Brian D. McLaren, pastor of the “emerging church,” appears to have homosexuality all figured out in the religious sphere: traditional, conservatives – especially Evangelicals – are wrong. In a March 4 “On Faith” column, “The Church and the Sex Question [1],” the far-left former pastor explained how to become in favor of gay rights.
In order to support homosexuality, according to McLaren, “someone close to them – someone they already know, love, and respect – comes out to them. The issues then goes from being theoretical to personal, and it engages their emotional and social intelligence, which then gives their rational or analytic intelligence additional data to work with.”
The Post's “On Faith” blog/column has been home to liberal views of religion for some time. In 2008, David Waters, then editor of the “On Faith” blog, proposed in his Dec. 3 entry [2] that the phrase “under God” be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.
This time, the blog backed gay marriage. Apparently if one has a close friend come out, then it will result in immediate support of gay marriage. That sounds like a typical liberal idea, but no more specific details were given for how to execute this plan.
Until that happens, McLaren lamented that, “loud public debates will continue to rage about gays in the military, gays in the church, and gays in the courthouse, and 'the issue' will continue to be used to win elections and create voting blocs and headlines.”
McLaren failed to mention that he was adding to the “loud” debate.
As a former pastor of an Evangelical church, perhaps McLaren felt he qualified to do so. He wrote, “Over the years I did meet a few people who truly experienced some degree of abatement in homosexual attraction through prayer and therapy, and some even married heterosexually and raised good healthy families. If they were the only people I met, I might have been able to hold on to this modified view.”
But, alas, since that was not always the case, McLaren became “afraid.” Although no one forced him, he worried about choosing between the two. “To be torn between deep loves like these is not an easy choice for any Christian to face, and even more so for a pastor, rabbi, or imam who has a congregation to tend – and to keep united in fractious times.” Well, yes, sometimes we are forced to wrestle with “difficult” decisions.
McLaren reached a decision unsurprising to readers of the Post blog. “Over time, I came to a resolution (which I explain in the book) through which I felt I could, in good faith, be true to God, the Bible, and to my gay neighbors, friends, relatives, and colleagues….That's why, behind the clamor of public debates about homosexuality, I always imagine tens of thousands of stories, each overflowing with personal pain, fear, and hope.”
Even though McLaren made it seem like there was a clear right answer – which was, of course, his view – that wasn't always the case. He previously stated, [3] “I don't see the issue of homosexuality as the simple black-and-white issue that some of my fellow evangelicals make it out to be.”
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