ANALYSIS | He wrote the Christian argument against same-sex marriage. And now he’s changed his mind

() – Nearly three decades ago, Richard Hays, a United Methodist minister and soon-to-be dean of Duke Divinity School, wrote what quickly became the go-to traditionalist Christian argument against same-sex marriage.

Now, Hays says he has changed his mind.

In a dramatic about-face, one of the most prominent and influential New Testament scholars of the last century apologizes for his previous stance, writing in a new book, “The Widening of God’s Mercy” (“The Expansion of God’s Mercy”), which “deeply” feels the pain caused to LGBTQ people who have been excluded from Christian churches.

“I want to repent of what I wrote before,” Richard Hays told me in an interview with his son and co-author, Christopher Hays. “My current position on the issue is that Scripture, read as narrative, offers a vision of a dynamic and personal God, who can constantly surprise us by reshaping what we thought we knew as settled matters.”

“It was, I thought, the right thing to say to make me right with God and with my brothers and sisters in the Church,” Hays said of his change of heart. “The whole story of the Bible, I think, regularly calls us all to the practice of repentance.”

For nearly three decades, Hays’ landmark analysis of homosexuality in his 1996 book, “The Moral Vision of the New Testament,” (“The Moral Vision of the New Testament”), has been cited in evangelical seminaries and traditionalist studies across the country. And as a gay Christian, I have lost count of how many times I have read its chapter on homosexuality, or been told about it by pastors and church leaders, in the 12 years since I came out as gay.

Now, Hays says she regrets how she feels her work has been used by some Christians to marginalize and exclude LGBTQ people from the Christian church. “That stance has been, I would say, weaponized — I don’t think that’s too strong a word — by people on the conservative side of evangelical churches who use it as ammunition to act in what I suppose are rightly described as oppressive ways toward gays and lesbians.”

As a pastor’s kid from suburban Grand Rapids, Michigan, church was like a second home to me growing up. I played piano in church services, acted out characters during Vacation Bible School in the summers, and changed the frozen letters on the church sign in the snowy Michigan winters.

But little by little I discovered that I was gay, a terrifying and shocking revelation that I believed threatened to bring my whole world crashing down.

My faith and my church mattered to me. I graduated from a religious college. I began my journalism career at our church magazine. I immersed myself in the story of God’s creation, fall, and redemption for all people and the world. God’s love and grace toward me were, and remain, central to how I view who I am. But being gay seemed to put all of that in jeopardy.

Unlike other progressive arguments that try to unravel the six most well-known biblical passages that seem to condemn same-sex intimacy, Hays and his son take a very different approach.

“We need to read the Bible as a narrative, and take its stories as formative of our character and our role as readers and interpreters of the text,” Richard Hays told me. “We need to take a step back and say: Why is this particular prohibition taken as normative, but other passages, including those describing what to do when you own slaves, are disregarded?”

“My exegesis of those half-dozen passages has not changed. I believe the Bible says what it says, and it disapproves of homosexual sex, period,” Hays told me. “But there is a very arbitrary selectivity in choosing those two verses from Leviticus as the basis for an opinion on this issue.”

Hays said several things led him to reconsider his views on same-sex marriage. A key factor was the vision of a dynamic God who is willing to change his mind and expand God’s grace to include more and more people. He said this was backed up by his own real-life experiences with LGBTQ believers who demonstrated the attributes of people who live in accordance with the Spirit.

Christopher Hays, Richard’s son and co-author, who is a professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, agreed.

“We have a very strong argument in the Bible, like in Isaiah 43, where God says, ‘Look, I am doing a new thing. Can you not perceive it?’ And so the question is constantly raised as to whether people can keep up with the new things that God is doing,” he said. “You keep reading the Bible and you say, actually, this is not the story that I see of who God is and what God wants.”

Christopher also said he believes the authors of the Bible did not have current same-sex relationships in mind when they wrote the Scriptures. “We don’t believe that’s the same thing as what Paul meant or what the authors of the Torah meant in the laws,” he said.

“I’m proud of my dad,” Christopher added. “I feel like his heart has always been kinder, softer and gentler than how he’s taken that chapter. So I’m proud of him for serving as a model for people out there on how they can change their minds gracefully.”

Hays’s surprising change of position has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler called him qualified of “total doctrinal revolt” and a “call for complete theological surrender.” Conservative scholar Robert Gagnon said that Hays had “fallen into heresy,” calling his argument “nonsense.”

More moderate traditionalist scholar Preston Sprinkle, who heads the Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender, wrote“The fundamental theological and ethical question in this debate is whether sex difference is an essential part of what marriage is. This question is never mentioned, let alone answered, in ‘The Widening of God’s Mercy.’”

But Christopher Hays dismisses the criticism. “I think they are right to be concerned about the book if they want to maintain power the way they have,” he said. “It’s not written for Preston Sprinkle and the people who are in this fight all the time,” he continued. “It’s a much more basic and fundamental book.”

Progressive Christians like Matthew Vines, who runs a pro-LGBTQ Christian advocacy group called the Reformation Project, applauded Hays’ change of heart.

“I am deeply grateful that Richard Hays not only changed his mind, but decided to write about it publicly despite the backlash he knew it would generate,” he told . “I am delighted that he is now lending his voice to the cause of LGBTQ inclusion in the Church.”

As a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a small Protestant denomination of a quarter million members spread across the United States and Canada, I am well aware of my church’s teaching that being attracted to the same sex is not a sin, but that same-sex intimate relationships are. After coming to terms with my homosexuality as a student at my church’s university, I went through periods of depression as I struggled with that position for several years.

But, over time, also I convinced myself that God and Scripture accept same-sex marriage, ultimately because I believe that God’s redemptive work directs the institution of marriage toward our identities in Christ in a new way that fulfills, rather than merely reiterates, God’s work in creation.

My institutional church, however, has taken a different approach. Our annual assembly recently voted to enshrine our church’s opposition to same-sex marriage as confessional, requiring not only compliance but the conscientious agreement of all pastors, elders, deacons, and members. My father, a pastor and member for six decades, walked out of the synod in protest.

Fuller Theological Seminary, where Christopher Hays is a professor, also requires agreement to a statement of faith opposing same-sex marriage. A senior official was fired from the school in February after refusing to sign the statement, According to Religion News Service.

“I’m not worried about my job right now,” Christopher told me. “I wanted to write this book to make sure there was space for conversation in the places where I am and in all the places around the country where similar conversations are happening.”

Fuller said in a statement that the book represents the views of the author, not the position of the seminary. “Fuller has always addressed difficult issues thoughtfully and faithfully, and we will continue to do so,” said the seminary’s president, David Emmanuel Goatley.

Other religious groups have gone even further: the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) have condemned mere identification with a homosexual orientation, even if one remains single. The PCA expelled celibate gay pastor Greg Johnson and his church in St. Louis two years ago. The SBC has also expelled multiple LGBTQ-affirming churches in recent years.

But demographic trends are about to reach a point of collision with young people who attend churches. Although support for same-sex marriage has stagnated In recent years, according to recent Gallup polls, more than one in five Gen Z Americans identify as LGBTQ, and nearly 90% of Americans under the age of 30 support same-sex marriage.

Ultimately, I am deeply grateful that my own fears of being rejected by my closest friends and family have not come true, even though I know others have faced that and worse. I and many of my closest friends, who love both God and LGBTQ people, are attempting to navigate that push and pull, even as the most formative Christian institutions in my life keep me at a distance.

Hays’ change of heart certainly won’t settle the debate among Christians when it comes to same-sex marriage. But I hope it will make those who oppose same-sex marriage at least pause and ask themselves: Is there a path within the religion that accommodates people like me?

As for Richard Hays, he says he hopes Christians who have read his previous book will approach his new work with an open mind. “I just hope people don’t make premature judgments,” he said. “I hope people who are dismayed by this book will actually read it.”