This is long—it clocks in at a little more than an hour—but it’s absolutely worth your time.
Matthew Vines is a young gay man who grew up in Kansas. His family is Christian and very conservative. After coming out, Vines took two years off college to research and think deeply about what the bible says—and doesn’t say—about homosexuality. You could argue that what Vines has to say is irrelevant to non-Christians. But Vines’ argument and his insights are highly relevant to gay Christians, to their families, to Christians who point to the bible to justify their bigotry and the pain they inflict on LGBT people (including their own LGBT children), and to anyone who happens to live in a country that is majority Christian. Vines delivered these remarks at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas, earlier this month. Watch this video: Vines is brilliant. He has a post up at Huffington Post that gives some context and background. Go read it.
Bookmark this video when you’re done watching it, folks, because you’re going to want to send this link to friends and family members who insist that being gay is a sin.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS…
Nice guy, but his arguments are rather flawed. It’s not so obvious if you just watch the video. It’s clearer if you read though his transcript and read the Bible passages yourself, or of course if you know the Bible well. EG in his opening theological argument, he claims that Matthew chapter 7 has a passage about determining whether a teaching is valid or not based on its “fruit”. But if you read Matthew 7, you find that it’s actually referring to testing whether a prophet is valid – quite different. More details here: http://stasisonline.wordpress.com/2012/04/…