Thanks CK, I wanted to reply to message 1 for this topic, but I didn't want to disupt the resulting discussion. Perhaps I should have. Anyway...
quote:
Could mainstream christianity ever make peace with gay people?
My answer basically boils down to "
ever is a long time".
Yes, I think mainstream christianity will make peace with gay people eventually. To defend this, we only have to look at the track-record of mainstream christianity in regards to things like racial marriages or racial slavery.
I don't think it's going to be any time soon, but as society continues along it's movement of making peace with gay people, so too will mainstream christianity as it has with all other aspects of society it once opposed.
Mainstream christianity is too big of an organization for it to go away in the near future. But that same size does mean it's extremely susceptible to society's standards.
Society will one day make peace with gay people. Mainstream christianity will either conform, or lose it's mainstream status. I am betting that christianity will conform with this social issue as it has with past social issues (likely within the next 50 years). Of course, it will resist until the notion of losing it's mainstream status will be too large to ignore. One day, this will be christianity's downfall, and they will eventually fade out of being mainstream. But that day is much, much further away (likely hundreds, if not thousands, of years from now).