The Rev. Mark Coppenger, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, North, says loving gay and lesbian persons means advising them to ask God's help in overcoming their urge to engage in homosexual sex. The most loving thing is the truth. But a different interpretation of love and truth, one that embraces gay and lesbian persons as created by God with gifts to offer, is popular at some congregations. We moved through the race issue. We're moving through the women's issue.
Love always wins.
For centuries, Christianity has condemned homosexuality, based on the Bible. Most mainline Christian denominations hold that even if a person has an attraction to persons of the same sex, it is sinful to act sexually on that attraction. That traditional viewpoint is being challenged. She's one of a few mainline pastors in the area who has performed same-sex commitment ceremonies. They have been condemned, judged, ostracized by the church.