I have been struck by the relative silence on the Internet and media in reaction to Steve's recent statement about reshaping the evangelical attitude to the LGBT community. The public reactions seem to a fallen into a number of camps:
1) There are those, including me, who have offered support to Steve and see his comments as both useful and brave.
2) There are those who have made a definitive stand against what he says; some of whom have questioned his evangelical status.
3) There are some who have expressed support for Steve at a personal level but have have critiqued his conclusions.
4) There are some who have remained silent.
It is this last group that interests me most as, understandably, we have no way of knowing what has motivated them to remain silent at a public level. There are some key Evangelical voices, shepherds, that are yet to be heard on this matter.
I propose that there could be two main reasons for this lack of public response:
One - It could well be true that some wish the subject would just go away. They are perhaps hoping not to add any fuel to the current fire of discussion so that it extinguishes itself.
Two - It could be that some are where Steve Chalk was a few years ago. They have legitimate concerns about the usual evangelical stance on homosexuality but have not yet found the place where they can speak openly. In fact to speak openly will cost them a great deal and so they remain silent.
Whatever causes these key voices to remain silent I would simply say the following:
To the first group - The subject is not going away, you will have to deal with it if you want to live in the real world.
To the second group - It is time for the kind of bravery shown by Steve.
