 Gagnon: 'Lie,' 'duplicity' and 'deception' underlie new book by Jack Rogers promoting homosexuality By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Gagnon, a professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, delivered his critique of Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church to more than 100 people packed into a meeting room at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex for the OneByOne luncheon. He began by talking about a "full-court press" by the Presbyterian Publishing House to market the book by Rogers, saying that "it was no accident." The books being published by Westminster-John Knox Press, Gagnon said, are "by persons who are not Biblical scholars and have not addressed any of the arguments. Westminster is more interested in ideological concerns." The main theme Rogers puts forth in the book is that "neither the Bible nor the confessions, properly understood, is opposed to homosexuality as such." He also writes that, "Most Christians have been told at one time or another that the Bible condemns all homosexual relationships. That view is simply incorrect" "Jack Rogers," Gagnon said, "has given me some of the funniest lines regarding my own work -- a fine line between tragedy and comedy. When he reviews the evidence, not once does he make reference to any of the texts. He mentions me not at all" and, though his book's title "begins with the word 'Jesus,' he barely makes any mention of Jesus in the book." Moving on to a discussion of Rogers' changed mind on homosexual practice, Gagnon referred to Paul's list of vices described in 1 Corinthians 6:9 ("Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.") and 1 Timothy 9-10 ("Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murders of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine."). In an article called "Bad Reasons for Changing One's Mind" that he had written about Rogers, Gagnon said that Rogers had written that a visit to Corinth was "'a significant occasion' and that 'now I know what Paul was talking about' because, when he looked up at the ruins of the temple to Aphrodite on the hill, he came to the conclusion that Paul's remarks about homosexual practice were restricted to idolatrous people engaged in prostitution." "There is just a little problem with that," Gagnon said, because there "was no such practice in Paul's day. This is not a debated point in scholarship." Apparently, he said, "Rogers got this view from a tour guide in Corinth. This is a bad reason for changing one's mind." Gagnon repeatedly criticized Rogers for "absolutely no original analysis," being "completely derivative" and for "selectively" using texts to bolster his support for homosexual practice. "When you don't tell people what the arguments are," he said, "you pretty much can say what you want." He then cited two quotes from Rogers in which he claims that Gagnon provided no supporting evidence in his work for the view that the Bible opposes all homosexual practice: "Gagnon does not demonstrate that the immoral sexual relations Paul condemns are related to the love of contemporary faithful gay and lesbian Christians. He simply asserts it. Gagnon "simply asserts, with no supporting evidence, that sexual relations between contemporary Christian people who are homosexual are sinful as such." "This," Gagnon said, "is the biggest lie since my book has come out. I use that word, 'lie,' because he knows about my work and has cited parts of the book (The Bible and Homosexual Practice) and he cites parts of the Two Views book (Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views). He said that, in "Bad Reasons for Changing One's Mind," he "provided 15 reasons for why Paul was not restricting his argument. I thought 15 was adequate. Rogers, Gagnon said, has ignored all of this documentation and "has not responded to the 15 arguments." "He says, 'I simply assert this,' and conveniently ignores the evidence. He doesn't even acknowledge their existence to readers. He infers that I didn't address the arguments. What do we call that? That is duplicity, that is deception. Arguments about slavery, divorce, remarriage -- I deal extensively with that, but Jack doesn't deal with it all. He tries to leave readers with the impression that I say nothing about them. That is not befitting a Christian, let alone a former moderator. Deal with the arguments, but don't deceive people into thinking the arguments don't exist, because they do." |
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