Rob Bell, a leading author in the emergent movement and former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, has endorsed same-sex marriage.
“I am for marriage,” Bell said as a guest of the rector’s forum at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. “I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. … This is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”
Bell, a graduate of Wheaton College and Fuller Theological Seminary, has been questioning the theology of evangelical Protestantism, in which he grew up, for several years. In a video promoting his latest book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, he describes some traditional theology as representing a “tribal god” and threatened with extinction, like an Oldsmobile Delta 88 he drove in his 20s. His previous book, Love Wins, challenged teachings about heaven and hell and attracted concerns about universalism.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
