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Heart and Soul: God and Gays - Bridging the Gulf

God and Gays - Bridging the Gulf

19/05/2012 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, God and Gays - Bridging the Gulf

Is there a third way to resolve the debate over how the church should treat homosexuals?

Christopher Landau asks if there is a third way to resolve the divisive debate over how the church should treat homosexuals.

The question as to what place they should give to gay men and women has opened up deep divisions in many Christian churches. 

Should a man in a stable, long-term relationship with another man be allowed to be a priest - or a bishop? 

Should the churches bless gay couples? 

On the other hand, have Western liberals watered down Biblical teachings on homosexuality to an unacceptable extent?

Christopher Landau travels to Chicago to meet one man who's been trying to bridge the gulf between two seemingly-irreconcilable positions.

Andrew Marin is an evangelical Christian who has made it his life's work to explore what it means to be Christ-like towards a community often alienated by Christ's followers. 

Christopher goes out with him into Boystown, Chicago's 'gay village', to hear about the realities of Andrew's ministry.

But he also visits the Resurrection Anglican Church in West Chicago, which has left the Anglican Communion over the homosexuality issue.
	
And we hear from some of the best minds at Harvard University on whether there can be a "third way" approach to one of the most difficult and divisive issues in contemporary Christianity.

(Image: Gay men holding hands. Credit: Getty)

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