Mohler responds to "God and the Gay Christian"

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2014/04/22/why-book-le…

[There] is a new book, releasing today, authored by Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian: God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. The book is a popularization of standard revisionist scholarship, but it is done by someone young, winsome, and purporting to believe in the full inspiration of Scripture.

In response, the folks at Southern Seminary have simultaneously published a free eBook response to the book, edited by Albert Mohler. The book consists of five short but substantive essays:

• Albert Mohler, “God, the Gospel and the Gay Challenge: A Response to Matthew Vines”
• James Hamilton, “How to Condone What the Bible Condemns: Matthew Vines Takes on the Old Testament”
• Denny Burk, “Suppressing the Truth in Unrighteousness: Matthew Vines Takes on the New Testament”
• Owen Strachan, “What Has the Church Believed and Taught?”
• Heath Lambert, “Is a ‘Gay Christian’ Consistent with the Gospel of Christ?”

Dr. Mohler writes, “The church has often failed people with same-sex attractions, and failed them horribly. We must not fail them now by forfeiting the only message that leads to salvation, holiness, and faithfulness.”

http://www.albertmohler.com/2014/04/22/god-the-gospel-and-the-gay-chall…

[There is a] moment of decision at hand. Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann of Stanford University has remarked that “it is clear to an observer like me that evangelical Christianity is at a crossroad.” What is that crossroad? “The question of whether gay Christians should be married within the church.” Journalist Terry Mattingly sees the same issue looming on the evangelical horizon — “There is no way to avoid the showdown that is coming.”

Into this context now comes God and the Gay Christian, a book by Matthew Vines. Just a couple of years ago Vines made waves with the video of a lecture in which he attempted to argue that being a gay Christian in a committed same-sex relationship (and eventual marriage) is compatible with biblical Christianity. His video went viral. Even though Matthew Vines did not make new arguments, the young Harvard student synthesized arguments made by revisionist Bible scholars and presented a very winsome case for overthrowing the church’s moral teachings on same-sex relationships.

http://jimhamilton.info/2014/04/23/how-matthew-vines-defends-god-and-th…

To overcome the idea that his view would reverse 2,ooo years of church history, Vines trots out the example of Galileo (failing to appreciate what that episode really teaches) to support his claim that the biblical authors weren’t addressing sexual orientation, as though a new consensus on sexual orientation has brought about a new copernican revolution.