Original post at http://johnmeunier.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/our-broad-common-ground-on-matters-of-sex/
Bishop Schol writes in defense of homosexual sexual relations in the context of committed and loving relationships. These words ?committed? and ?loving? are key elements of his qualification.
So, ?it appears to me that we all more or less agree that forms of sex that are engaged for pure selfish physical gratification (not loving) or in casual or anonymous relationships (not committed) are not holy. We agree that polygamy is not in keeping with God?s will. We agree that the culture norms about pornography, hooking up, and various kinds of sex for money are anti-Christian.
Where we disagree is between those who see the gender of the two loving and committed partners as crucial and those who do not.
I?m not saying that is a small difference or even one that the denomination can ignore.
But let?s take a look for a moment on the broad agreement that the bishop?s talk represents ? if I am reading him properly. Assuming homosexuals in committed relationship account for no more than 5% of the sexual activity in the human population, then we can say there is a shared understanding of human sexuality in the United Methodist Church for 95% of the cases. Maybe it is even more than 95%.
I?m not saying the remaining 5% is unimportant. I?m not saying enforcing our Book of Discipline is unimportant. I don?t expect to persuade those who see this as the only issue that matters in the UMC.
But, could we at least acknowledge that when we look at the full range of human sexuality and the Christian response to it that our denomination actually agrees on about 95% of the issue?
That strikes me as much more hopeful than the way we generally talk about this issue.
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