I’ve never been a “mind changer.” Rather, over the years of my education, ministry and counseling practices—both within the prison system and outside—and now in retirement, I continue to learn, study and reflect on what I’ve learned.
I’m also long past allowing someone to tell me, “The Bible says,” as if what follows came down directly from Sinai. Instead, I understand that my beliefs and the beliefs of others are more accurately stated as, “My understanding of this passage is…”
I have recently, however, been challenged through David Gushee’s Changing Our Mind and Matthew Vines’ God and the Gay Christian.
In his book Changing Our Mind about his journey toward LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church, Gushee wrote something that has stuck with me: “There are some things about which we have been wrong, and we have been wrong for a very long time.” Gushee helped me see an issue differently and gave me a framework to process what I’m seeing.
First, we need to understand that none of us live in a “Genesis 1–2 world,” but in a “Genesis 3 world.” This is a simple idea, yet I had never seen my world in that way. I talk about brokenness and am aware of my own, but I had honestly never taken that reality far enough.
I recall a prayer meeting with local pastors in the community where I worked at the prison. On this particular day, some of the pastors were talking about LGBTQ+ people in ways that made me uncomfortable, because I had some gay clients.
At one point, I said, “Have you ever thought about what it means to be broken?” At that moment, I wanted them to think more broadly about what sin does.
What Gushee has done in his book is provide us with an understanding that none of us live in a world informed by Genesis 1–2, but rather in a world ruled by Genesis 3. When we understand that, we can embrace a more comprehensive understanding of brokenness.
I began to see myself and others not as having broken parts, but as being wholly broken. That is, every part of myself has been impacted by sin.
I thought back to young men gathered in a room down the hall in the dorm, sharing the guilt and shame of their sexuality and the struggles that sex, desire and lust heaped on their bodies, minds and spirits. Suddenly, to describe a person as broken didn’t isolate them, but rather included them in my world of brokenness. Being broken is not a condition of a few, but of us all.
More than that, Gushee challenged me to see the mess brokenness has made of marriage, parenting and family life. I could see the ideal, but as a pastor and therapist, I recognized the mess we have made of this God-given blessing.
What’s more, some in our society no longer seek connection but rather opportunities to “hook up,” which further erodes the stability of our society because many children are born as a result of these hookups, fueled by desire rather than enduring love.
With an overall divorce rate of about 40% and Christians divorcing at about 33%, we are facing the consequences of significant instability in the homes of our nation. The current hookup culture has become so mainstream that it is condoned by about 50% of Christians and even more among non-Christians.
As I considered what Gushee was saying and added his careful exegesis of relevant passages, I saw a picture of an elite group of evangelicals who were casually dismissing a cherished gift from God: the power to create life and to live in a covenant relationship called marriage. It means too little for evangelicals today, but it is something we selfishly withhold from gay men and women who seek a covenant with someone they love.
I also know the larger issue is that we don’t believe LGBTQ+ individuals should have any rights at all, and those ideas are supported by poor interpretations of a few verses scattered throughout the Scriptures. Gushee and Vines have provided a deeper examination of the relevant passages, persuading me to take a step forward in the heart walk I’ve been on for years.
I must ask for forgiveness from those who have been hurt by my slow understanding and response.
Over the years, I have witnessed the angst that comes with my clients’ struggles with their gender identity. I have tried to meet them with compassion and empathy.
However, I left some things unsaid. And for those unspoken words, I am sorry.
My thirty-three years as a congregational pastor in four different Texas communities helped me work with both “church people” and non-church people. However, it wasn’t until I entered the prison system at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a maximum-security men’s prison housing death row, as Mental Health Manager, that I was stretched to see a more expansive population of men whom God loved just as He loved me.
I came away from that experience with many soul-stirring questions about who is loved and who is not loved by God.
Frankly, as I read Gushee and Vines, I have questioned why Christians are so quick to limit the expansive love of God demonstrated in Christ. What right do we have to fence in the grace of God and declare with absolute certainty who is included and who is not included in the sacrifice of Christ?
I have done that by being lazy and allowing others to tell me the parameters of God’s love. I will no longer do that. Neither will I use scripture as a weapon to demonize and push away those for whom Christ died.
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A private practice counselor working with veterans and survivors of trauma. Previously, Chancellor served four churches in Texas for 33 years, then ran a Mental Health Department of Alan B. Polunsky Maximum Security prison which houses death row.
