Thanks be for evangelical diversity

I mentioned the green evangelical movement in my last post. Here's an MSNBC story about it, as well as www.creationcare.org, the website of the Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care magazine.

And just as there are green evangelicals, there are gay-affirming, Bible-believing evangelicals as well. Evangelicals Concerned is a national, gay-affirming organization, or maybe organizations; I can't tell if this or this website is more official than the other. The Metropolitan Community Churches combine elements of many Christian traditions; those I've attended tend to have a strongly evangelical, even somewhat Pentecostal tone. Jeff Miner, the pastor of Jesus MCC in Indianapolis, which I briefly attended, co-authored a book, The Children Are Free, which makes a very strong biblical case for affirming same-sex orientation and committed relationships.

I am not a "Bible-believing" Christian. I also recognize and value the importance of love, kindness, forgiveness, spirituality, community, shared values, social responsibility and justice, rituals, and mythology. I'm more of a mystic than a believer; my point of view is probably more similar to that articulated by Matthew Fox than anyone else. And I think it's self-evident that rigidly-held, fundamentalist beliefs are the greatest danger facing the world today. (I've been reading a lot of Sam Harris lately.)

But whatever, whomever God is, I thank him/her/them/it/us for the growing diversity among evangelicals.