I wrote this.
Hi! My name is John Elliott Lein. This is my website, and my writing.
I wrote the original content for a family member, and it seems to be useful to others since I made it public. I hope you get something out of it. I'd love to hear your thoughts, either supportive or in critique.
If you don't know me in person, here's a quick overview:
- I'm a straight Christian man with a wonderful wife and four kids. We've been married 15 years this summer!
- I grew up in an great church community, a Bible Church in the Evangelical Free Church tradition, a wonderful group of caring, conservative, evangelical Christians.
- We recently returned from overseas missionary work in Germany. Our 2.5 years in the missions world was simultaneously wonderful and traumatic. The experiences led me through a crisis of faith into a whole new understanding of our beloved Scriptures and our Savior Jesus Christ. I am now in discernment for the priesthood with the Episcopal Church.
- Over the last 3 years I've been wrestling with how to integrate my faith and the Bible with relating to gay and other sexual minority people. This website is about that journey, and where I personally have found God to be at in this conversation.
- Our friends and family don't know how we believe we can continue to affirm the authority of the Bible and gay marriage at the same time. I wrote this for them.
I initially published anonymously because I was working with a couple of evangelical Christian organizations who are opposed to same-sex marriage. I didn't want to cause problems for them, or for my employment, until recently. I'm now working independently, so have decided to put my name on the work.
May the peace of Christ be always with you.
John Elliott Lein
May 27, 2015
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