Ahead of today’s historic Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, we saw a lot of preemptive pushback from right-wing evangelical groups like the American Family Association and the Southern Baptist Convention—and in the wake of the ruling we’re sure to see more.
We’ve also recently seen prominent evangelical speaker and author Tony Campolo generate some buzz by coming around to full LGBTQ affirmation, including here on RD, where senior editor Cathleen Falsani heralded Campolo’s move as “evangelicalism’s tipping point.”
You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not ready to break out the champagne just yet. Well, make that a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice, not only as that’s what my evangelical family used to drink on New Year’s Eve, but also because I’m convinced that a sober, rather than celebratory, view of the evangelical tipping point is more appropriate.
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And even if “ex-gay” therapy has been in decline since Exodus International shut its doors and apologized, it’s still Graham, rather than Campolo, who echoes the majority evangelical opinion on these matters. You can’t change this by highlighting Campolo’s shift or by proclaiming Jim Wallis to be “the quintessential evangelical.”