#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...and wouldn't give it up for anything. Likewise, theologically, I generally consider myself a conservative, and even on some social issues (e.g. abortion) I have recently come to recognize that... 3/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...that there is more to be said for the "other" side than some would admit. However, on the issue of same-sex marriage, I find that the conservative side has, by and large, failed to make a convincing case. 4/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project I will illustrate this with two points (though no doubt there are many), both of which came up in last night's debate but were, by and large, not picked up by others -- which is a shame. 5/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project 1) Firstly, two scriptural passages that were quoted last night (by a pro-amendment speaker): Matthew 7:16: "You shall know a tree by its fruit", and Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." 6/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project "...kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." I, and others like me who support the inclusion of same-sex marriage in the marriage canon, have close friends/family who are in long-term... 7/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...convenanted, faithful unions. And we, looking at their relationships, see exactly these things manifested: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, 9/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project often (as was pointed out) better than in many heterosexual relationships.And yet, those who opposed the amendment insist that such unions are -- for some mysterious, unexplained reason -- "wrong" by default. 10/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project And this statement appears to us who know such couples to be simply incoherent. If their relationship is "bad", where are the "bad fruits" that Christ's words would have us expect? And whence these "good fruits" that we do observe?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project So here we have an apparent conflict between Christ's own words and Paul's teachings. Must one or the other give way? Rather, does it not make more sense to take a second look at the texts in question from Paul, and realize that 12/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...that the categories Paul mentions are relative to his time and place (e.g. pagan traditions of temple prostitution, sexually exploitative teacher-student relationships) while Christ's words have timeless and universal meaning? 14/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project Yet the so-called "conservative" approach would have us simply discard Christ's teaching in favour of Paul's. Is this an honest, loving, faithful way of reading & interpreting Scripture? Is it respectful to the text itself? 15/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project (Small note: I confused my numbering earlier; there was no tweet 13. Apologies.) 2) Now, a second issue. This was brought up by a speaker for the anti-amendment side last night (I cannot recall the name;please let me know if you do.)

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project He pointed out that what, to his mind, was lacking on both sides was a willingness to seriously grapple with philosophical issues (rather than just making arguments from Scripture) and, in particular, the question of "nature". 17/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project Here is another issue on which I (and many others who take my position) simply find the conservative position incoherent. We are told that homosexual relationships are "against nature"; and yet, study after study.... 18/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...of both the human and the natural realms show us that it is anything but; that in the natural world (which God created and called "very good!"), sexuality takes an enormous, diverse, dazzling, awe-inspiring array of forms... 19/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...& that,in the human world, sexual orientation is largely innate and efforts to change it are mostly futile.On what basis, then, can we possibly conclude that it is "against nature"? What strange, absurd definition of "nature" 21/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...would we be forced to artifically employ to give such a result? I have asked (very openly and sincerely) conservatives this question before, and have never gotten an answer -- or not one that was philosophically coherent. 22/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project So, in a nutshell, this is why I support (and will in all likelihood continue to support) this amendment to the marriage canon; not because I do not care about Scripture or philosophy, but rather because the other side 23/?

#gs2019 boylebiriyok Rob Langmaid Reformation Project ...has simply failed, to my mind, to give a satisfactory, rigorous, and self-consistent defense of its position on either Scriptural OR philosophical grounds. Thanks for listening; I am open to replies & discussion. God bless. 24/24.

My new blog makes a biblical and theological case for #EqualMarriage. northernwoolgatherer.blogspot.com/2019/07/enlarg…