As our elders considered the issues of sexuality and discipleship, they sought to better understand various perspectives from Christian scholars. At the request of the Session, members of the Blacknall congregation recommended these key resources that our elders  read and discussed together.

Supporting Marriage Between a Man and a Woman

Marriage, Scripture, and the Church: Theological Discernment on the Question of Same-Sex Union by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek

The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics by Richard Hays

• Chapter: “Homosexuality”

A Conversation on Same-Sex Relationships with Wesley Hill and Karen Keen

Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality by Greg Johnson

• Chapters: “Part 1: A Paradigm of Care” and “Picking Up the Ball We Dropped Forty Years Ago”

Supporting Same-Sex Marriage

• Beeching, Vicki. Undivided, SanFran, 2019, pp. 165-82.

• Hill, Wesley and Karen Keen. A Conversation on Same-Sex Relationships. 5 Apr. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWPx7jJy094.

• Keen, Karen. “Key Arguments in Today’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships.” Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships, Eerdmans, 2018.

• Vines, Matthew. God and the Gay Christian. Convergent Books, 2015.

Church Governance Issues

• Butler, Joshua Ryan. Guidance for Churches on Membership, Baptism, Communion, Leadership and Service for Gay and Lesbian People. Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender.