religion of story

Jonathan Merritt...wrote, "According to Public Religion Research, 37% of evangelicals ages 18-34 have a close friend or relative who is gay. Only 16% of evangelicals 35 and older can say the same"...The difference goes far in explaining why younger Evangelicals are changing their opinion on sexuality. Knowing a gay person is like observing the retrograde motion of the planets
Brian Mclaren, A New Kind of Christianity, p 281

First, he ignores rather completely the other aspects of society that influence the young--pressure, for example, especially the one called 'political correctness', where things have become such that it is simply verboten to question homosexual behavior. One can also recall how homosexuals and the left reacted to the Mormons in California, in regards to the defeat of the gay marriage amendment, to see that this pressure can border if not outright go into violence against those who dare to disagree.

But mostly, I want to point out that this is simply the emergent practice, the postmodern practice. Objective truth is trivialized, even discarded, and 'story' is brought in to take its place. If you're one they consider 'oppressed', be it for race or religion or sexual choices, then your story is credible (even if not factual or true). Story is the new truth.

Strangely, in my years, I've known many people who have done many things.

For example, one of my best friends in college lived with his then-girlfriend for a while. Funny, but I don't consider premarital sex ok, even with having known people who have engaged in it. I knew other people who may have participated in recreational drug use, probably marijuana, and I can't say that I approved then or approve now. I knew some who would drink too much, and I can say I ever considered drunkenness a good thing. I've known people who have done hard drugs, usually in their past, and it has done nothing to make me think that doing those kinds of drugs is good.

I've known people who cheated on spouses, and can't say that I consider marital unfaithfulness a good thing. I've known people who have had children before they were married, and was never tempted to consider that maybe abstinence was a faulty ideal.

Heck, I've even known some gay people, and they've been nice enough people. But that doesn't mean their sexual practices are good. Being nice doesn't mean all you do is ok.

HIs argument that simply knowing gay people will make one approve of their sexual practices is simply specious, and tying it into a faulty theory of the solar system is ridiculous.