Part One - Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 ____ Manfred
Brauch - William Herzog
Part Two - Genesis 1-3; Romans 1: 26-27 ____ Manfred
Brauch - William Herzog
Part Three - I Corinthians 6: 9-11; I Timothy 1:10 ____
Manfred
Brauch - William
Herzog
Narrator: The peaceful natural beauty of Greenlake, Wisconsin is the annual setting for the senate meeting, held at the American Baptist Assembly in Greenlake. For more than 60 years the 38 regional councils, composed of nearly 3000 members from around the country and Puerto Rico, have sent representatives to a 4-day senate meeting. The senators meet to fellowship, exchange ideas and to worship.
[Choir sings]
Narrator: They also come together to struggle with issues involving and effecting the church. One such issue to be addressed at the senate meeting is Biblical authority and interpretation concerning homosexuality. Presenting a dialogue on the subject are Dr. Manfred Brauch, President of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and Dr. William Herzog the 2nd, Vice President for Academic Life and Dean of Faculty at the Divinity School in Rochester, New York and Professor of New Testament interpretation. Although these two highly regarded academics have very different viewpoints on the subject, they are and will remain friends and brothers in Christ, an example they hope others will follow.
Brauch: Manfred, I first remember meeting you at an American Baptist seminary faculties consultation somewhere in New Jersey.
Herzog: mmm University.
Brauch: That's right. And we met with the other New Testament professors and we were talking about our common vocation. And that - my earliest memories of you actually are not as a seminary president but as a fellow New Testament professor.
Herzog: Professor, yeah, yeah. I remember the discussions there. We wrestled with some tough stuff in terms of theological education. That was a lot of fun.
Brauch: It was, and I - although I never would have guessed that that conversation would lead to this situation in which you and I are holding this kind of conversation on the issue of homosexuality and the Bible, it does seem to me very appropriate, because it gives each of us a chance to show how, for us, the word of God speaks to a contemporary issue and how we understand and then translate into interpretation the issue of the authority of scripture for the church.
Herzog: Yeah, and one of the things that clear to me again and again, in this kind of conversation that we are having today on this particular issue that's so tearing at the fabric of our, of our life together as a denomination, is how, because of the kinds of assumptions, the kinds of bifocals that we bring to the understanding of the data, how that impacts, often what conclusions we reach. It influences the way in which we see and organize and put the data together. [APPLAUSE]
NARRATOR: The dialogue is based upon Biblical passages and interpreted in turn by each speaker, beginning with Dr. Brauch.