out of context is a new online community initiated ‘. . . to end the abuse of gay people by conservative Christians through education, dialogue, and building community in Christ.’
this is not a new idea, nor a new venture. however, what is of particular interest to myself and to others that are a part of the independent christian churches is that this website was founded by john rumple. john who? some of you may ask?
A gay professor in New Testament at a conservative bible college in East Tennessee publicly announced his departure from the college, citing the college’s attitude towards gay people as one of his reasons for leaving.
A professor teaching New Testament studies at Johnson Bible College (JBC) in Knoxville, Tennessee, who resigned his position as of June 30, publicly announced today that he was gay, in an effort to draw attention to the church’s prejudice against homosexuals. [read more]
i’ve spent a little bit of time on this site and although there aren’t a great deal of resources available yet, i think that this will be a rather interesting site. one thing that i noticed in particular was his open letter to johnson bible college and the bitterness and arrogance that seems to pervade the majority of the letter. i was struck by this "invitation to dialogue" and although i read it again and again and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt it seems as if this was nothing more than an attempt to make JBC look bad.
rumple was only at JBC for 3 years, and with the way in which he left and the website he has started upon his departure, it seems as if this was somehow planned in advance to make some sort of point and paint himself as a martyr. i’m thinking that this seriously reduces his already miniscule credibility in the church, making his mission to educate the church on our gross misinterpretations of homosexuality and to reveal to us the "correct" interpretation nearly impossible.
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Wow–what is surprising to me is not that JBC hired a gay man to teach NT (after all he even admitted that he lied about it). What is surprising is that they hired a guy who seems to have so little regard or knowledge about the NT to teach the NT. Only one time did he refer to the written record of scripture directly (or at least that was his attempt) in his “call for dialogue.†And that one time he tried to refer to scripture, he totally misrepresented it (by saying that the NT ALWAYS refers not to homosexuality but to idolatry). The rest of the time he contented himself with references to personal experience and half-hearted references to science. It seems to me that if he is going to make the accusation that schools like JBC are misusing the Bible he should have some specifics to back it up–then again, maybe that is the intent of his web-site.
He reflects an attitude which is prevalent in the homosexual community–endorse my lifestyle or else–I will pout, start a website, and tell the world how closed minded and hateful and hobophobic you are. Imagine if we all adopted such a mentality that said of the church–endorse my lifestyle or else. Imagine if the good professor had a student who claimed that God had not made him smart or ambitious. Therefore it would be a gross injustice and a breach of God’s good creation if the professor gave him any other than an A in the class. It’s not his fault he’s lazy and dull.
rags … i can’t say if you’re right or wrong on a lot of what you wrote, but i think maybe some of what you wrote borders on the exact attitude this guy is trying to combat.
it appears he does have extensive background and education. now, you may be right about his regard, or lackthereof, but i’m not sure i can question his knowledge (understanding and interpretation, maybe, but knoeldge i’m not so sure)
and you also claim he reflcets an attitude that is prevelant in the homosexual community … for starters, i’m unaware of a homosexual community. we might call it a subculture but the simple fact we would claim there exists a homosexual community might very well shed light on our stereotyping and ignorance. i doubt a majority of homosexuals choose to pout, start websites, or tell people directly how close-minded they are. those kinds of generalizations and blanket statements are seldom helpful and rarely true.
i guess i’d just like to see the Church start dealing with people with a little more grace and a lot more love …. and start being willing to have some constructive dialogue with people who have different beliefs and opinions.
i just don’t think sterotyping and cold dismissal are going to get anyone anywhere.
i don’t mean to sound harsh or argumentative at all … but i guess seeing this kind of thing breaks my heart more than it urges me to judgment.
Point well taken B-Matt. I was in a piss-poor mood when I made that post and it came off a little harsh.
But actually, while my rhetoric may have been out of line, his behavior is typical in the homosexual interpretive community. There are several presuppositions that they hold–they tend to be hyper-existential in their interp. (if it feels good it must be right), they also tend to be radically dismissive of much of scripture, and they also begin with the presupposition that if that homosexuality is a normal created condition and the church needs to be cleansed of heterocentric interpretive bias. You are right in saying that there needs to be more understanding and love shown the homosexual community–but I have issues about what exactly understanding and love mean. Does love equal endorsement or else? Does understanding equal compromise on clear biblical and historical teaching? What are the limits of love and understanding in our hermeneutics?
no problem … i’ve been in those kinds of moods before as well … and yuor second point clarifies things a bit more too, narrowing it to the interp. comm. …
I don’t have any clear answers either … but I do think this one of the major issues the Church is going to have to deal with moving forward. It may not be far enough, but I think at the very least love and understandning mean the following:
1. allowing homosexuals to worship without fear in our buildings … for them to feel comfortable enough that they can be honest with who they are and what their struggles are … not a comfort that they won’t be held accountable but a comfort that they don’t have to be pefect before they can walk through the doors … but then again, I think we need to work on that in the way we handle all sinners, which would be everyone. until we help people feel safe enough they can be real, we will continue to force hypocrisy … i know there is a delicate tension between safety and accountability but we need to find it.
2. being vulnerable enough ourselves to be willing to have the tough conversations and to be open-minded enough to listen and not simply spout the rhetotic we’ve come to know and love.
I think those two things would be a decent start.
This has hurt a number of students and adults too. I’ve linked this page to my website where some analysis of the writings of outofcontext.us are going on. Some of the student body is participating.
http://djbrock.hypermart.net
mark moore has a blog… which is very good by the way…
anyhow, there’s an amazing (and lengthy) conversation going on at his blog in reference to the out of context site, and i would encourgage you to check it out. very insightful, and very good stuff. in fact, there are a lot of JBC students responding and asking some very good questions there as well.
mark moore’s site: homosexual-hermeneutic
That Mark Moore is amazing.
Yeah, I knew the man and I had him for class- Basic Christian Beliefs. No one had a clue that this was coming. You guys should check out the web forum on Dr. Brock’s Website- http://djbrock.hypermart.net – the link is at the top of the page.