Repentence...

Joshua Harris, a former pastor at a US mega-church, was only 21 when he wrote a book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which advised young people to refrain from sex - even holding hands - before marriage. The book went on to sell about a million copies, while helping to promote a church-based ‘purity culture’. Naturally enough, at least for those who claimed to get their moral intuitions from the Bible, that culture excluded gays and lesbians, who were bound for the fires of hell. So far, so unremarkable: just another churchman telling the rest of us what we should, and should not, do in the privacy of our own bedrooms.

Today, however, I read on the Guardian website that Harris and his wife have separated, after twenty years of marriage. Having lost his faith, he is also renouncing his dogmatic beliefs. “I have lived in repentance for the past several years - repenting of my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting, to name a few. But I specifically want to add to this list now: to the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. I hope you can forgive me”.

Licensed today: Lombard Street in Petworth, West Sussex...