Same-Sex Marriage and the Bible: A video series featuring Mark Achtemeier
The Covenant Network is pleased to offer a four-part video series featuring the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeier, author of The Bible’s Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical’s Change of Heart, discussing how his journey with the Scriptures led him away from his initial opposition to marriage for committed lesbian and gay couples, and toward wholehearted support for marriage equality.
Study Guide for The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage
As your congregation and presbytery begin to plan for the discussion of Amendment 14-F, Marriage - On Amending W-4.9000, Westminster John Knox Press has provided a study guide to accompany the new book by the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeier, The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical's Change of Heart.
“You will know them by their fruits.”
Address to the Covenant Network by Dr. Mark Achtemeier, 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA): "There have been previous General Assemblies where I worked very hard to pass the constitutional ban on gay people serving in the ordained ministries of the PC(USA). I am co-author of the declaration of faith that the Presbyterian Coalition adopted to unite its members in their opposition to gay inclusion. I keynoted the National Celebration of Confessing Churches, which rallied conservative congregations to stand fast in the struggle to keep the constitutional ban in place.And yet here we are today. I remain fully committed to a high view of biblical authority. But I stand before you as a chastened disciple who now recognizes that the witness of scripture comes down overwhelmingly on the side of gay inclusion."
The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage
The Covenant Network luncheon at the General Assembly on Monday, June 16 will feature Mark Achtemeier, whose new book -- The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical's Change of Heart -- is being published this month. Join us in Detroit! Call the Covenant Network office for tickets.
The Plan-B God for ecclesio.com
Covenant Network week, with its focus on same-sex marriage, continues at ecclesio.com with an excerpt of Mark Achtemeier's "The Plan-B God," an address delivered to the Twin Cities Area Regional Conference in October 2012.
The Redemption of Our Bodies
At the Kansas City Regional Conference, Dr. Mark Achtemeier continued his exploration of biblical insights into marriage: "...We have now come to the end of our experiment in reading the Scripture like the faithful scribe in Jesus’ teaching. We have taken what is old – the testimony about God’s purposes for love and marriage and sexuality that comes to us from the broad sweep of the Bible’s story. We have brought out this old, time-tested wisdom and combined it with what is new: the recently emerging opportunity for gay and lesbian people to openly makes vows and commitments to one another in the covenant of marriage.The result of this combination of old and new is not the abolition of biblical sexual morality or the abandonment of Scripture’s teaching. The result is the right and proper extension of the Bible’s time-honored teachings on love and sex and marriage into these new relationships where it manifestly belongs..."
The Plan-B God
Dr. Mark Achtemeier addressed the Twin Cities Regional Conference on same-gender marriage: "...The vocation of groups like the Covenant Network will be critically important in the months and years ahead. It is not within our power to turn back the rising tide of cultural and historical forces that are sweeping our church into a period of decline. But we are confident that the day will come when God will purge the poisonous legacy of exclusion and hatefulness from our culture’s image of Christianity. Until that time it falls to you and me to keep the lights of a gracious witness burning in the midst of the surrounding darkness.To carry out that task, to make that positive Christian witness, you and I must be absolutely clear that our affirmation and celebration of gay marriage is a consequence of the Bible’s testimony and not its contradiction..."
Twin Cities Will Host the Next Regional Conference
Instead of the national conference this year, a series of regional conferences will take place across the country.The first of the fall will be at Westminster Church in Minneapolis on Saturday, October 27; read on for details and online registration. Mark Achtemeier is the keynote speaker, and Dan Vigilante will preach.
Ordination Sermon for Scott Anderson
John Knox Presbytery ordained Scott Anderson to the ordered ministry of Teaching Elder on Saturday, October 8. Here's the sermon by the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeier.
Reclamation
From a Pentecost sermon by Mark Achtemeier: "In times such as these, we need the witness of the church to show our country that it is possible to reach our hands across these deep divides of race and ideology and religion, that a peaceful and united human community is possible, that even deep- seated differences can be overcome by the power of self-giving love."
And Grace Will Lead Me Home: Inclusion and Evangelical Conscience
As presbyteries continue to vote on Amendment 10-A, which would allow for freedom of conscience in the interpretation of what Scripture teaches about same-gender relationships, Mark Achtemeier is among those have testified to a change of mind.