In March of this year, Matthew Vines delivered a speech at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas discussing LGBT people and the Christian Bible. The speech was recorded and became a viral hit, making Vines one of the new voices for welcoming, inclusive Christianity. Now you have the chance to hear him live and engage in conversation.
Click here to RSVP for a conversation with Matthew Vines.
After admitting to himself that he was gay during his sophomore year of college, Vines took a leave of absence from Harvard University in order to devote himself to studying the Bible in order to figure out how he could be gay and still “[uphold] Scripture as authoritative for Christian faith.” Thousands of hours of research led to an hour long talk, in which Vines concludes that devout Christians should focus on passages such as “’honor one another above yourselves’ and ‘remember those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.’” He asks “how fully have you absorbed, not just the existence of gay and lesbian Christians, but the depth of the pain and the hurt that their own brothers and sisters have inflicted on them?”
On August 8, 2012 Vines will be at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City to discuss his speech and research and talk with the audience about what it means to be gay and Christian. Please join GLAAD and Marble Collegiate as we discuss his proactive case for biblical support for LGBT people. If you have people in your lives who struggle with reconciling their Christian faith with support for LGBT people, you need to hear Matthew Vines.
RSVP here; the event is free. Let GLAAD know you’re planning to come, and invite your friends via the Facebook event.