Karen Keen on Scripture and Same-Sex Relationships
Sean McDowell responding to K.R.Keen's Book My thanks to Karen Keen for responding so thoughtfully to my review of her recent book . I appreciate both her content and tone. Essentially, she claims that I fail to address her core argument: “McDowell’s response largely avoids the key arguments in my book.” That may be the case, but I chose this approach for two reasons. First, scholars have previously addressed many of her claims. [1] Second, Keen rightly notes that “The crux of the current debate is gender and anatomical complementarity.” Are gender differences necessary for properly defining marriage, or is it “secondary,” as Keen claims? If gender differences are essential for the marital union, then the rest of her arguments are interesting but irrelevant (celibacy requirement, deliberative process, etc.). If gender is secondary (i.e., not foundational or definitional in marriage), as she claims, then there may be a Scriptural warrant for allowing same-sex unions in some c