Glimmerings

� Mozilla HTML form spell checking | Main | BBC NEWS: US Church sex claims detailed �

February 25, 2004

Barbara Brown Taylor on biblical interpretation (and homosexuality)

Barbara Brown Taylor is a well-known preacher and seminary professor (my M.Div. class is reading her book The Preaching Life as part of our Foundations of Worship and Preaching class).

The problem I run into at the bakery is that I do not have a position on homosexuality. What I have, instead, is a life. I have a history, in which many people have played vital parts. When I am presented with the issue of homosexuality, I experience temporary blindness. Something like scales fall over my eyes, because I cannot visualize an issue. Instead, I visualize the homeroom teacher who seemed actually to care whether I showed up at school or not. I see the priest who taught me everything I know about priesthood, and the professor who roasted whole chickens for me when my food money ran out before the end of the month. I see the faces of dozens of young men who died of AIDS, but not before they had shown me how brightly they could burn with nothing left but the love of God to live on. I see the face of my 16-year-old friend, still waiting for his first true love, who says that if he found out he was gay, he would kill himself. Other people have other stories, I know, but these are the stories that have given me my sight. To reduce them to a position seems irreverent somehow, like operating on someone's body without looking him in the face.

Link (thanks Christian Century)

Posted by thdyck on February 25, 2004

Comments

Post a comment