The Widening of God’s Mercy - My Reflections, Part 1

Or, when is a book about sexuality not about sexuality?

Part 1 of 4

Richard and Christopher Hays' The Widening of God's Mercy is not the book I expected. For many months before its release, I heard the social media rumblings of how the father and son's co-authored book would change things radically in the study of sexuality and the Bible. And how could it not? In the book, renowned New Testament scholar Richard Hays would explain how and why he changed his position and fully affirms LGBTQ people's inclusion in the church. Friends of mine posted that it would be a "game-changer." While I try to avoid getting too caught up in the social media hype, I was intrigued by this book. For those who may need to become more familiar, Richard Hays is an incredible New Testament scholar. Now retired, he taught at Duke for many years, helping to shape many of the theologians who have gone on to shape the minds of other theologians (including me).

Additionally, his chapter entitled "Homosexuality" in his A Moral Vision of the New Testament is an often-referenced scholarship on human sexuality within Christianity. While sadly many more conservative Christians have weaponized Hays’ work against LGBTQ people, it is still important work, and influential on my own studies. Therefore, if Richard Hays has reason to change his mind, I wanted to know why and how he got there. Even though it felt like some were already trying to weaponize the content of this not-yet-released book against more conservative Christians, I wanted to read the book. Clarity often comes through intellectual conflict and wrestling, so I was sure to move The Widening of God's Mercy by Christopher Hays and Richard Hays to the top of my "To Read" stack on release day.

Upon reading the book, it becomes evident that it does not delve into the intricacies of human sexuality. For a book about sexuality, The Widening of God's Mercy has shockingly few references to sexuality. While I was hoping for a comprehensive biblical theology of sexuality, it is not to be found here. Not only is sexuality rarely discussed, the authors overlook further aspects crucial to the conversation such as creation, desire, attraction, the telos of bodies, and defining Christian marriage. To write a book about changing your mind on matters of sexuality without looking into the cultural studies aspects of sexuality seems incomplete. Cultural studies help us understand factors such as language, context, and ideology. For example, how do we sincerely affirm any attraction without naming what attraction is and how it is shaped? Do cultural factors shape attraction, or is attraction just how things are? Are ideologies such as misogyny shaping how we view attraction? Even more, are the cultures we are born into and aspects like art and media influential on what or whom we find attractive? Is attraction fluid or fixed? What about gender identity? (Hays and Hays do, after all, include the “T” in LGBTQ) I contend that human sexuality is much more complex than what most biblical scholars offer us, and The Widening of God’s Mercy, is no different in this regard. Hays and Hays do not address these cultural shaping factors. Instead, they make statements that appear to negate the existence of these questions. Statements that essentialize attraction as just how we are born alone or that seem to imply that to be human is to have sex. In this absence, the book is less about sexuality than it about something else.

Yet, even more than missing the cultural analysis around sexuality, the lack of interrogating cultural frames results in Hays and Hays making statements like this within the Introduction:

"This book also starts from the recognition of the harm that modern conservative Christianity has done by fighting battles that God doesn't call us to fight, and from the recognition that faithful LGBTQ Christians are all around us. Many of those who oppose the full inclusion of sexual minorities in the sacramental life of the church understand themselves as defenders of the Christian tradition. There is dignity to a theological tradition, but there is greater dignity in every human being (Ps 8:5–6 [ET 4–5]). Any religious tradition that makes its peace with harming people is to be feared. And any religious tradition that fails to grow and respond to the ongoing work of the Spirit will stagnate or die."¹ (emphasis added)

It is fine for Hays and Hays to believe that churches that are not fully affirming will stagnate or die. They are entitled to their opinion. Perhaps there is even evidence for this here in America (I am unaware)? However, to imply that churches are failing to follow the Spirit by not taking an affirming position, a failing that leads to the church's stagnation or death, is outlandishly bold. While this may be their experience within their mainline Protestant denominations in America, it would be hard to make that claim when looking at the church's growth outside the USA. The church is growing in other parts of the world, and these churches largely hold a traditional position on sexuality and marriage. I can not imagine that Hays and Hays mean what they wrote, that these global churches are not following the Spirit and will stagnate and die. But that is what they wrote. And to write that is to fail to see the cultural frame through which Hays and Hays speak about the church. I am going to assume they are making statements about the church in their experience within America and failing to see how the statement ethnocentrically projects their experience onto the global church. Sadly, these are the kinds of mistakes that happen when we fail to consider our cultural frames. The lack of cultural studies in this book on sexuality is a major lacuna in their (and many biblical scholars') work on sexuality.

I applaud Hays and Hays for their care for LGBTQ people and desire for the health and wholeness of the church. Nevertheless, I fear that in an effort to care, without deeper questioning of attraction and sexuality, they miss investigating the cultural frames that could end up re-harming LGBTQ (and all) people if left unexamined. Since cultural analysis is largely absent from the book, I will refrain from doing more than pointing out the absence. Perhaps in another essay, we can positively investigate these ideas. For now, I want to focus on what was included in the book rather than absent.

To be fair to Hays and Hays, they do not claim to offer anything new nor does Richard Hays change his mind about his original exegetical work from A Moral Vision of the New Testament. What they do claim is they have changed their minds on the full inclusion of LGBTQ people within the life of the church. But why? It was my assumption (and perhaps I am not alone here) that if two biblical scholars had changed their minds about human sexuality and affirming LGBTQ people, they would offer scriptural reasoning for such a decision. Scriptural reasoning is not what is happening in this book, which I find deeply disappointing. Instead, a framework for changing our minds is offered, removed from looking at passages around human sexuality. 

The foundational premise for The Widening of God's Mercy is that God is ever-changing his mind to include more and more people. "God repeatedly changes his mind in ways that expand the sphere of his love, preserve his relationship with humankind, and protect and show mercy toward them."² While this is perplexing, it is foundational to how Hays and Hays have changed their minds. The quote is perplexing because I don't know what it means. That God would need to "repeatedly changes his mind" to expand love and preserve his relationship with humankind makes God seem more like a human than God. It appears that if change needs to occur, it would be from the perspective of humankind, not God. Is that what they mean? Do you see why I am perplexed?

With God changing God's mind as the book's thesis, Hays and Hays do not provide a theology of sexuality but rather describe a hermeneutical philosophy that accounts for God changing God's mind. The implication of this thesis is that if God changes God's mind when shown to be wrong, thoughtful humans can do the same. Put another way, because God changes God's mind based on new experiences, it is reasonable and proper for Hays and Hays (and others) to change their minds based on new experiences. 

When I read this thesis in the Introduction, I could hear the air being let out of the metaphorical balloon of my enthusiasm. We are not provided with new perspectives on the scriptures or new exegesis. Nor does it offer any meaningful discourse on a theology of human sexuality. Instead, Hays and Hays will base their reasoning for changing their minds on the tenuous premise that God changes God's mind. 

Dr. Beth Felker Jones has described why this premise is questionable, so I will not do that here. Instead, I want to present three specific responses/questions I have about how Hays and Hays use the argument of God changing God's mind to affirm LGBTQ sexuality. Over the next few posts in this series, I will write about some of my counterpoints and reflections on the idea of God’s mind changing. In Part 2, I will explore questions around the literalist interpretation of the Old Testament Christopher Hays seems to use and why I am confused by that. Part 3 will consider if the scriptures offer any restraints to God changing God's mind around sexuality. Because if God can change God’s mind about things, what, if anything, can God not change God’s mind about? Are there limits? Where would we find them if there are? This seems important to me.

Finally, I will finish the series responding to perhaps the most nit-picky and obvious question, “If God changed God’s mind on human sexuality, where did God start on sexuality?” 

Stay tuned for a post on each of the above reflections. Better yet, subscribe and support my writing, I would love for you to do so.

1. Hays, Christopher B; Hays, Richard B. The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, 15 (Yale University Press. Kindle Edition).

2. The Widening of God’s Mercy, 12, (Kindle Edition).