Diane Rehm interviews Matthew and Monte Vines about their father-son relationship, and their conversations and work to understand the Biblical perspective on same-sex relationships.
Matthew, who has since written God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, came out to his parents, who were loving but not fully supportive. His father, Monte, was an elder at a Presbyterian church, who had always accepted a negative Biblical interpretation of same-sex relationships.
During the interview, Monte explains that he wanted to be able to speak to his son with the actual authority of knowledge, and not merely as his father. He joined Matthew in his Bible study, and after 6 months, came away from the experience with a profound change in perspective.
You can hear him discuss his revelation on the podcast, where he explores the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, looking more at the lust that the men had for the angels than the specific act they wanted to engage in.
After their discussion and study, Monte objected to the decision his Presbyterian church made to reject same-sex clergy, and left his church to find another that was more welcoming. Matthew left Harvard to answer a call to talk about LGBT issues in areas which weren’t as accepting as an ivy league school in Cambridge, MA, and has since written a book and founded The Reformation Project, which advocates changing church teachings on sexuality.
His book, God and the Gay Christian, is available for sale at Amazon and other retailers. He made the following video available as a sort of introduction to his argument, exploring the six passages in the Bible that have been historically used to argue against LGBT relationships.
Were you emotionally moved by the relationship the father and son demonstrate in the podcast? Would you share the video by Matthew or a clip of the podcast with fellow Christians who are looking to scripture in order to discern God’s will on this issue?