Brian Stucky (Letters & Comments, Dec. 21) notes the traditionalist complaint that the biblical case for same-sex marriage has not yet been made. In a positive spirit of wanting us to not continue talking past each other, he calls for someone to make that biblical case one more time, suggesting that they bring in “specific scriptures” on “inclusion, justice, love and good fruit, evidence of the Spirit.”

In that same spirit of wanting us to not talk past each other, let me say that traditionalists are looking for a Bible study that grapples with the passages the church has historically interpreted as showing that same-sex sex is sin. All of us believe in welcome, justice, love, etc. But all of us also believe, as Ted Grimsrud wrote in his blog, that a legitimate reason for the church to not practice full inclusion of those in same-sex relationships would be “that God declares such relationships to be sinful.” So unless the Bible study that Stucky calls for shows, for instance, that Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6 do not view all forms of same-sex relations as against God’s intent, we will still hear traditionalists insisting that they have not yet seen the needed biblical case for full inclusion of those in same-sex marriages.

Harold N. Miller
Broadway, Va.