The Summary
Richard Hays is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. In his widely respected introduction to New Testament ethics, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, which was published by Harper Collins and T&T Clark in 1996, he declared that:
Though only a few biblical texts speak of homoerotic activity, all that do mention it express unqualified disapproval. Thus, on this issue, there is no synthetic problem for New Testament ethics. In this respect the issue of homosexuality differs significantly from matters such as slavery or the subordination of women, concerning which the Bible contains internal tensions and counterposed witnesses. The biblical witness against homosexual practise is univocal.
On this basis Richard Hays went on to argue that it is not right for Christians to engage in ‘same-sex erotic activity,’ and that the church should not ‘sanction and bless homosexual unions.’
Since 1996, Richard Hays’ conclusions which I have just cited have been regularly appealed to by Christians who take a conservative approach to Christian sexual ethics. However, Richard Hays has now changed his mind and together with his son Chris, who is Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, he has written The Widening of God’s Mercy to argue for the full and unqualified inclusion of all LGBTQ people into the life and ministry of the Christian Church.
In this book Chris and Richard Hays deliberately do not engage in a discussion about how to interpret the biblical texts concerning same-sex relationships or human sexuality in general. Instead, they appeal to what they call the ‘deeper
logic’ and ‘narrative pattern’ in the Biblical material:
… in which God's grace and mercy regularly overflow the prohibitions and restrictions that exclude and condemn fixed classes of human beings – even when those prohibitions were explicitly attributed to God in earlier biblical texts. We believe that our contemporary debates about sexuality should be shaped by that deeper logic. It may be difficult to get our minds around this idea, but if we take the biblical narrative seriously, we can't avoid the conclusion that God regularly changes his mind, even when it means overriding previous
judgments.
Their argument goes that in the Bible God changes his mind and this change of mind includes overriding the laws which he has previously given, laws which he admits on occasion ‘were not good’ (Ezekiel 20:25). What is constant in the Bible by contrast is the ever-widening mercy of God in including those who were formerly excluded as full members of his people. Today, guided by the continuing guidance of the Spirit (John 16:12–13) we have been led to see that this must mean the full acceptance of LGBTQ people and their relationships by the Christian Church.
There are numerous problems with this argument. They fail to show that God does ever change his mind. They fail to show that God rescinds previous laws and misinterpret what God says in Ezekiel 20:25. They fail to note that throughout the Bible those who are invited to become part of God’s people are expected to live by his laws and that the New Testament makes clear that this means rejecting porneia (all forms of sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage). Finally, they wrongly argue that the guidance of the Spirit in John 16:12–13 is given to Christians in general rather than the apostles in particular and has the authority to override existing biblical teaching.
In spite of the way it has been hyped by those who are enthusiastic about Richard Hays’ change of mind, this is a really poorly argued book that does not present any challenge to the traditional Christian view of what the Bible says about
the issue of human sexual conduct.
To read the full review by Martin Davie click here.
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