Dr. David P. Gushee, a leading Christian ethicist and author of the groundbreaking book, Changing Our Mind, delivers a powerful and hopeful address at the annual conference of The Reformation Project, held November 8, 2014, in Washington D.C. Although the talk was shared over a decade ago, his understanding of the harm done when the church uses un-Christlike teaching continues to be relevant, raising important questions for families, churches, and church leaders about the consequences of their theology. “Parents, not having a better way to respond from what they have been taught in their churches or in their tradition, all too often reject and hurt their own children, destroying their lives or harming them and fracturing their families in the name of faithfulness to scripture,” Gushee says. “They create despair and destroy their own families.”
But Gushee also offers hope. He addresses the passages in the Bible that have been used to support a destructive, un-Christlike teaching, and invites us into a bigger understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Instead of debating passages at the margins of the narrative arc of scripture, Gushee calls us to the central themes of God’s love and of Jesus’ life and ministry.
“Jesus said that if you if you want to love God, if you want to be my follower, you love God with everything and you love your neighbour as yourself. And Jesus taught about good Samaritans attending to the bleeding ones by the side of the road, and themes like being our siblings’ keepers and the sacred worth of every person, and our obligations to be compassionate, merciful, and just.”
Watch the video below, or read or download the transcript.
Online transcript for Ending the Teaching of Contempt Against Sexual Minorities.
Download the transcript as a pdf.
Buy Gushee’s book, Changing Our Mind. (We encourage you to support independent booksellers.)