Sharks, jellyfish, and the bad news
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:status: draft
:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
:category: faith
:tags: LGBT, homosexuality, blue ocean, centered faith

Couple of comments while reading `this blogpost`_ by Dave Schmelzer and
linked `position paper of Vineyard USA on LGBT issues`_.

.. _`this blogpost`:
    http://theblueoceanblog.org/jesus-good-hijacked-todays-controversies/
.. _`position paper of Vineyard USA on LGBT issues`:
    http://vineyardusa.org/site/files/PositionPaper-VineyardUSA-Pastoring_LGBT_Persons.pdf

First completely nonsensical nitpick: as far as I know (and I may
be wrong, but if I recall correctly, I read in some book by
Philipe Cousteau) sharks have to swim because they don’t have
operculum so they have to make water flow through their gills,
otherwise they suffocate_ . Not that it would matter that much
for Dave’s argument.

.. _suffocate:
    https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090820085118AAaL3jP

But to the more interesting stuff.

From the position paper:

   William Shakespeare in his play, Twelfth Night, said this: Be
   not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve
   greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

This is funny. Did they actually read or see the Twelfth Night?
Do they recognize that whole this quotation was not meant
seriously but just as a bait for Malvolio? And if we ignore this
strangeness, when following their argument, they could say just
as easily that they want to discuss LGBT issues, because
everybody else does it. I am not sure that it is the right
reason, but anyway.

OK, this is too long. I won’t have time to read all ninety
pages. So back to Dave.

I completely accept his argument that we should live in the
centered set, but it seems to me he still misses the point. What
should I say to my homosexual friend (or for me more likely to
some strong supporter of gay rights, I don’t know much anybody
who would be openly homosexual)? And what to do with 1.Timothy
1:10 or 1.Corinthians 6:9f? If

One of the most important things which helped me to understand my
attitude towards homosexuality was proper understaning of what
the sin is.

I understand the centered set thinking correctly, than obvious
interdicts in the Bible should not be understood as zaps (and
even less used as such to zap others), but as an advice why
following the banned path will lead out of the center, Jesus, and
the life in fullness (John 10:10). So, we should not steal
because God would smite us, but because although it may seem
tempting it is not a blessed God’s path to achieving fullness
of life.

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    When orders are issued in other spheres of life there is no
    doubt whatever of their meaning. If a father sends a child to
    bed, the boy knows at once what he has to do. But suppose he
    has picked up smattering of pseudo-theology. In that case he
    would argue more or less like this: “Father tells me to go
    to bed, but he really means that I am tired, and he does not
    want me to be tired. I can overcome my tiredness just as well
    if I go out and play. Therefore though father tells me to go
    to bed, he really means: ‘Go out and play’.” If a child
    tried such arguments on his father or a citizen on his
    government, they would both meet with a kind of language they
    could not fail to understand–in short they would be
    punished. Are we to treat the commandment of Jesus
    differently from other orders and exchange single-minded
    obedience for downright disobedience? How could that be
    possible!

    -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, chapter. III.

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Theological perspective is proposed and wins the day. It does
just great for however long, but then its blind spots become
evident and there’s pushback about it. The pushback ends up
being too corrective, an over-reaction, so it too ultimately gets
pushed back with something that itself is too corrective and
over-reacting. And there lies the history of theology.

Unfortunately, theology matters. And people who create bad
theology and a lot of mess around themselves are usually not bad
people. Liberal theology ...