I could ask why not?
However, if you are thinking I shouldn’t be going then I know the reasons you could be thinking of giving. Many of them were opinions I once held, albeit, I hope, lightly. However I’ve studied, I’ve thought, I’ve prayed, I’ve read, then read, studied and prayed some more.
Then I’ve ignored it saying that it doesn’t affect me so I don’t need to make up my mind.
Then it kept nagging at me, so I read, studied, prayed even more. Then I came to conclusions.
We have, so far, always gone to Pride to represent Scouting. Scouting as an organisation has benefitted our family massively and I believe is an organisation that provides opportunities to young people to do things that they can’t do in the run of the mill way. It gives them fun, independence, adventure, outdoors, challenges, friendships, structure, fire, mountains, and of course it is open to everyone. It doesn’t matter your race, creed, (or none), gender, or sexuality. Scouting is open to all. We go to Pride with scouts to make this clear, to have a good time, and not only to say that anyone can join or volunteer but so that the young people and current volunteers also know that they are accepted and don’t need to keep gender or sexuality a secret.
But what about being a Christian? Can I say that all this is OK with Jesus, Scouts are not Jesus after all?
I think so. He was there after all and seemed more than happy!
More seriously, there are only about 7 verses through the old and new testaments that are traditionally seen as condemning homosexuality and the meaning and context of the act described is not a simple loving relationship. It varies depending on the verse but some are a form of religious prostitution, some are older men acting in power over younger….etc. They all describe some form of act that is far from a loving relationship. The condemnations of the ‘clobber verses’ are mainly directed at those who use power in a sexual act, either by force, prostitution or persuasion.
The sin of sodom was not homosexuality. Isaiah is comparing Judah to Sodom in Is1:16/7 when he tells them the way to seek God is to “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” This implies that the lessons they need to learn are not about sexuality, but about a much more basic morality, that of helping those who need it, of love, justice, serving the weak and the poor. Ezekiel bears this out when in Ez16:49 he says “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me.” Forgetting the poor and those in need, being proud of and haughty, seeing yourself as better than others, these are the sins of Sodom, and the sins we need to guard against.
So, am I just changing my interpretation of scripture to fit my culture?
Well, no, I don’t think so. I’m being open to what appears to be a sensible interpretation according to many sound academic studies of the Hebrew and Greek words used.
However, even if you think I am, there are things the OT takes extremely seriously that we have totally changed or ignored because of culture. Take the Sabbath, one of the 10 commandments. It is a creation ordinance (rooted in the creation story, rest because God rested), it results in the death sentence for breaking, with several examples of that happening and is important enough that law teachers went to pains to define what constituted work and what didn’t in order to be able to be able to guide the people. Then Jesus came along and broke the Sabbath, not just to heal but because his disciples fancied a snack, and he said that man was more important. Then Paul argues the Sabbath isn’t important and that if we want to keep that law, we should keep every single law. Then the church changed the Sabbath from Sat to Sun. All this shows even in Bible times, how the church and culture have changed even the most important of laws, one with the death penalty attached.
But can we change the definition of marriage? It is Biblical, a man shall leave his parents, take a wife and they will become one.
Well, that is part of the Biblical definition of marriage. Yes, a man shall leave his parents, take a wife and they’ll become one. But he will also become one with his dead brothers wife, under the law. He might also become one with a wife or two taken in war, as God commanded, or he might also become one with her sister who he wanted all along and both their servants for good measure. A biblical definition of marriage can also include a daughter sold into a form of sexual slavery (there are OT rules defining what should happen if the man isn’t satisfied). It can also include someone like Esther entering a harem, or a woman having to marry her rapist. Add to that how marriage has already changed, ages have changed (although mainly for the rich, poor didn’t tend towards childhood marriage), and the need or not of different religious or legal ceremonies has changed. A single man and wife marriage is not the only Biblical, blessed by God, pattern.
That is all one side of it, then there is the fact that people are born with their sexuality, homosexual, bi etc, and that it is a continuum, not just one or the other. Again, there is more and more research to say that this is really the case. God does not make mistakes, and he made people who are not straight. Not only that, but God looked at what he made and said it was good. If we deny what God has made, declare it evil or an abomination…well, actually, I’d much rather not.
Reading the stories of many Christians who are not heterosexual also made me think a lot. These are people who 
have heard the traditional teaching, who have prayed earnestly for God to change them, who have done everything their churches said, and more, people seeking to follow Jesus and be everything God wants. Only for 99.9% of them, (ok, figure a guess, the vast, vast, vast majority), there has been no change. Many, rejected in one way or another by their church and often also by their families have walked away from faith. That is heartbreaking when all they are doing is being true to how God has made them. They may have been forced away from God, but I don’t believe God has done or wants that.
How can the church be known for driving people away, be identified by what it is against rather than who it is for?
I first moved to a standpoint of being convinced that there was a good argument on both sides, but the more I read and prayed and tried to see how Jesus would treat people, the more convinced I was. I think as a church we need to look at how best to show love, how best to honour what God has created, how best to move past what the Bible considered a minor matter and get on with the important stuff, helping the poor and needy, sharing the good news, making disciples, loving people, and through all that, worshipping.
Big Jesus was on the Pride Parade with Liberty Church Blackpool. It was great to see a whole church excited to take Jesus to Pride, and also with a stall in the info marquee. Their website blog and link is here and seems to have some great testimonies on it – but I know no more about them than is on their main website.