Before his death, prominent biblical scholar Dr. Richard Hays recanted his position on same-sex marriage. Before, he held the orthodox position that marriage is only legitimate between one man and one woman. However, in a series of widely publicized videos, he went back on his previous words. Hays argued that the bible changes over time and should be widened to include LGBTQ people.
“I don’t want the first paragraph of my obituary to say New Testament scholar Richard Hays, who wrote against the acceptance of gay and lesbian people, has died. And I think for people who aren’t in the scholarly world of New Testament studies, 25 pages on homosexuality is the one thing they know about me,” Dr. Hays said.” You ask about legacy; I didn’t want that to be my legacy because I had come to think it was wrong.
“And you know when, when you come to think something is wrong, the thing to do is to confess and seek forgiveness. Probably now the first paragraph of my obituary will say New Testament scholar Richard Hays, who changed his mind and became a gay advocate,” he continued. ” Maybe it will. I’d rather have that than the alternative. [If] I can put it that way.”
“Throughout the biblical narrative, we find case after case where God changes. God changes. What God has commanded to people of faith[changes],” he said to justify his position in another clip. ” People love to quote verses from Hebrews: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? But if you actually read the Bible, there are numerous stories where God says, Do you not see?”
“Remember, not the former things. I’m doing a new thing. And we believe that the Bible has case after case where God discloses a new thing to God’s people,” Dr. Hays added. ” There’s the passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus says, I have more things to tell you, but you’re not ready to hear them now, but after I’m gone, the Spirit … will come and lead you into new things.”
“And so we came to believe something like that is what we see happening in the church around these issues of sexuality God. And the consistent theme of these changes in the Bible is always this widening of God’s mercy, the broadening of God’s inclusion and embracing More and more people,” he concluded. The online response was largely negative.
“I believe this is what they call “special pleading”. It’s what you do when your trying to justify an indefensible position,” one user replied. Another said, ” He was my NT professor at Duke. His lectures were incredible. I read Moral Vision of the New Testament in that class and in doctoral work. I’ve taught from that book in churches. The exegesis he uses to defend what he once stood against would have received an F in his class.”
Watch his Convoluted Reasoning Here:
J.R Klien, who writes at FreeThinkInc, responded at length to the clip. “Hays admits that the text still means what he did it did in the 90s… But it was relationships and his family that made him change his mind. He tried to explain in the book but it reads more like a maoist struggle session than an academic shift in position,” he responded.
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