Position · 1970

Affirming Theology

The view that faithful, lifelong same-sex relationships can be holy, and that churches should bless or marry same-sex couples and ordain gay and lesbian people on the same terms as others.

Affirming Christians argue that the few biblical texts on same-sex acts addressed exploitative or idolatrous practices, not committed partnerships, and that the wider biblical themes of love, faithfulness and welcome should shape the answer. The view grew in Western Protestant churches from about the 1970s and is now the official position of several mainline denominations.

Within the Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist families provinces and denominations are divided, which led to the United Methodist Split and to strains after the Lambeth Conference 1998. Traditional critics answer that Scripture’s teaching on marriage rests on creation as male and female, not only on particular prohibitions.