SOUTH CAROLINA
Presbyterian theologian stumps
Carolinas for justice
the
Self-identified evangelical says
Jesus and the Bible don’t condemn
gays and lesbians
by David Gillespie . Q-Notes staff
Jack B. Rogers is Professor of Theology
Emeritus at San Francisco Theological
Seminary. From 1990 to 1999, he served as
vice-president of that institu
tion. In this positions, Rogers
had tremendous influence on
the thinking of numerous
Presbyterian ministers through
out the United States. Rogers
was also Professor of
Philosophical Theology at Fuller
Theological Seminary from 1971
to 1988 and, prior to that.
Professor of Philosophy at
Westminster College in
Pennsylvania from 1963 until
1971.
He also served as moderator
of the 213th General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
for 2001 -02, an office that, while
only a year in duration, wields
significant influence over the life
of the denomination.
Recently, Rogers, a self-identified evangeli
Dr. Jack B. Rogers has multi
ple speaking engagements
across the Carolinas in
September and October.
cal, detonated a bomb within the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) and larger evangelical
Christian circles with the publication of his
book, “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality:
Explode the Myths, Heal the Church.”
Rogers’book is much more than a rehash of
old arguments that have come down from
scholars like the late John Boswell and the more
popular, recent work of Daniel Helminiak in his
“What the Bible Really
Teaches About
Homosexuality?’The real
importance of this book is
found in the fact that
Rogers is a self-identified
evangelical Christian who
has arrived at a pro-gay
position after much biblical
and theological reflection.
Disavowing any per
sonal motive for adopting
this position, Rogers
derives his conclusion
from history as much as
from theology. In a chapter
aptly titled “A Pattern of
Misusing the Bible to
Justify Oppression,” he
examines how the church
in the United States has handled two issues in
the past — slavery and women — and finds a
close parallel in its treatment of gay men and
women.
In sketching how Christendom in general,
and the Presbyterian Church in particular,
misused the Bible to justify its oppressive atti
tudes toward women and blacks in the second
half of the 19th century and well into the 20th,
Rogers assigns much of the blame to a wrong
headed theology based on Scottish Common
Sense philosophy. He also blames, among oth
ers, Saint Augustine, who provided an argu
ment for slavery in “The City of God.”
Rogers offers fascinating insight into the
thinking of two leading U.S. theologians of the
late 1800s, James H. Thornwell and Robert L.
Dabney, on the theology of slavery and race. He
turns to Princeton Seminary Professor Charles
Hodge for an analysis of how the American
church justified its oppression pf women.
How could such learned men get it so
wrong? To answer this question, he points to
their dependence on Common Sense doc
trines as developed and expounded by
Thomas Reid in the late 1700s. Coupled with
the hard Calvinism of Francis Turretin, it was
virtually unavoidable that the American ver
sion of Presbyterianism — and other
Protestant traditions — would adopt a hard
line position on both slavery and women, a
see evangelical on 15
MVraiBi-IHOWIT
WB5aRffw vinyl
$1
Wi buy um4 CP'i, DVP'i, JUbumi,
Cettttini jMMiry, RnIi A Roll, Solonoo Fietlon
A Mevio Momonbllli. You oon Iridi or toll.
Wo offor Hio boot oriooi on4 kovo lono of
fbo boot oolootloM of Muilo, Movioi, Jowolry,
PIfti, Toboooo PrMliMti, Colloefibloi,
Inoonio, Album!, 4S'i om o lot of (root,
funky tblnoi you won't fln4 onywhoro oliol
BRItnOlYOUROLPmPVP
Wi WILL PAY TOP POLUR FOR IT.
•KttSK*
coming soon
■ -■
I7r
* ■ ■■ ■'
SEPTEMBER 9.2006 • Q-NOTES I I