We aren’t there yet, but the presence of people who are able in good conscience, and without fear to stand up, to bear witness to their lives in Christ, and to say that they do so as gay or lesbian people themselves, is the vital sign of what is to come next.
How do we, who know that God’s glory showed itself among us by being lifted up in shame, find the grace to live with our shame uncovered such that we are not inclined to shame others?
Humility will make of gratefully perceived sameness the source of endlessly peaceful diversity. Because our bodies are genuinely different – by place and date of birth and many other specificities, but our pattern of desire is the same.
Tony Bartlett’s long-awaited new book is a major advance in understanding the almost unimaginable blast from elsewhere which we far too hygienically describe as “Divine Revelation”; and how it can be traced through the books we far too complacently bundle as “Holy Scripture”.