Brian McLaren's Ambiguity on Homosexuality

Brian McLaren, leader in the emergent church movement, posted on Jan. 23 a "lesson" on the need for pastoral care in dealing with homosexuality. Certainly his concern to be pastoral in what has often been treated horribly by evangelicals is to be commended. We should indeed be gracious and loving towards homosexuals. His post, however, makes no clear statement about the sinfulness of homosexuality. Infact one has to wonder if McLaren even believes that same gender sex is a sin at all. He writes about the emergent community saying, "Frankly, many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality." This should send up red flags!

Mark Driscoll, one of the nations leading evangelical speakers, has called out McLaren on his ambiguity. Driscoll, with thick sarcasism, has responded that McLaren has failed to grasp the clear Biblical postion on homosexuality. McLaren's response to Driscoll was less than satisfactory and the former has returned with a very clear and pointed question: Do you personally believe that all sexual activity between two persons of the same gender is always a sin?

That is the question that needs to be answered by McLaren. All the emergent issues aside there is much that this will say about McLaren as an evangelical figure. We wait with anticipation for his answer. To check out the details of this debate click the links below:

http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/2006/01/mclaren_respond.html

http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/2006/01/driscolls_apolo.html