SEXUALITY and Christian Witness to the Queer Community
We confess that Christian witness has often directly or indirectly harmed the queer community, a community of various sexual minorities connected by a shared history of marginalization, by:
…dismissing the verbal and physical abuse experienced by queer persons, instead of empathizing with the queer community’s unique experience of societal alienation.
…lacking curiosity and being quick to stereotype members of the queer community, instead of considering each one’s identity as a child of the King.
…neglecting the pleas of the queer community for connection, dignity, love, visibility and safety, instead of listening openly with Christ-like love and concern.
As Christians, our animating aim and hope is to follow Jesus, who Scripture describes as one full of grace and truth. We acknowledge that Jesus’ embodiment of this grace-truth compound confounded his contemporaries, especially those who considered themselves to be the most morally upright. We confess that Christians have often mirrored the behavior of self-righteous Pharisees more than we have the way and grace of Jesus.
We confess that our posture towards the queer community can often be more appropriately described as dehumanizing and apathetic instead of marked by grace. For this, we must, and do, repent.
At City Chapel, we aim to, to the best we are able, provide a safe space for members of the queer community to explore faith in Jesus.
2. SEXUALITY and Our Theological Commitments
We recognize that there is sincere, and often contentious, debate and disagreement among Christians regarding what constitutes biblical marriage. We believe that a lack of clarity on a church’s position does not serve the queer community well.
City Chapel holds with humble conviction that marriage, and therefore sex, was given by God and designed for whole life covenant union between a man and a woman.
We believe this historic vision of Christian sexual formation calls all people–not only those in the queer community–to a vision of holiness that requires Spirit-dependence. This historic vision calls all to abstain from 1) sexual intimacy outside of marriage and 2) distortions of sexual intimacy found in pornography.
Yet, we acknowledge that faithfulness to the historic vision of Christian sexuality comes at an additional cost to those in the queer community. For this reason, our particular aim at City Chapel is to support those in the queer community who feel called by God to pursue vocational celibacy, a position often described as Side B.
By God’s grace and help, we hope to be a safe space–non-coercive and hospitable–for all within the queer community to explore and know Jesus. We stand against Conversion Therapy or any attempt to change one’s sexual orientation. In addition, we will not pressure those who do not hold a Side B position towards a conclusion that they cannot hold with integrity.
By God’s grace and help, and in accordance with our theological commitments we particularly hope to cultivate households–communities of interdependence, living as a Jesus-counter culture–for Side B Christians that 1) provides respite from pain of alienation and 2) nurtures conviction for the high call of vocational celibacy.
By God’s grace and help, we hope to challenge a Christian witness that has often “tokenized” those within the queer community, and has not seen each one as fearfully and wonderfully made. We pray that many in the queer community, through the witness of our church and many other churches, would know and experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.