Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 May 2011 19:36:25
Interesting to read this post on Maggi Dawn's blog about some comments Jim Wallis has been making about the whole LGB issue. Basically the gist of it all is that Wallis has put a statement out which has explained how they think it is a human rights issue on one hand, so support the freedom of the individual to be gay. However, it acknowledges that there are differences of opinion on the issue amongst people on the board of his organisation and that this needs to be respected. Basically it makes the point that people have the right to be silent about where exactly they stand on the whole issue.
Now, as somebody who would describe themselves (if labels were mandatory - which of course they're not) as both a progressive evangelical and as a gay woman I want to loudly support this. Yes I know there are lots of good reasons for people to stand up and be counted, but sometimes...just sometimes there are good reasons not to. Sometimes the most valuable human right we can give to somebody is the right to hold an opinion and not have to share it with the rest of the world. There are way too many places where standing up can lead to people getting shot down before they have had the chance to fully explain where they are coming from.
I know that the whole issue is much more complex in the US - as Dawn says probably more so than in the UK - than it might appear on the surface amongst progressive evangelicals. In both countries movement is taking place as individuals confront these issues in terms of ministry, friendship, family or whatever and I think we need to understand and respect this. The way in which many of the progressive evo heavy weights - from whatever stated position or none they come - have chosen to engage with some LGBandT organisations and/ or individuals is admirable.
Think that is all a long winded way of saying go read Maggi's article - she's put it so much better than my stumbling ramble could.