For decades, conservative Christians opposed to homosexuality cited the Bible scholarship of Richard B. Hays, the dean of Duke Divinity School, who provided a full-on argument from Scripture against gay relationships. “Homosexuality is one among many tragic signs that we are a broken people, alienated from God’s loving purpose,” Mr.
Hays asserted in his book “The Moral Vision of the New Testament” (1996), which was read by a generation of seminary students. Then, last year, Mr. Hays released a thunderclap into the evangelical world by recanting his earlier views and asserting that a deeper reading of the Bible revealed that same-sex relationships are not sinful after all.
Just as surprising as his about-face was his explanation for why: Mr. Hays changed his mind about same-sex relationships, he said, because God changed his mind. The New Testament “fully includes” L.G.B.T.Q.
people, he wrote in what would be his last book, written as he knew that he was dying. Because same-sex marriage is blessed by God, he argued, the church should bless it as well. Mr.
Hays, an ordained Methodist minister who was one of the world’s leading New Testament theologians, died on Jan. 3 at his home in Nashville. He was 76.
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