Chris Nash: Profile

Let me introduce myself
A gay family member
Heightened sensi­ti­vity towards LGBTQ+ individuals
Other ways of reading the Bible
Why I wrote a book on homosexuality
My view of gay marriage

Photo by Kelly Nash.

Let me introduce myself

I come from England but for many years I have lived in Cata­lo­nia (north-east Spain), in the Bar­ce­lona area. Here I worked for many years in a Cata­lan govern­ment orga­ni­sa­tion, where my job involved trans­lating and pub­lish­ing. I was recently able to take early retire­ment allow­ing me to devote more time to other pro­jects (inclu­ding this web­site).

I’m married, with three child­ren and also, now, seve­ral grand­child­ren. I define myself as a con­vin­ced and com­mit­ted Christian (dis­ciple and follower of Jesus Christ). I have been a member of various churches, including an evan­ge­lical Angli­can church, where I grew up, and then a Bap­tist church and a Brethren assembly in Bar­ce­lona. And for a number of years I was actively in­volved with the Alpha course.

A gay family member

I have a brother who is gay. Our family found out about this over thirty years ago. Because I didn’t really know what I thought about it, as a Christian, I started to read up on the subject.

In Spanish there really weren’t many Christian books on the issue of homo­sexua­lity. But in English I was able to find a fair selec­tion. Some were pretty good, others frankly mediocre. But to start with, all the best ones (the most rigor­ous and con­vin­cing ones) followed the tra­di­tio­nal view­point: basic­ally that expe­riencing same-sex attrac­tion is not a sin, but that the Bible clearly con­demns all homo­sexual practice.

But none­the­less, when I thought about my brother, his place in our family and his per­so­nal his­tory, I was uncom­for­table with some of the state­ments in these books and their impli­cations.

Heightened sensi­ti­vity towards LGBTQ+ individuals

Apart from purely doc­tri­nal issues, my research has let me see that we still have a huge way to go in impro­ving how we treat gay, les­bian, and other sexual and gen­der minorities.

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash.

The books I have read are full of stories, some abso­lutely scan­dalous, of gay people being scorned, dis­dained, rejected and con­demned. At the churches they have attended they have en­dured holier-than-thou atti­tudes, moral­ising and hypo­crisy, often even by leaders and pastors. And even when things have not been so dire, they have struggled with a great deal of mis­un­der­stand­ing and in­sen­si­ti­vity and a tre­men­dous lack of con­cern for all the in­justice and mis­treat­ment suffered by sexual minorities.

There does seem to be some improve­ment in our churches, but pro­gress is patchy and slow. At least these days, most Christian writers con­demn vio­lence against the LGBTQ+ com­munity and the most obvious forms of dis­cri­mi­na­tion they en­counter (when rent­ing accom­mo­da­tion or apply­ing for jobs, say). Even those main­tain­ing a tra­di­tional theo­lo­gi­cal stance are deeply cri­ti­cal of cer­tain homo­pho­bic atti­tudes: Christian parents that chuck their openly gay son or daugh­ter out of their home, or stu­pid ques­tions like “When did you decide to be­come gay?”.

But we are failing to offer a safe envi­ron­ment, of love and under­stand­ing, for non-hete­ro­sexual indi­vi­duals in our churches. We mostly don’t know how to give them the sup­port and assist­ance they need.

Other ways of reading the Bible

My change in perspec­tive has not just invol­ved a height­ened sen­si­ti­vity towards the LGBTQ+ com­mu­nity and the prob­lems they face.

A few years ago I read the book Scrip­ture, Ethics, and the Pos­si­bi­lity of Same-Sex Rela­tion­ships, by author Karen Keen. For me it was an eye-opener. For the first time I was faced with well-reasoned, con­vin­cing argu­ments, with a clear bib­li­cal basis, in favour of the “revi­sion­ist” or “affirm­ing” view­point on the issue of homo­sexua­lity; that is, that God can bless a mar­riage bet­ween two indi­vi­duals of the same sex, and that the church doesn’t need to keep gay folk out of leader­ship or pas­to­ral roles.

Keen made me think hard. But for just one book, I wasn’t about to change my whole under­stand­ing of the subject. However, I carried on read­ing more books, both tra­di­tio­nal­ist and revi­sio­nist, and little by little the revi­sion­ist or affirm­ing view­point started to gain traction in my mind.

Why I wrote a book on homosexuality

I actually never imagined myself writing a book!

But about five years ago, I was struck by a com­ment by author David Gushee, in chapter 3 of his book Chang­ing Our Mind, explain­ing that he wasn’t the only one to have “changed his mind” about homo­sexua­lity. It struck me that I already knew most of the other Christian writers he men­tioned and had read their books! Wow! Was I starting to be some­thing of an “expert” on the subject?

I was also keenly aware that none of these books had been trans­lated into Spanish. So the inte­rest­ing argu­ments they pre­sented had to be com­pletely un­known for the vast majo­rity of Christians in Spain and Latin Ame­rica. Then I thought that, maybe, I could write an article on the sub­ject, out­lining how there could be bibli­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for an affirm­ing stance on the issue of homo­sexuality.

The article got longer and longer. It was turning into a book­let, o perhaps an essay. But I still had much more to explain. While I was at it, the Covid pan­de­mic hit, and I became con­vinced that I could, and should, write a whole book on the sub­ject. Which is what I did.

I’m pleased with the result because people in the know have assured me that there truly is no other book currently avail­able in Spanish that offers as much infor­ma­tion on both of the view­points to be found in Evan­ge­lical or Pro­test­ant circles: the tra­di­tio­na­list (majo­rity) posi­tion and the revi­sion­ist or affirm­ing (mino­rity) position.

To find out more you could read my book. But if your Spanish is not up to the task, why not try out the books (or web pages) of the two authors I mentioned?

My view of gay marriage

Thit is a difficult topic to give a short answer to. I have dis­co­vered that not only defend­ers of the tra­di­tional stance on homo­sexual prac­tice but also pro­po­nents of the affirm­ing posi­tion on same-sex marriage have good argu­ments in favour of their view­point, including good bib­lical arguments.

In my book, I have tried to give a fair repre­senta­tion of both points of view, plus a whole variety of personal stories. But I do give sig­ni­fi­cant space to revi­sion­ist argu­ments. For me this was a matter of simple justice, given the lack of lite­ra­ture in Spanish on the affirming view­point and, it must be said, the many times that it has been mar­gin­alised and silenced.

So it’s fair to say that I lean towards an approv­ing or affirm­ing view of same-sex marriage. But I do so cautiously. I’m the first to admit that I could be wrong. I prefer to say I am “open to” and “respectful of” this option.

At least I have wrestled long and hard with the argu­ments from both sides of the debate, asking the Lord for his guidance. I invite you to do the same, if not with my book, then with other books and on-line resources currently avail­able. If you then fancy sharing your views with me (or even trying to get me to re­assess my own view­point), you are wel­come to write to me at cnash.bcn@gmail.com.