Lutheran theologian Helmut Thielicke is rarely quoted by gays because he sounds condescending. He is rarely quoted by conservatives because he sounds compromising, not promoting change. In the mid-1950s his pastoral heart spoke into what he viewed to be a tragic choice, the best of a difficult situation. His arguments for monogamous homosexual relationships sound very contemporary: society does not offer the support of marriage, society still sometimes requires secrecy, society does not make it easy to find ethically sensitive gays of like mind, and the alternative is promiscuity. Since I think that change is possible, both celibacy and heterosexual relationships are alternatives to promiscuity. I disagree with Thielicke's analysis, even as I appreciate his pastoral heart.

30 August 1996. Copyright information is available.