A podcast about Christians, the Church, the Bible, our Faith and what we need to do to affirm and include the LGTBQI community - especially those who are seeking Jesus and who want to be involved in the Church.

We believe the Bible is God's word - through the ages and for today. We should study it, understand it and apply it to our lives.

Hosted by Graeme Codrington, with a masters degree in theology, who was ordained in the Baptist Union of South Africa many years ago, yet changed his conservative view that the LGBTQI community are in deed sinners in need of salvation. After 15 years of studying the scriptures, investigating this topic, speaking with people and engaging with this community, we believe that God made some people gay and that we should accept and embrace the LGTBQI community as God's creations, loved by Him for who they are, not for who they are meant to be.

In our podcast episodes

• We'll take you through the evidence found in Scripture, and seen through church history and traditions.
• We'll ask what this means for churches - what it looks like for churches to affirm the LGBTQI community, and what we should be saying and doing. Together with what this community should be hearing.
• We'll be sharing some of the stories LGBTQI Christians who love Jesus, and who love the church - even though the church has, in the most part, been so hateful to them. These are people who are desperately seeking Jesus and we must hear their stories.
• We'll also share some of the stories of people who love Jesus, but hate the church - so that we can hear what the church should be doing. And then, of course, there are those stories of people who used to love Jesus but who know hate Jesus and the Church, because of what the church has done. We need to hear those stories too.

We understand why conservative Christians might be nervous of affirming LGBTQI people and welcoming them to church. There are seven reasons why they shouldn't be scared, and why we should change the traditional Christian views about gay people. This episode lays out the goals for the ALLin podcast, and invites you to start changing your mind.

In this episode of the ALLin podcast, Graeme Codrington gives an initial overview of the seven Bible verses most often referenced when Christians are considering issues related to LGBTQI people and gay marriage. He shows that the traditional interpretation of these verses needs to be questioned. The rest of the Bible presents a strong argument for accepting LGBTQI people into our churches and faith communities.

Many Christians who are against affirming gay marriage and LGBTQI people reference the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to show that God is angry with homosexuality and will judge it. But this is not what these stories are about. In this episode we get into the Bible, and look at why God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, and what these stories mean for us today.

The Bible is not meant to be used as a legal textbook. On many issues, we are required to look for principles in the Bible, rather than direct instructions. This includes issues such as slavery, women leaders, and democracy. On these issues, we need to identify principles from the Bible that help us understand how God would have us live.

In this episode of the ALLin podcast, we look at ten passages in the Bible that provide principles for affirming gay marriage and LGBTQI people.

Resource and recommended reading:
* https://sojo.net/articles/10-bible-passages-teach-christian-perspective-homosexuality

Episode 6 of ALLin pod looks at how we should interpret Old Testament Laws. Do they still apply to us, as Christians today?

If so, how we do distinguish between those laws that do apply and those that don't? And what does this mean for the two verses in Leviticus that prohibit "men sleeping with men as they would with a woman"? It's a longer episode than normal (44 minutes), but well worth this deep dive into how to apply Old Testaments laws in our modern world.

The ALLin podcast provides resources and insights for Christians who affirm the LGBTQI community. In this episode we look at the two Old Testament Laws that talk about male gay sexual activity. We look at the context, the Holiness Code and ancient Israel's sexual ethics.

Summary: The commands against gay sex in Leviticus 18 and 20 were given to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land, and they were about the people who already lived there. Look at the first few verses of Lev 18 and 20 and you'll see clearly that these Laws were about what the pagan nations did in their temples. These temple rituals included tattooing your body, shaving your head and having gay sex with teenage boys. They also included child sacrifice. And God said to the Israelites: don't do any of these things in MY temple. These chapters in Leviticus are not meant to be a code of sexual ethics for all time, but a specific set of restrictions related to temple Worship in the pagan nations that surrounded Israel. They do NOT apply to gay people today. And they have nothing to say about gay marriage.

Our study of the Old Testament verses dealing with homosexuality concludes with a detailed word study of the concept of toebah ( תּוֹעֵבָה), translated as "abomination" or "detestable". This word is used 117 times in the Bible, and it is very clear what it is referring to... and it is NOT sexual sin.