Katherine Pater writes that the Bible's story of Philip baptizing a eunuch is a crucial inclusive text — but so is what happens next:
God’s radical grace went out of its way through Philip to welcome us from the beginning, without conditions.
The text says that an angel of the Lord called Philip and led him to “a desert place” on a “wilderness road” where Philip meets the eunuch. The eunuch is reading the words of the prophet Isaiah and invites Philip to explain the text. After hearing “the good news about Jesus,” it’s the eunuch who eagerly asks to be baptized — and Philip agrees. I notice that Philip did not conclude that this person was worthy of baptism and inclusion because Philip examined all the texts that have to do with gender non-conforming people, or eunuchs, or LGBTQ+ people and decided that yes, he could baptize this person. Philip just met the eunuch as he was, full of his genuine curiosity about Jesus and scripture. In fact, the earliest versions of this text do not even include the exchange in verse 37, this early confession of faith in which Philip tells the eunuch, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” be baptized, to which the eunuch replies, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” In the earliest versions of this story, when the man asked to be baptized, Philip just did it. No theological questions, no other rules, no barriers. | 
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