Thiel community members collaborate on essay regarding Christianity and marriage equality

Posted June 21, 2022 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Three Thiel College faculty members and the campus pastor worked together on an essay explaining opposition to marriage equality is not the only position for Christians. The essay was published online at Religion Dispatches, an independent, non-profit, award-winning source of journalism on religious issues, as part of the publication’s LGBT Pride Month coverage.

Read the essay.

George Branch-Trevathan, Ph.D.; Daniel Eppley, Ph.D.; Audra Franley ’17 and Brian Riddle ’07 collaborated on the piece that served as a potential rebuttal to the notion that the support of Christian scripture means disagreement with marriage equality.

“To uncritically accept that adherence to scripture necessarily entails opposition to marriage equality is dangerous for the LGBTQ community, disrespectful to millions of Christians, and factually incorrect,” the authors state in their essay.

Branch-Trevathan is an Associate Professor of Religion. He holds a Ph.D. from Emory University and is the author of The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises: The Making of the Matthean Self. Eppley is a Professor of Religion and the author of numerous articles and two books. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Franley earned an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and is an adjunct Professor of Religion. She graduated from Thiel in 2017 and is also a candidate for ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Riddle earned an M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Columbus, Ohio) in 2012 and served 10 years in parish ministry before coming to Thiel. He is the campus pastor at Thiel College, a lecturer in the Department of Religion and a 2007 graduate of the College.