What makes the LGBTQ issue interesting and more significant is that it is also a matter of fundamental identity. That makes the political debates surrounding the issue of profound importance, as anyone knows who has observed how the matter has played out in the public square in general and higher education in particular.

Over at his blog at Patheos, Professor Chris Gehrz has responded to my most recent post at First Things.   Rod Dreher has provided a good reply but I offer here just a couple of brief comments.

First, Professor Gehrz seems on the whole to think that I see the problem with the LGBTQ movement as one of sexual morality.  I certainly do see it as a matter of morality, but then I see the problem of heterosexual cohabitation as one of sexual morality too.  But morality is not what makes this issue so contentious. What makes the LGBTQ issue interesting and more significant is that it is also a matter of fundamental identity. That makes the political debates surrounding the issue of profound importance, as anyone knows who has observed how the matter has played out in the public square in general and higher education in particular.

Second, and flowing from the first, Professor Gehrz states that he does ‘I don’t believe that marriage, sexuality, or gender identity is anywhere near “the heart of the Gospel.”’  This statement would seem to indicate that he does not see the LGBTQ issue as one of identity (unless he wants to argue that identity — who we are and who we think we are at our most fundamental level– is nowhere near the heart of the gospel).  But even if it were just about sex, then sexual morality seems to be something about which both Jesus and Paul have many things to say. It is not for us to mark off as irrelevant to the gospel areas about which Jesus and Paul spoke.

Read More