This post has been moved to here.
Theological musings
Technorati Tags: 
Homosexuality discussions - a brief intro
Greetings to everyone arriving at this blog site for the first time...
This site is run by two guys who have a passion for Christ, His church and making His Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven". Roger and myself are South Africans, although I now live in London (see more about me at . We are both theologically trained (in different ways), come from strong evangelical backgrounds (which we would both still affirm, although we distance ourselves from some of the evangelical right wing), find excitement and challenge in the so-called "emerging church" stream of Christianity, are NOT in church leadership, and are distressed at the witness of many self proclaimed mouthpieces of the Gospel in the world today.
This blog is a space for us to think aloud (I actually wrote "think allowed" when I was first writing that: nice!). Not everything we post here is fully thought through (although most is). Almost nothing here is "the final word" on the issue. We welcome and encourage and dialogue (although Roger is way better at that than I am). We hardly ever compare notes, we almost never meet up with each other, and we don't necessarily condone what the other guy says. Sometimes we're just a bit random.
Now, many of you might have come here to check out the discussions we've been having about homosexuality. To help you navigate where we are at the moment (November 2008), here is a brief summary. I hope it helps.
A fun example of the human side of Biblical inspiration
Like all evangelicals, I believe in the inspiration of the Bible. This means that God inspired human writers in such a way that every word in the Bible (in the original language and original documents) is exactly the word God intended to be there. But this does not mean that God simply dictated the Bible, nor that he turned the authors into automatons. He understood the character and personality (and expertise and background) of the writers, and worked in partnership with this to write a series of documents that is truly unique - a divine collaboration that is both infallible and inerrant (in the original).
To interpret the Bible, we must understand both God (as far as possible, and doing so empowered by God's Spirit) and the human author. This means that, amongst other things, we must understand the author's personality, culture, context, writing style, background, training and experiences.
A fun example will illustrate...
Where to from here
To everyone who has been following the seriously lengthy recent discussions on this blog around the issue of homosexuality, this may or may not be good news...
On the advice of some friends who I have specifically asked to hold me accountable in a number of areas, I am going to take a break from the issue. My original article (available in the archives) has caused quite a storm in South Africa - I think that needs some time to take its course. I have also fallen into one of the traps I am most scared of - being confrontational and ungracious in my interactions.
The approach given to us Protestants from the very beginning - modelled with such vigour by Luther, Calvin and others - is of heated, unhealthy, confrontational debate. This is not only unedifying, it also gets us nowhere. I fear that with all the best intentions in the world, I may have fallen into this style in recent days.
Roger Saner's blog: Journey
Graeme Codrington: Regeneration