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Is the “Third Way” Coming to Your Church?
Ideally, ‘Third Way’ denominations and movements would officially make room for gay relationships and gay marriage, but encourage congregations to discern their own policies locally, and demand an atmosphere of mutual submission and understanding among their family of churches. Sure, there may be denomination-wide boundaries involved – say, the belief that the New Testament is clear on covenantal monogamy and chastity before marriage – but there would be a recognition that LGBT Christians are real Christians and real evangelicals, and no congregation has the right to deny that absolutely. They may not be able to perform weddings or theologically affirm the relationships, but they would practice inclusion and support civil rights.
The ‘Third Way’ approach proposes between the “conservative” that highlights biblical texts that condemn homosexual behavior and singles out gays for special antipathy and the “liberal” approach that fails to wrestle with the Bible “in a straightforward manner” and to challenge Christians to rigorous faithfulness. Hence, the “third way” is to combine the biblical rigor of the conservatives and the welcoming embrace of the liberals. That is, be very nice toward and welcoming of gays, do not teach that people must change their sexual orientation, and do not make a strong public point of speaking against “homosexuality”. Third Way presses adherents to learn the difference between acceptance (where gay people are treated with kindness and welcomed to worship) and agreement (where their intimate relationships are affirmed as morally equivalent to straight people’s marriages).
The heart and soul of ‘Third Way’ is a dream for traditional and emerging camps to find unity in the Great Tradition and not blast each other over second-tier differences. On the one hand, the ideology wants to avoid the fundamentalist error of seeing every other kind of church as heretical and suspect. On the other hand, it also wants to avoid the liberal error of seeing theology as infinitely malleable. Culture war issues invite binary thinking. Many commentators say, “You either affirm gay marriage or you don’t,” or “You teach homosexuality is a sin or you don’t.” Within the binaries, I think it’s fair to say that there is no middle ground, although that is the thrust and effort of the movement.
What the Third Way really is involves a 5-year strategy plan straight out of the Matthew Vines Reformation Project playbook, designed to motivate your church to “have a conversation” about the ‘Third Way’, so that eventually the idea of compromising God’s Word to make gay marriages mainstream becomes more palatable. And this strategy accomplishes something else: it provides a way for elders and pastors to retain their likeability; and keep many of the tithers committed, because after all, their church is all about love and tolerance, and who doesn’t want to belong to that?
I don’t. And I hope you don’t either.
The following is a video promoting “Third Way” within the Catholic Church: http://www.blackstonefilms.org/films.html
The ‘Third Way’ approach proposes between the “conservative” that highlights biblical texts that condemn homosexual behavior and singles out gays for special antipathy and the “liberal” approach that fails to wrestle with the Bible “in a straightforward manner” and to challenge Christians to rigorous faithfulness. Hence, the “third way” is to combine the biblical rigor of the conservatives and the welcoming embrace of the liberals. That is, be very nice toward and welcoming of gays, do not teach that people must change their sexual orientation, and do not make a strong public point of speaking against “homosexuality”. Third Way presses adherents to learn the difference between acceptance (where gay people are treated with kindness and welcomed to worship) and agreement (where their intimate relationships are affirmed as morally equivalent to straight people’s marriages).
The heart and soul of ‘Third Way’ is a dream for traditional and emerging camps to find unity in the Great Tradition and not blast each other over second-tier differences. On the one hand, the ideology wants to avoid the fundamentalist error of seeing every other kind of church as heretical and suspect. On the other hand, it also wants to avoid the liberal error of seeing theology as infinitely malleable. Culture war issues invite binary thinking. Many commentators say, “You either affirm gay marriage or you don’t,” or “You teach homosexuality is a sin or you don’t.” Within the binaries, I think it’s fair to say that there is no middle ground, although that is the thrust and effort of the movement.
What the Third Way really is involves a 5-year strategy plan straight out of the Matthew Vines Reformation Project playbook, designed to motivate your church to “have a conversation” about the ‘Third Way’, so that eventually the idea of compromising God’s Word to make gay marriages mainstream becomes more palatable. And this strategy accomplishes something else: it provides a way for elders and pastors to retain their likeability; and keep many of the tithers committed, because after all, their church is all about love and tolerance, and who doesn’t want to belong to that?
I don’t. And I hope you don’t either.
The following is a video promoting “Third Way” within the Catholic Church: http://www.blackstonefilms.org/films.html
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