"One Christian Minister's Response to Homosexuality"

Malcolm Marler is a good friend of mine. Malcolm is a former Southern Baptist and United Church of Christ minister and is now a lay person in the Episcopal Church. He is also a chaplain at the 1917 Clinic at UAB.

Malcolm grew up in Gardendale, attended college at Clemson (and played football there), and holds a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. On his blog he describes himself as a "straight, white, bald guy" writing about gay issues.


On Malcom's blog is a series titled “One Christian Minister’s Response to Homosexuality,” which he says is "about my journey in my 30 years of ministry on why I believe all persons (more specifically persons who are gay–GLBT) are children of God and should also have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone in our society including marriage, healthcare insurance, role in the church, etc."

His latest installment in the series is Part VIII Gay Marriage. The entire series is good but since Same Sex Marriage is so much in the news and this blog I wanted to start with that.

He poses a question similar to what I have asked.

I believe that God is love, so how can I oppose two persons who want to make a life commitment to one another in love? How can I deny a couple all of the rights that I take for granted? How can I deny a couple the social support that I value in my own marriage? How can I deny a couple the blessing all straight couples get in a church whether their faith is central or not in their lives?

Read Rev. Marler's response to his question.

I often receive criticism for quoting gay scholars and authors when addressing gay issues ( I guess blacks can't write about blacks and women can't write about women according to that mentality) so here is a straight minister writing about the issues.

Read the rest of the series. You can go to the other parts from the link above, or from here:

Part I Finding the Words "...I was homophobic..."

Part II Is Homosexuality a Sin? "...This was not a question I answered hastily..."

Part III Reaching Out "...It was ironic to me that a physician who happened to be Jewish, and a businessman who happened to be Methodist, convinced a state university hospital system to hire a Chaplain who happened to be Baptist, to reach out to churches so that they could help rather than hurt its patients at the AIDS clinic..."

Part IV That Judgement Thing "...And yet, many of us in the church use the name of God to say to persons who are gay, “You are not really one of us. You are not really part of this family. You are not really a Christian.”..."

Part V A Shining Light "Stereotypes. Sometimes we think all Baptists and Baptist churches are the same when it comes to their view of homosexuality. But Oakhurst Baptist in Decatur, GA is an exception..."

Part VI Matt's Story ..."I finally understood that I am created by God as a gay man…this is who I am..who I am supposed to be..."

Part VII Creating Community "...I write here so that I can be clearer about my life’s purpose..."

Part VIII Gay Marriage "...They tell no one, and their joy is silenced..."

Click on the links above and read the entire series. The posts are short, it won't take but a few minutes to read. If you are gay, this will help reaffirm that it's OK, in fact, it's great. If you are not gay, this will help in your understanding.