Pastors With More Education Support Gay Marriage


Conservatives claim the Bible condemns gay marriage. If that were the case you would think preachers with more education would be more opposed to performing gay weddings. Just the opposite is the case. Preachers with more education are more likely to marry gay couples.

Why would this be the case? Could it be that more education gives preachers a more accurate perspective of what appears in the Bible?

My guess is that the more college level history, literature, humanities and social science a person has studied the better one can put those who wrote the Bible accurately in historical context. It is my understanding Author Bart Ehrman wrote the first college textbook about the Bible which placed it in a historical context. At the time he wrote that book the market was flooded with introduction to the New Testament textbooks which discussed theology. His book, however, was and remains very successful. It is now in its seventh edition. I would guess there are now other books using the historical context to teach the New Testament.

The two marque sins of the day, gay sex and abortion are not condemned in the Bible. It takes some mental gymnastics to claim "the Bible condemns" these two items. Going back many decades the pattern is identical: behaviors condemned by some in society at any point in history use the Bible to justify their own cultural bias. It has been slavery, women as clergy, alcohol and work on Sunday. These had their place in the faith and then faded away. Except for the prohibition of women as clergy these have yielded to changing times. It is inevitable gay marriage and abortion will fade in time and something will be called the greatest sin.

It would be comforting to think education will bring the Christian right to its senses, just it has done to preachers with more education. As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

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