Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

 About ten years ago, a friend from high school wrote the book God and the Gay Christian . I eagerly bought it, mainly to support him, but also because I was working on becoming a more affirming Christian, and I thought reading this book would help me along that path. Admittedly, I initially struggled to read it, not because of the subject matter, but because the book's tone didn't match the goofy guy I knew in high school. I resolved to read a chapter at a time until I finally finished it, but after I read the first few chapters, I didn't read it for a long time. Last fall, I finally picked it up again, found the mature tone much easier to read, and finished it in November. Since finishing the book, I've been thinking more about some of the things he brings up, especially the scriptures that are most often referenced when referring to God's view of homosexuality. The more I read those verses, the more I see that what is really being condemned isn't homosexualit...

      One of the projects I started working on this summer is a collection of short stories about people in the Gospels who have a life-changing experience but don't have a name. I had been thinking about doing it for a while because I was intrigued by their stories and wondered what the rest of their lives might have been like. I knew that there was a greater depth to some of these stories than the Gospel writers mentioned. I decided to write each story from the person's perspective so readers could explore how these people viewed their interactions with Jesus.     The first story I tackled was that of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11). A sermon I heard earlier this year talked about this story. In the sermon, it was mentioned that the law stated that both parties caught in adultery should be stoned, yet only the woman was brought out. I began thinking about who the man was and why he was not implicated as well. Later on, I read the passage from Leviti...