New York Pastor Tim Keller Responds To Questions About His Gay Marriage Comments

New York Pastor Tim Keller Responds To Questions About His Gay Marriage Comments

Tim Keller's comments on gay marriage, which I wrote about earlier this week, appear to have caused something of a stir inside the evangelical Protestant community, so much so that Keller was forced to clarify his position on the issue in a short blog post Friday.

Here's Keller:

A recent article on the Huffington Post reported on a discussion among journalists about how younger evangelicals view the issue of same-sex marriage. I was present, and I said that I have noted many younger evangelicals are taking an Anabaptist-like position; that is, that while they still believe homosexuality to be a sin, they don't think the government should put that belief into law for the nation.

In explaining the Anabaptist tradition, I was quoted saying, "You can believe homosexuality is a sin and still believe that same-sex marriage should be legal." I did say that—but it was purely a statement of fact. It is possible to hold that position, though it isn't my position, nor was I promoting or endorsing the position. I was simply reporting on the growth of that view.

I can see how some readers might be confused at these points in the article and think that I support the legalization of same-sex marriage. I do not. I hope that clarifies things for those of you who asked about this article.

Here is the full context of what Keller said during the Faith Angle forum last week in Miami:

"This is a good spot to point out something, which is that you can believe homosexuality is a sin and still believe that same-sex marriage should be legal. Those are not the same issues. They overlap. And I do think it would be fair to say, like people more in the Anabaptist tradition, like Duke University and Stan Hauerwas and those folks who would be saying, if you try to make the world like the church you end up making the church like the world ... We don't make it illegal -- as Christians we don't think you should bow down and worship little statues, but we wouldn't want a law out there in America saying it's illegal to worship statues. So that view is to say, look, for Christians, we believe this but for same sex marriage it shouldn't be a problem because it's not our position to try to legislate Christian morality ... I do agree that even if you think the Bible teaches homosexuality is wrong, you have to have a somewhat separate set of arguments to then go and say it should be public policy too, and I do know that Christians who are very evangelical in every way do differ on that."

The audio of the entire session posted online this morning and can be heard here.

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