Conservative Christians just lost their scholarly trump card on same-sex relationships
Theologian Richard Hays' reversal comes at a bad time for those who oppose accepting LGBTQ Christians.
Nearly 30 years ago, a revered New Testament professor at Duke Divinity School named Richard B. Hays published “The Moral Vision of the New Testament,” a sweeping 508-page meditation of Christian ethics in which Hays concluded that the Christian Bible condemns homosexual acts. Hays called homosexuality “one among many tragic signs that we are a broken people” and said that churches should not sanction or bless homosexual unions.
The book made Hays a darling among conservative evangelical Christians who opposed LGBTQ acceptance in their churches and the broader culture and frequently cited Hays’ work in debates.
But the 75-year-old Hayes, since retired, now admits that his moral vision wasn’t exactly 20/20 when it came to this issue in 1996, and he’s ready to set the record straight. In a book scheduled to be released in September, “The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story,” written with his son, Christopher B. Hays, the elder Hays makes an about-face that is already causing an uproar in evangelical circles.