-stated factionalism. These discussions seem to go off the rails for two principal reasons: 1) Lack of Definitional Rigor and Discipline. We often don't stop to bother defining precisely what it is we're talking about; and 2) Binary Assumptions. We also tend to assume that the subject of debate admits of only one of two mutually exclusive, competing truths. Maybe we're asking the wrong question(s). Maybe there's a third way, i.e., rigorously defining precisely what it is we are talking about-and freshly examining what the biblical authors were talking about. Roland Wrinkle is an award-winning trial and appellate attorney, with 47 years of experience litigating consequential and ground-breaking cases. He has published countless articles in legal journals. Twenty-five years ago, as a recently converted Christian, he added bible scholar, writer, teacher, and blogger to his resume. In addition to publishing articles for Patheos.com, Christian Century, and other periodicals, he has authored hundreds of bible-related articles and essays for his local church. He is a popular and frequent bible teacher. Between his two vocations, he has authored tens of thousands of pages for public consumption.
Are the Bible, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Paul "anti-gay"? Labels can often morph into pejoratives, cause more confusion than clarity, and produce more heat than light. Divisiveness inevitably follows. Not everything in the bible can be reduced to slogans, catchphrases, and epithets. Nuance is the casualty of over-stated factionalism. These discussions seem to go off the rails for two principal reasons: 1) Lack of Definitional Rigor and Discipline. We often don't stop to bother defining precisely what it is we're talking about; and 2) Binary Assumptions. We also tend to assume that the subject of debate admits of only one of two mutually exclusive, competing truths. Maybe we're asking the wrong question(s). Maybe there's a third way, i.e., rigorously defining precisely what it is we are talking about-and freshly examining what the biblical authors were talking about. Roland Wrinkle is an award-winning trial and appellate attorney, with 47 years of experience litigating consequential and ground-breaking cases. He has published countless articles in legal journals. Twenty-five years ago, as a recently converted Christian, he added bible scholar, writer, teacher, and blogger to his resume. In addition to publishing articles for Patheos.com, Christian Century, and other periodicals, he has authored hundreds of bible-related articles and essays for his local church. He is a popular and frequent bible teacher. Between his two vocations, he has authored tens of thousands of pages for public consumption.
