[Magdalen] What We Believe - St. Paul's Bellingham

[Roger Stokes]

On 05/08/2015 22:41, Ann Markle wrote:
> Sorry, Jim -- I forgot your question in my dudgeon over your incorrect
> phrase "setting aside the scriptures."  You say we do it all the time.  I
> say, who is "we?"  The Episcopal Church does not.  Perhaps you do and some
> other "we" you have in mind do, as well.  But not TEC.  Nevertheless, do I
> say the scriptural teachings on homosexuality are the truth?  My Answer:  I
> think we dismiss the "truthfulness" or not of scripture at our own peril.
> Can the scriptural teachings/citations be interpreted in such a way as not
> to condemn homosexuality?  Yes.  We need not set them aside, if we
> understand them correctly.  I believe the bible says NOTHING about
> homosexuality as we understand it today.

The same response applies equally to the other hot-button issue that 
will come up at the RC Synod on the Family in October - marriage and 
divorce.  We need to try to look at Scripture in the context in which it 
was written.  Then we discern the message it seeks to convey.  Finally 
we seek to apply that teaching to our own context. Simplistic 
proof-texting does nobody any favours, let alone Scripture itself with 
its internal inconsistencies which some literalists deny exist.

Roger