Will Gay-Friendly Churches Pander to their Clientele?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 5:00 pm by Tony Jones

Will Gay-Friendly Churches Pander to their Clientele? 2015-03-13T17:00:50-05:00 Tony Jones

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Keith Keith DeRose, Yale University

Keith DeRose is a philosophy professor at Yale, and a friend of, reader of, and occasional guest-poster on this blog.

He wrote me in response to my post, “How Fast Is Public Opinion on Same Sex Marriage Changing?“, and here are his thoughts, which are worthy of your consideration and comment.

The second chart (the PEW numbers that Sullivan cites) doesn’t seem quite as positive as the first. Still, yes, the direction and other basics of the trend are undeniable–plus, it’s a very long-standing trend (which has seemed to accelerate in recent years), and a broad one: on just about all controversial matters involving the gays, not just gay marriage, America has been slowly but surely get more gay-friendly for a long time.

“My question, as usual, is how will the church respond?”

Excellent. But also: Individuals do well to think through how they might respond to how the church responds. Here, one doesn’t have to play the prophet, foreseeing with any confidence and at any level of detail what the various church groups will actually do. All we need to see is that these trends point to various reactions that the church *might* well have, so we can think about how to respond, in case those reactions do materialize.
I often find it handy to imagine that within various church groups, there are “marketing experts” who are watching trends among actual and potential church-goers, trying to figure out how to capitalize on those trends and attract a lot of “customers.” Maybe at some places there are things resembling that fantasy to a disturbing degree that are actually going on. But even if not, I think the model helps to point to things that might well happen. Within churches, there are all sorts of ideas about how to do things. Those whose ideas “work” (bring in “customers”–esp. paying ones!) tend to survive & proliferate in the church biz; those whose ideas don’t “work” tend to lose influence. (For my part, I often prefer worshiping with the losers.) The result can be various parts of the church acting as if they were guided by a marketing plan, even if nobody is intentionally doing that.

So, one can expect (at least to the point that it’s worth thinking through how to respond *if* this happens) that various churches will in various ways become more gay-friendly. (One can also expect some reactions against this.) Of course, there have for a long time been gay-friendly options within the smorgasbord of American Christianity. But, especially within certain regions of the country, such options have been quite limited. Those living in certain regions and with certain other preferences for how they like church to operate, but who would also like the church to be gay-friendly in various ways, may have not found any good options. And soon that might be changing–or, at some places, that’s happening already.

Younger Christians (since attitudes here tend to be correlated with age) who have been going without church may soon be finding attractive (from their point of view) options; those presenting such options will find “success”; and cycles (whether vicious or virtuous is for everyone to judge for themselves!) will get going. Listen, to lay my cards on the table (though I’m pretty sure you know this about me already), I’m a very gay-friendly Christian myself, and I very much want the Christian church to become much more gay-friendly in various ways. But even I worry about the kinds of church situations that might be generated by such a process.

I worry about what churches will be like that are driven too much by a single issue (other than the single overarching matter of how to love & serve Christ)–even when that single issue is a cause as worthy as inclusiveness in sexual orientation. So, without presenting any individual policy suggestions, what I think it’s a good idea to to is to urge folks–esp. those who are “progressives” on this issue–to give a little thought to some of the situations they might be facing in the coming years, and to think through how they might best respond. The hope is that such forethought might at the relevant time result in their behaving a bit less like “customers” of churches.

Well, actually I do have one particular suggestion for my fellow progressives. Various segments of the Christian church in America have been pointing to enrollment numbers to make the case that they’re where it’s at, while other denominations, etc. are described as “dead” at least in large part on the basis of their declining numbers. Not too many years down the line, we may be at a place where we can see certain changes (perhaps even reversals) in where numerical “growth” is taking place. Now, my suggestion: If (and this is all hypothetical!) someone finds herself somehow in a numerically growing segment of the church, tempting as it might be, she should strive to not reverse the argument and aim it at the new “losers”.

If LGBT Christians and their allies are able to find fellowship and real personal growth in your church, then by all means celebrate that. But we should all resist any temptation to cite numbers as evidence of where the favor of God–who is, after all, the God of the losers–rests.

christianity in america

glbt

keith derose

yale university

Previous Post

October 25, 2010

Meet-Up in Boston this Thursday

Next Post

October 26, 2010 Special Two-Day Sale at SimplyYouthMinistry.com

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category bible blogging books christianity in america church church history dissertation divorce Dog Training education emergent church essay family funny glbt jopa productions ministry minnesota movies music parenting philosophy politics Prayer publishing Questions That Haunt random same sex marriage speaking spirituality Teaching technology television theology Travels Uncategorized writing youth ministry

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 June 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004 February 2004 January 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet's book names the birthplace of the Messiah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Obadiah Amos Micah Jonah