In this article I ask one simple question: would you fellowship me?
Where I was
Years ago, when the Web and I were still young, I set up www.christadelphian.org.uk, which was one of the major Christadelphian websites in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
On the homepage of that site, I had the following summary of Christadelphian beliefs
- The Bible is God’s word and the only message from him. It is without error except for copying and translations errors.
- There is only one God — the Father. The Holy Spirit is God’s power.
- Jesus is the Son of God, and a human being, through his mother Mary.
- Man is mortal, having no existence when dead.
- By living a sinless life, ending with his sacrificial death by crucifixion, Jesus has opened the way of salvation from death.
- Belief and baptism are essential steps to salvation.
- God raised Jesus from death. Jesus is currently in Heaven, on God’s right hand. He will one day return.
- When Jesus returns, he will raise his ‘sleeping’ followers from death and grant immortality to the faithful who have tried to live by God’s precepts.
- His followers will help him to rule, bringing justice, righteousness and peace to the whole world — the Kingdom of God.
I wrote that list, based upon a Christadelphian leaflet, and with a lot of input from other Christadelphians, including the assistant recording brother of one ecclesia I was associated with. The list describes Christadelphian beliefs as I understood them; it describes my beliefs as I held them. The list was first published in that form in 2001,1 was still on the home page of the site until at least 29 September 2014,2 unaltered from what I wrote, despite the fact that I have not been associated with that website since 2005.
Where I am
I am now in a same-sex relationship. That relationship is permanent, faithful, and stable. It is based on mutual love, companionship, and support. It is legally recognised by the state, and my husband and I have publicly marked our commitment to each other with a church service. In short, my relationship is everything a Christadelphian marriage should be, except it is between two men, not a man and a woman.
My beliefs are still in line with the beliefs I mentioned above.
Would you and your ecclesia fellowship me?
On one hand, I have sound Christadelphian beliefs. On the other, I am in a same-sex relationship, and I believe that being in a relationship like mine is fully in line with scriptural teaching (remember that the BASF and Commandments of Christ are silent on this topic, so same-sex relationships cannot be a fellowship issue).
Would you and your ecclesia offer me fellowship? If not, why not? What would I have to do to become a member of your ecclesia? Remember that the Lord hateth putting away, and even if you argue that my partner is not my husband, I still promised him that I would be with him until death do us part. That is a promise I cannot break, for it is a sin for a follower of Christ to break a promise.
Does my relationship mean that I can never be part of the Christadelphian body, which suggests that the vows I made to my husband are an unforgivable sin?
Or is it the case that Christadelphians in same-sex relationships should be offered the same fellowship as all Christadelphians?
So, after prayerful consideration, ask yourself this question: would you fellowship me?
Previous page: What the Bible says about same-sex relationships
Footnotes
1. http://web.archive.org/web/20011128101754/http://www.christadelphian.org.uk/
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20140929112946/http://www.christadelphian.org.uk/
When you’re relationship is permanent, faithful, and stable and you act with sincere love to each-other not participating in acts which God would not agree with (e.g. fornication, bestiality, taking part in gay pride parades) we would not have no objection to welcome you in our ecclesia when as you say you made your vows and keep them. But if you would go strange or have other partners where you would have sex with than we would not allow you to share the taking of bread, though still would welcome you in our community.
Thank you for your support, and I will be sending you an email to talk about some additional things, but I have one question for now: what is wrong with taking part in pride parades?
When you look at those gay pride parades you can see many actions which go in against any form of decency and also against the will of God.
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I can’t speak for any Pride parades I haven’t been on, but I have walked in Pride parades in Belfast, London, Dublin, and Gibraltar, and I was involved with organising the Belfast Pride parade for a couple of years.
The standards of behaviour that I have seen on the parades have been on have been the same as the standards of behaviour for any parade or public event. In particular, the Belfast Pride parade has extremely high standards of conduct and decency. In the years when I was involved with organising Belfast Pride, the crime rate in the city centre actually went down during the parade, which is not what you would expect when you have an additional 20k people in the city centre!
In Dublin, the conduct on the Pride parade was of a much higher standard than the conduct you see in Dublin on a typical Saturday night.
Pride parades do have people from all walks of life, such as Christians, Muslims, atheists, Humanists, but aside from this religious diversity which some people might regard as intrinsically un-Christian, there is nothing that is “against any form of decency” or “against the will of God.”
Doubtless there are Pride parades where all sorts of things happen, just as there are Christadelphian gatherings where all sorts of things happen, but that doesn’t mean that followers of Christ must reject all Pride parades (or all Christadelphian gatherings).
Can’t find an email address on your site. Can you send me a message through https://gaychristadelphians.org/contact/ ?
1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 which refers back to Leviticus 18 verse 22 clearly explains the Truth and who are considered unrighteous by God at the return of Jesus.
Hi Deborah,
I have written about 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Leviticus 18:22 here: https://gaychristadelphians.org/same-sex-relationships/what-the-bible-says-about-same-sex-relationships/
You might also be interested in a longer piece I wrote on another site: https://andrew.mcfarlandcampbell.org/2012/10/25/corinthians-and-timothy/
Neither 1 Co 6:9-10 nor Leviticus 18:22 are the universal condemnations of homosexuality that a superficial reading of modern translations suggests.
What a terrible thing, to be forced to live in fear because of the ignorance of other human beings.
It seems to be a part of human nature, our need to dehumanize one another.