Paper: Outline

The topic that I will write about is on homosexuality and how this subculture is ignored marginalized, or ostracized by the Church as a whole. I will discuss the gay, lesbian, and transgender community and how the church community has viewed the gay community historically, discussing questions of inclusion and exclusion. A few diverse church communities that are including the gay community will be mentioned. I think I'll use the “Countercultural Model” as presented by Bevans as it seems to be the best model to bridge the message of JC between the Church and the gay community. I will outline how the Bible needs to be looked at in context, the Church should cross all cultures not condemning a culture of a certain sexual orientation<, further stressing the insufficiency of all humanity, Jesus' message is for all people, the Church should be accepting of all sexual orientations and promote community awareness and integration, and the Church should promote diversity in the leadership including age diversity, encouraging participation in cross cultural events.