Written by Lauren Bucher
The College of Bible and Religion hosted a presentation on homosexuality April 11-12 in the Administration Auditorium.
OnApril11, apaneloffour professors from the College of Bible and Religion explored the topic of what the Bible says about homosexuality.
“Dr. [David] Burks felt that we were being presented with a great opportunity, a time when people were asking important questions and were looking for some help in dealing with a very complex and controversial topic,” said Bruce McLarty, vice president ofspirituallife, whomoderated thepanel. “Knowingthatitis always right to return to the Bible for direction and thatit is always right to ‘speak the truth in love,’ the idea of having such a panel seemed to make perfect sense.”
A team of professors from the College of Bible and Relgion — Drs. Scott Adair, Monte Cox, Kevin Youngblood and Ken Neller— formed the panel.Each presenter discussed topics in their respective areas of expertise: the Old Testament, Jesus, Paul and the application in ministry.
Youngblood focused on the initial narrative of the Bible, the creation narrative, setting a context for the rest of the Old Testament scriptures about homosexuality. Youngblood said the order of creation — the distinct differences between males and females — was created by God and was an intentional design to open the door to communion with God.
“The whole created order is organized around God’s desire to be near us and to be in that kind of relationship with us,” Youngblood said.
Adair said that while Jesus is silent about the issue of homosexuality,he concluded that there are only two options: either to be in a heterosexual marriage relationship or to be single. Churches have a tendency to react to this is- sue in two ways, according to Adair.
“Way over on the left, churches tend to increase the number of lifestyles they endorse,” Adair said. “Way over on the right, churches reduce the number of people that they love because they refuse to change their moral standards, and what both of these churches have in com- mon is the assumption that we are only able to love those whose lifestyles we endorse. Jesus, I believe, shows us a third way. Jesus is able to love beyond his boundaries, and we need to be able to love beyond our boundaries.”
Neller discussed Paul’s teaching on human sexuality, how it is to be limited to the marriage relationship and any sexual relationship outside of marriage — heterosexual or homosexual — is not in line with God’s will. Cox stressed the importance of understand- ing the differing worldviews within which people operate,
that not everyone shares the same fundamental assumptions about the world and Scripture.
During the second night’s panel, Suzanne Casey of the Harding Counseling Center, Ken Cameron, Ph.D., and professor of psychology, and RobertChanning,agraduate of Harding’s marriage and family therapy program, joined the first night’s panel on stage and spoke about Christians’ response to homosexuality.
Approximately 600 to 700 people attended the panel the first night, and 500 people attended the second night, according to McLarty.
“There was a wide variety of people who attended: students for whom this is an intensely personal issue, students who care deeply for a roommate, a sibling or friend for whom this is a personal issue, parents, elders and an impressive number of Harding faculty and staff members,” McLarty said.
The student response to the panel has been positive, according to McLarty. Cur- rently, there are no plans for future presentations on this issue for this semester.
DVD recordings of the two panel presentations on homosexuality last week can be ordered from Video Services by contacting Mark Prior (mprior@harding.edu). The cost is $10. These presenta- tions will also be available on iTunesU by Monday.
