ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 9, 2026
When I was 11 years old, the song, “Hot Child in the City,” hit the charts. I had heard it on the radio, but I wanted my own copy. So I rode my bike to a music store and purchased the 45 to play on the record player. After listening to it a few dozen times, I was a bit confused. The singer, whose voice sure sounded like a woman, sang,
When she comes downtown the boys all stop and stare
When she comes downtown she walks like she just don’t care
The “hot child in the city” was a woman, and yet as an 11 year old, I was confused because the singer, who I thought was a woman, said,
Come on down to my place baby, we’ll talk about love
Come on down to my place baby, we’ll make love
Hot child in the city
So I said to one of my sisters, why is a woman singing romantically, even sexually (I doubt that was exactly the way I said it as an 11-year-old) about another woman? That’s when my sister explained to me that the singer was, in fact, a man. I guess I really wasn’t paying attention to the name on the 45, “Nick Gilder.” But then my sister said to me, “But even if it was a woman, why would it matter?”
I knew about homosexuality, but sadly, it was probably more in a derogatory or stereotypical slang. That was the first time, at least as far as I can remember, when someone normalized it with a very casual, “Why does it matter?”
Christianity, and specifically the certain interpretations of the Bible, have a painfully complicated, even sinfully violent relationship with those who are in the LGBTQ+ community. In the 2022 documentary, “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture,” the creators of the documentary did a deep dive on the RSV translation that came out in 1946. It was the first time that certain Greek words were translated in English as homosexual. Other translations jumped on the bandwagon, even though the RSV later removed the word homosexual, believing it to be a poor translation. Sadly, that “mistake” has become the lens through which many read and interpret other parts of scripture.
Now I know that in the days of Jesus, or even ancient Israel, sexuality, gender expectations, mores, etc., were understood very differently than we would today. For instance, if a married man hired a prostitute, it was not considered adultery, assuming the prostitute was not betrothed to another man. Women were, sadly, understood as property. At the same time, to imply that the Bible says anything about sexual orientation, specifically same-sex attraction, is to impose a modern idea (“sexual orientation”) on an ancient world that simply did not think in those terms. In the same way that the ancient Israelites, even the Apostle Paul, did not condemn slavery. They had a sort of strange relationship with it, but they also could not imagine a world without slavery. Today, we pray that we are moving closer and closer to a world where no human being is enslaved; even most people of faith suggesting that idea has forever been God’s hope… even though the Biblical texts don’t really support that.
I want to encourage as many people from Cypress Creek Christian Church to attend a workshop at First Christian Church in Katy on Saturday, June 6. Dr. Warren Carter (New Testament scholar) and Dr. Lisa Davidson (Old Testament scholar) will be leading a conversation on what are often referred to as the “clobber passages” in the Bible, specifically passages used to judge or condemn those in the LGBTQ+ community. I meet so many people who will say, “I do not believe being gay is a sin, but I don’t know how to defend my convictions from a Biblical standpoint.” I’m not going to suggest this one workshop will answer every question, but I believe it will provide tools for how to think about the Bible outside of a narrow and literal interpretation, along with a better understanding of historical context and the unique lenses that we bring to scripture.
Holy and Magnificent God, your love and mercy inspired so many stories, poems, and prophetic proclamations. Help us as we seek to take scripture seriously, while also being open to the movement of your Spirit, guiding us in how to be faithful in this moment of history. May we never lose sight of Jesus and his life of love. Amen.
