Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 May 2012 09:35:09
This Christianity Today magazine article "How Evangelicals Have Shifted in Public Opinion on Same Sex Marriage" makes interesting reading. It is exploring changing perceptions of same sex rights amongst evangelicals and the impact of Obama making a public statement in favour of same sex marriage. Coming from a "mainstream" evangelical position in the US the publication is often a useful source of information on what the broad state of opinion in the US is once one has removed the ultra-conservativism of the right wing evangelicals who share much in common with the fundamentalists and the ultra-liberalism of the most progressive evangelicals who are largely indistinguishable from other theological strands on the left. Beyond the key focus of the article - as described above - I think it makes useful reading for people who want to understand the diversity and complexity of thought within US evangelicalism. The media often portrays evangelicals, particularly American evangelicals in a stereotyped way which makes them easy targets for ridicucle. This not only fails to recognise the positive aspects it can also make some feel like targets for abuse and so strengthen feelings of fear which they may be holding or even biblically strengthen their resolve to be vocal about those parts of their interpretation of scripture which are causing the ridicule because there is a biblical argument (coming from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and other passages) that when your enemies are persecuting you because of your beliefs you are doing something right. Reading through this article highlights, as I say, the true picture of evangelicalism as a group which is as rich and vibrant in its diversity of thought and membership as any other. The statement coming from Sojourners which is quoted may seem double edged and self-contradictory to some, but that statement in itself is a sign of the diversity of opinion which exists and how agreement is reached which seeks to respect and "protect" all sides as far as is possible. The leadership of Sojourners are clear that there is a diversity of opinion regarding the legitimacy of physical sexual activity between faithful and monogamous same sex partners if one is looking at it from a biblical perspective within their organisation and between progressive evangelicals. For the best understanding of this divergence of opinion follow this link to the GCN page which shows the difference in opinion Dr. Tony Campolo- who is at Greenbelt again this year - and his wife Peggy have. This Greenbelt page allows you to download a talk on the subject of "What can we do about homophobia" that Campolo gave at Greenbelt a decade ago. Moving beyond the Sojourners statement there is a paragraph which breaks down statistics which then highlights differences which exist between white majority and black majority evangelical churches and between evangelicals of different ages. Again within these individual churches there will be a diversity of opinion. Another, useful aspect of the article which highlights the importance of individual differences between people in their understanding and use of language comes out of the discussion of the polling methods and questions used when gaining opinion. So can the findings be applied to the UK? Well, from the anecdotal evidence I have come across and from using a content analysis approach to articles -such as the one from the Right Rev James Welby (Bishop of Durham) I referred to the other day in this post -I think yes. However, again if you are looking for hard evidence it depends on whose statistics you look at and how they have been created - I know this is something that the UK data can argue in various directions.