The Marin Foundation

So, you may notice a group of links over on the side of the blog, which will take you to some of my favorite websites relating to sexuality and Christianity. Over the next couple weeks I'm planning on doing a post relating to each of those sites. Today I'm going to be talking about the Marin Foundation and the book that was written by Andrew Marin called "Love is an Orientation".

I first heard about the Marin Foundation from a fellow student who mentioned it off hand in an email saying how cool the work they do is. I didn't think much more of it until much later when I heard someone talking about the book "Love is an Orientation", and how good it was. Intrigued, I got the book on my Kindle, and read it covertly over thanksgiving break at my aunt's house, and let me tell you, it was a life changer.

Andrew Marin is straight, and I am ashamed to say that when I found that out I wasn't sure I would be able to get much out of his book. I mean, how is a straight guy going to relate to me... he better not try to preach to me about what I feel. I couldn't be more wrong though. In college, Marin three friends come out to him as being either gay or lesbian, and it rocked his world. Since then he has moved to Boystown in Chicago, which is the gay neighborhood, and he has started a ministry for reaching out to the gay community.

In his book, Marin focuses on "building bridges" between Christianity and the gay community. These two have long been at odds, and more of the blame seems to lie with Christians, as Christians seem to be the ones who push away. Christians justify this by saying the being gay is a sin, but other sinners are accepted into the church every day. Whether being gay is or is not a sin, which is not a justification for how the church has treated gays. Building bridges is the idea that Christians need to work to get gays into the church. It’s like there is a massive divide between Christians and gays, and Christians are asking anyone who is gay to jump across. Rather, Christians need to work on building a bridge to help gay people over.

It is also a nice benefit that Marin does not take a position on if he is gay-affirming or believes that gay people should be celibate. This means the book is easily accessible for people who hold to either view. Overall, this book is a must read for people who are straight or gay.