Voice of Faith: a way forward in things unsaid

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Voices of Faith

Responding to the recent Op/Ed denying Biblical Credibility to the anti-equality side (which I highlighted yesterday), blogger Joel Watts in the HuffPo seeks "a Christian Way Forward on Gay Marriage in the Things Unsaid":

What gets lost in the middle are Christians who believe in the authority of Scripture but hope for a path forward whereby all of God's Creation is honored. 

...I base my affirmation of the validity of same-sex marriages based on the experience of Christian salvation. I do not have the power to categorically deny the love, the companionship, the compassion involved in a consensual relationship of two people in a same-sex relationship. Rather, I affirm the beauty of human flourishing in this rather dark world of ours. ... 

I believe the passage in Luke gives Christians today a certain amount of pause. Let us pause and consider all of the things Jesus could have possibly said -- and yet didn't -- to the Centurion who loved his pais enough to debase himself in front of the traveling Galilean prophet. While Jesus neither publicly affirmed nor denied the Centurion's relationship with his pais, although we may allow a passive affirmation, Jesus praised the man's faith as greater than all of Israel's. Like Amos, who from outside of the Kingdom became a prophet to the Kingdom, the Centurion stands as a testament to what real Faith is supposed to be -- in that he willingly laid down everything he was an officer in the Roman army to save the person he loved. 

But what does this do for the interpretation of Scripture? It beckons us always to stand willing to reform our views and theological assessments when sound scholarship presents an alternative view without going completely overboard and allowing our desires to replace the soundness of a Scriptural viewpoint. Finally, it reminds us that in Scripture, the story is not just about what is said, but often times what is unsaid.

Read the whole thing!

(Those so inclined can read the referenced story in Luke 7:1-10 ).