Justin & Ron: Transforming the Conversation

Justin Lee, Executive Director of the Gay Christian Network, and Ron Belgau are both friends of mine. I have long respected their commitment to their friendship despite the reality of differing views. Both men are gay. Justin is open to entering a committed same-sex relationship. Ron is committed to living a celibate life. With Tony and Peggy Campolo, the Christian community had the opportunity to see modeled for them a relationship that sustained the reality of different conclusions on the appropriateness of covenant same-sex relationships. Within a loving marriage, Tony and Peggy disagree on the appropriateness of gay marriage for Christians but haven't let this disagreement shipwreck their union. They gave the Christian community the opportunity to imagine a way forward, experiencing unity in diversity, with the humility to admit that either of them "could be wrong". With Justin and Ron, not only do they disagree about the manner in which gay people are called to live out their journey of discipleship - they do so as gay men. It is personal. It is intimate. It is the real deal. I believe that Justin and Ron offer a tremendous gift to a polarized Christian community as they model convicted civility in their public and private conversations. But not only that, they invite us to dig more deeply and do the hard work to rediscover the kind of robust friendships that God's story reveals to us. That's why I invited Justin & Ron to be part of our first video project, "Bridging the Gap" and that's why I'm delighted to share these two videos of their presentations at Pepperdine University.

-WG