Dr. Preston Sprinkle of the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender

[https://www.centerforfaith.com] has written on the truths concerning same sex marriage. His two-part article follows.

Part One:

Is the Debate about Same-Sex Marriage a Primary or Secondary Theological Issue?

Dr. Preston Sprinkle – July 28, 2017

I hear this question quite often, and my response—which is frustrating to some—is always the same. What do you mean by primary and secondary, and how do you determine what is primary and secondary? People often sort out their theological convictions in terms of primary and secondary, or essential and non-essential, or gospel issues and non-gospel issues. Unfortunately, few people have worked out a sound methodology for determining what is primary and what is not.

Before we determine what is primary and what is secondary, we need to figure out how we determine—we need to construct a sound methodology.

Some people appeal to the creeds (though they don’t always specify which ones and why) to tell us what is primary and what is secondary. But with same-sex marriage, this isn’t as helpful as people think. Some affirming Christians will show that the early creeds don’t have a statement on marriage and therefore a doctrine of marriage is a secondary issue. But non-affirming Christians point out that the creeds were written largely in response to challenges to orthodoxy. And even heretics weren’t advocating for same-sex marriage. There’s no statement in the creeds because sex difference in marriage was taken for granted by all. (Thus, it’s similar to why Jesus never mentioned same-sex relationships.) Affirming folks may respond: That’s because same-sex marriage wasn’t even a category Christians considered. Non-affirming people respond: exactly. And this is usually where the dialogue ends or gets completely off track.

Read the Article: https://www.centerforfaith.com/blog/is-the-debate-about-same-sex-marriage-a-primary-or-secondary-theological-issue