122。被称为“牧师中的牧师”的尤金毕德生对同性恋婚姻的赞同

作者：小草

尤金毕德生（Eugene Peterson 1932.11 - 2018.10）最为被人所知的著作是《The Message》（《信息版圣经》）。《The Message》虽成为了畅销书，但约翰麦克亚瑟牧师说，《信息版圣经》是糟糕的译本，是对正规的、准确的圣经译本的攻击。(John's :This is what has led to The Living Bible and The Message, both of which are awful translations. The Message is awful. And even lately, the guy who authored that, Eugene Peterson, has revealed himself to be not even a believer in what the Bible says. So this kind of relevance idea has unleashed tampering with the text, tampering with the ancient text. From: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/GTY168/answering-contemporary-challenges-to-scripture-john-macarthur-with-phil-johnson)

2017年7月毕德生在接受宗教新闻社(Religion News Service)的乔纳森·梅里特(Jonathan Merritt)采访时，发表了赞同同性婚姻的言论，他的这些言论在美国福音界引发了相当的震动，美国最大的基督教零售连锁店LifeWay随即宣布，假如毕德生确认不再持守圣经的婚姻观点，他们将不会再出售他的任何书籍。结果，毕德生很快又发表声明，撤除他发表的对同性恋婚姻赞同的说法。但是，据当时采访毕德生的记者说，2014年毕德生就己表达了对同性恋的认可，只是当时没有在媒体公开报道，所以没引起广泛的关注。而且，这位记者说，他之所以会在采访时问毕德生有关他对同性婚姻的看法，是因为一些牧师和作者暗示他，毕德生私下跟他们表示对同性婚姻的肯定，所以他才想借着采访时自己确认下毕德生的立场。可见，虽然毕德生后来很快地公开声明撤消他的言论，但他对同性恋婚姻的赞同并不是一时说错话，他自己在采访时说的话可见，他一直都不认为同性恋是什么了不得的事，不是对与错的问题，所以，他对同性恋的赞同是他一惯的观点和立场。

在梅里特采访时，毕德生被问到对于同性关系和同性婚姻的立场，毕德生说：

对此我没有很多经验。但是当我还是一名副牧师时，教会里有几位女同性恋，她们并不认为这有什么了不得的。我去拜访她们，但她们从没提到这个问题。她们认为自己与每位在教会里的人一样都是基督徒。

在我自己的会众中，当我离开时，我们有大约有500人， 我认为我们从来没有把这当成是什么了不得的事情。当我离开时，音乐牧师离开了。自从我在那里，她就一直在那里。我们就在找一位新的音乐牧师。有位在我牧养下长大的年轻人，他是一名高中老师，也是一名音乐家。当他发现这个职位空缺时，有一天他出现在教堂里，站起来说：“我想申请这个音乐主任的工作，我是同性恋。” 在我们会众里没有同性恋者，或者说，他们不是公开的同性恋者。会众里没人对这位同性恋者担任音乐主任提出任何问题，我对这样的会众感到非常高兴。他确实是个很好的音乐家。

如果是20年前，我不会这么说，但现在我认识很多男女同性恋者，他们似乎和我有着同样好的灵性生活。我认为关于男女同性恋者这种辩论可能结束了。不赞成的人，他们可能就是到另一个教堂去。所以我们正处于转型阶段，而且我认为这样的转型是为了最好的，是好的。就我而言，这不是一个对错的事情。（--- 小草译自毕德生讲话原文）

后来毕德生被问到，如果他今天还在牧养教会，他教会里有一对同性恋，他们是信心相当好的基督徒，他们要求他为他们主持同性婚礼，他是否会答应？毕德生回答说：“会的。”

英文原文

I haven’t had a lot of experience with it. But I have been in churches when I was an associate pastor where there were several women who were lesbians. They didn’t make a big deal about it. I’d go and visit them and it never came up for them. They just assumed that they were as Christian as everybody else in the church.

In my own congregation — when I left, we had about 500 people — I don’t think we ever really made a big deal out of it. When I left, the minister of music left. She’d been there ever since I had been there. There we were, looking for a new minister of music. One of the young people that had grown up under my pastorship, he was a high school teacher and a musician. When he found out about the opening, he showed up in church one day and stood up and said, “I’d like to apply for the job of music director here, and I’m gay.” We didn’t have any gay people in the whole congregation. Well, some of them weren’t openly gay. But I was so pleased with the congregation. Nobody made any questions about it. And he was a really good musician.

I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do. I think that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over. People who disapprove of it, they’ll probably just go to another church. So we’re in a transition and I think it’s a transition for the best, for the good. I don’t think it’s something that you can parade, but it’s not a right or wrong thing as far as I’m concerned. （引自《 interview》 2017.07.12）