Speaker Series at La Canada Congregational Church
Free admission when you buy your copy of Changing Our Mind ($16.95) at Flintridge Bookstore. Ask for a ticket with your purchase..
Changing Our Mind has helped thousands of families and congregations carefully and compassionately rethink traditional religious teachings about full LGBTQ inclusion.
Christian denominations and churches everywhere struggle with the issue of LGBTQ inclusion. With growing scientific evidence, our wider society has taken big steps, but too many religious families and communities have not kept up. As much as ever, many people still experience deep condemnation by evangelical and other churches, getting kicked out or altogether leaving. Dr. David Gushee offers a powerful, inspiring message of hope and healing by helping Christians to return to Bible study, prayer, and reflection in a way that creates a vision for a more inclusive church.
Arguably America's leading Christian ethicist, Gushee has written many helpful books for churches, discussion groups, and individuals. He is the author of the "Evangelical Declaration Against Torture" and drafted the "Evangelical Climate Initiative." His Kingdom Ethics is on pastors' bookshelves nationwide. Now, in what he describes as the most important book of his career as a Christian teacher, Gushee gives us this encouraging discussion on how he changed his mind.
From his own careful Bible study, research, and prayer, Gushee takes us along an conversational theological journey. In one book, he concisely marks out every single component of historic Christian sexual morality. He covers all of the relevant biblical passages and all the theological positions, including the key argument of creation. With a careful study of context and biblical language, he walks us through a principled discussion that is respectful of traditionalists while calling for inclusion and the end of contempt. This definitive third edition also includes Gushee's response to critics and a study guide for small group discussion.
Author Brian McLaren calls Changing Our Mind "deep, thoughtful and brilliant . . . [and] refreshingly clear and understandable." It is an eminently useful handbook for any individual or organization that wants to better contextualize traditional church teachings, which have been and must continue to change.
Dr. David P. Gushee (PhD, Union Theological Seminary, New York) is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre.
Gushee is the elected Past-President of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, signaling his role as one of America’s leading Christian ethicists. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than 27 books and approximately 175 book chapters, journal articles, and reviews. His most recognized works before 2014 include Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Kingdom Ethics, The Sacredness of Human Life. With his 2014 book Changing Our Mind and then After Evangelicalism, he has been charting a theological course for post-evangelical Christians, a course he more personally relates in his memoir, Still Christian, and subsequently maps out a new approach to Christian ethics in the accessible Introducing Christian Ethics. Altogether his books have sold over 100,000 copies and been translated into a dozen languages.
Over a full 29-year career, he’s been a devoted teacher as Professor Gushee to college students, seminarians, and PhD students. He’s also led activist efforts on climate, torture, and LGBTQ inclusion, and is a keynote speaker at churches, forums, and universities.
Dr. Gushee and his wife Jeanie live in Atlanta.