Ethics

Goodreads Review of Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships by James Brownson

Kirk E. Miller

Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex RelationshipsBible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships by James V. Brownson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you hold to the traditional, historic Christian position on same-sex relationship (like myself), this is a fantastic book to read in order to engage with the best of the revisionist position. It is well written, structured, and formatted. And his position, although one with which I disagree, is one with which to wrestle. In other words, this is not a “pop” apologetic of the revisionist position. This is a rather scholarly defense. (Don’t read this if you merely want to be able to “straw man” the revisionist view.) I find its position unconvincing and unacceptable; but this position that I hold to be dangerously wrong is nonetheless well presented and argued here. It serves as a fantastic representation of the revisionist position. And it would greatly serve as a catalyst for strengthening and forming a well thought out traditional position on marriage and sexuality. With that said, even though I disagreed with Brownson’s final proposals, I nonetheless learned from him and agreed with much he had to say leading up to those conclusions.

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Al Mohler’s God and the Gay Christian? – FREE

Kirk E. Miller 2 Comments

SBTS has made Al Mohler’s response to Matthew Vine’s book, God and the Gay Christian: A Response to Matthew Vines, available for free. Get it here.

Christians and homosexuality is a hotly debated topic in today’s evangelical world, and Southern Seminary continues that conversation in this publication. Matthew Vines’s new book, God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, argues that homosexual orientation and committed same-sex relationships are consistent with a “high view” of the Bible and evangelical Christianity. Southern Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. and four other seminary faculty members refute this claim in the new SBTS Press e-book, God and the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vines.

Each chapter refutes Vines’s claims from six specific Scriptural references to homosexuality. Mohler’s chapter provides an overview critique of Vines’s book. James M. Hamilton Jr., professor of biblical theology, addresses the Old Testament claims; Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies, addresses New Testament claims; Owen Strachan, assistant professor of Christian theology looks at the church history assertions; and Heath Lambert, assistant professor of biblical counseling, answers whether there is such a thing as a “gay Christian.”

Abortion and the Beginning of Personhood

Kirk E. Miller

In a previous post, I made a paper I wrote last semester for Ethics class entiled A Scriptural Evaluation on the NT Believer’s Use of Tattoos and Body Piercings available for download. Another paper that I wrote for this class was on the issue of abortion. It was a brief paper, so I narrowed my topic to the specific issue of when personhood begins. In other words, I sought to answer the question, when is the fetus a person, or, when does it become a person. The reason the answer to this question is so important is because it is the watershed issue of the abortion debate. It determines whether or not the killing of the fetus is murder (the killing of an innocent person) or simply exterminating matter.
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A Scriptural Evaluation on the NT Believer’s Use of Tattoos and Body Piercings

Kirk E. Miller

Brian "Head" Welch - Christian, ex-guitarist of Korn, author of Save Me From Myself, and Christian musician.

Last semester, (fall semester of my senior year at Maranatha Baptist Bible College), I finally got around to taking Ethics class. In this course, every student was required to write two position papers on a specific moral issue. For my second paper I decided to tackle the issue of the morality the New Testament believer’s use of body piercings and tattoos, which is highly debated within certain Christian circles. My goal in this paper was to analyze the issue strictly from a Biblical perspective.
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