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These churches teach that every Christian has the same inherent capacity for both vocations and every Christian, gay or straight, should offer the question of celibacy or Christian marriage to God.Ģ - Does your church talk publicly about the challenges LGBT+ Christians face so that they know it’s safe? These churches teach that God first calls everyone to a period of abstinent singleness during which we discern whether we are called to a lifetime vocation of celibacy or a lifetime vocation of Christian marriage with someone of the opposite sex. Instead, a church that passes the Gay Teen Test is a place where everyone is thinking theologically about their sexual stewardship, so LGBT+ Christians find fellow cross-bearers in their straight brothers and sisters. But then we call gay Christians to a higher standard of sexual stewardship by allowing straight Christians to misuse marriage for their romantic fulfillment while asking only gay Christians to consider celibacy. This leads to high divorce rates and a void of theology and practice of lifetime abstinent singleness among straight Christians. Most churches today lead straight Christians to assume that they will get married, teach that we need romantic companionship to be happy, and ignore the Bible’s teachings about lifetime celibacy and divorce. Does a mix of silence and hypocrisy in your church lead teens to reject a traditional sexual ethic and, often, God altogether because of their confusion, shame, fear, loneliness, and hopelessness? Or does your church courageously lead compassionate conversations about God’s love and plan for all people, setting up gay teens to embrace the beauty and the burden of the gospel?ġ - Is your church a place where everyone is thinking theologically about their sexual stewardship? Our Gay Teen Test asks whether what gay teens in your church hear and see sets them up to fail or flourish. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.What’s our vision for churches? That they would pass EQUIP’s Gay Teen Test. That inquest led to White’s arrest three years later.īut in her sentencing announcement, the judge said there was no evidence that Johnson’s death was the result of an anti-gay hate crime. A third inquest in 2017 ruled that he fell from the clifftop “as a result of actual or threatened violence” because he was perceived to be gay.
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The family petitioned for a second inquest in 2012, which ruled Scott Johnson’s death as inconclusive. The case took a turn after it was revealed that several gay men were specifically targeted by roaming gangs because of their sexuality during that time period, including a few who were killed. He met White at a bar and went with him to the cliff top, which was a frequent meeting place for gay men.Īn initial coroner’s inquest ruled that Johnson’s death was a suicide, but his family urged authorities to continue investigating. Johnson, who was seeking his doctoral degree in mathematics, had moved to Australia in 1986 to live with his partner. The judge ordered the 51-year-old White to serve at least eight years and three months in prison before he can be eligible for parole. Scott White pleaded guilty in January to the murder of 27-year-old Scott Johnson, whose body was discovered in December 1988 at the bottom of a cliff in Sydney’s North Head Beach district.
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An Australian man who admitted to killing a gay American student in 1988 has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.