God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines

This is why many people will be compassionate and sympathetic but only within the parameters of their biblical interpretation-which means there is a limit to how far their compassion goes. I could feel the anguish and internal tension, but many felt they didn’t know how to embrace me without having to significantly revise their understanding of scripture. I knew the people at my church cared about me and loved me and I could tell they were pained because they wanted to be able to embrace and support me. In my church in particular, people were saying it was not really this issue that was their biggest concern, but was symbolic of a larger move away from a high view of scripture and its authority. In some cases, the arguments are pretty similar, but it other cases they need to be different-and it may be a slight nuance in how you say things but the key fault line in how conservative Evangelicals understand their own theology is how they regard the authority of scripture. Most of the resources I found were either from a theologically progressive or mainline standpoint but my target audience is different. My original goal was born out of my experience in my church in Wichita, Kansas and the really clear need for more resources that were specifically tailored to a conservative and Evangelical Christian audience.

I hadn’t originally planned on writing a book. Religion Dispatches’ Candace Chellew-Hodge spoke with Vines recently about his book. Vines is using his newfound fame to start what he calls The Reformation Project, an initiative to change the church from the grassroots up. That audience has proved less than receptive so far, with Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, penning an entire booklet designed to refute the book’s arguments before it even hit the shelves.

That video is the basis of a new book called God and the Gay Christian, specifically tailored for a more conservative, evangelical audience. In 2012 Matthew Vines made a video that went viral no cute kittens, just a speech he gave to his Presbyterian Church USA congregation in Wichita, Kansas, explaining exactly why six pieces of scripture, commonly called the “clobber passages,” do not in any way condemn homosexuality.

God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines