Christopher and Richard Hays Drop a Bombshell Reversal on LGBTQ. Will Fuller Seminary Cave to the Backlash, Or Save Evangelicalism?

Richard B. Hays and Christopher B. Hays join a few other elite evangelical scholars with the temerity to adopt an LGBTQ-Affirming position in a forthcoming book The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story. Christopher Hays is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, a flagship evangelical institution. Richard Hays (retired) is revered in the evangelical world — or was, until he reversed a course set in his classic, The Moral Vision of the New Testament.

This is a big deal. Each time a prominent evangelical changes their mind on LGBTQ+ and says so publicly, evangelical institutions have responded in what is now a predictable manner. Expel the offending party to limit the damage. The offending party is no longer an evangelical, so all evangelicals remain united!

But this trick is getting old now and it will only get older as more influential evangelicals break ranks. If Christopher Hays and Richard Hays have made this move, you can bet others are considering it. Right behind funding concerns, this is one of the the biggest headaches facing the leaders of many evangelical institutions like Fuller Theological Seminary.