In the screwball comedy classic Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, dressed in a woman’s bathrobe, jumps up and down shouting, “I’ve suddenly gone gay!” He could have been speaking for a growing number of congregations today.
The latest case in point is Newsong Church of Santa Ana, CA, a high visibility Orange County congregation who sponsored a day-long conference last weekend called “A Stirring.”
Described as “Conversations About Loving and Including Gay Christians”, it advocated a relatively new interpretation of the Bible which legitimizes homosexuality. The speakers claimed that Gay and Christian are compatible, that the conservative church needs to reconsider its stance and legitimize same sex marriage, and that people involved in homosexual relationships should be welcomed to participate in the life and leadership of all churches.
I was approached by some who attended, and they expressed surprise that a church like Newsong, widely considered to be Bible believing and solid, had sponsored such an event.
News, Yes. But New? No.
But to many of us, this is more disappointing than stunning. The pattern’s showing itself everywhere, so the headline “Local Evangelical Church Now Declares Itself Gay-Friendly” is getting to be business as usual. San Francisco’s City Church, a Reformed congregation and the largest Evangelical church in the Bay area, just revised its policies to accept practicing homosexuals as members. Gracepoint Church of Franklin Tennessee, a mega church also identified as Evangelical, announced in January its policy change from rejecting to now supporting gay marriage. And citing a “nudge from Jesus”, Vineyard Christian Fellowship Pastor Ken Wilson now endorses and performs same sex weddings in his Ann Arbor Michigan church.
A Vineyard Church, a Reformed Church, Evangelical Mega-Churches – who’d have thought? And how should we respond?
“The Fault, Dear Brutus, Lies Not with the Gays, But With Ourselves”
Not that you really need someone to tell you, but let me say it anyway: gays aren’t our enemies. They’re not the problem, and they’re certainly not to blame for these trends. Most of them are just living their lives as our friends, co-workers, family members, and fellow citizens. Yes, they have an agenda, and it’s similar to ours. They want to pay the bills, live safely, work hard, enjoy their lives. So if we love our neighbor, we love them. Case closed.
But the gay rights movement is another matter.
Movements aren’t as reasonable as individuals. They have ambitious goals sprung from deep, passionately-held platforms, and because members of movements often consider their goals to be more important than concepts of fair play, respect for other opinions, or “live and let live,” they tend to be intractable. The cause trumps everything else, the righteousness of it justifying relentless effort and winning at any cost.
Exhibit A: The Gay Rights Movement, made of both heterosexual and homosexual people who view the universal approval of homosexuality as the end goal, and the Body of Christ as the prize. They sincerely believe that the normalization of homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and transsexualism is the only legitimate state of affairs for an enlightened culture, and that any disapproval, for any reason, is unacceptable, and must be seen as a modern form of bigotry paralleling
Jim Crow racism.
When the committed aggression of the modern gay rights movement confronts the doctrinal weakness and moral timidity of the modern church, an image of knives and butter comes to mind.
The Movement is smart enough to see the Church’s role in this issue as critical, mobilizing its vast resources to promote, infiltrate, propagandize, and punish the few courageous enough to dissent. Our churches, meanwhile, wonder if it’s worth addressing, wring their hands over its complexity, and form endless committees to determine the feasibility of responding to Goliath. And as we sit wondering what to do, he’s quite willing to accept the ground we’re surrendering, and to devour the sheep we’re sacrificing in the process.
The AWOL Evangelical Voice
So the question really isn’t “Why are evangelical churches doing pro-gay seminars?” Rather, it’s “Why aren’t more evangelical churches doing Biblically based seminars on the subject?”
Why aren’t we offering something for the parents in our own congregations whose sons and daughters are announcing to them that they’re gay? What aren’t we equipping the people in our own churches who privately wrestle with homosexual inclinations? Why don’t our own high school and college age students know how to articulate a Biblically based response to homosexuality, when their peers in public school are surely being equipped with a secular one?
Why, for heaven’s sake, aren’t we talking about something everyone else is talking about, and doing so little while others seize the day and do so much?
Are there more important issues to address? Definitely. But I’m pretty sure this one cries out for a lot more attention from us than it’s getting.
Meanwhile, the number of pro-gay churches grows, as gay bars and gay parades swell with the expanding number of believers who gave up on resisting their homosexual desires, found few answers within their own churches, and finally joined new ranks. Sheep gone; families devastated; pulpits silent; sin triumphant.
And even as I want to close saying something cliché and sweet like God’s still in control or Better days are coming, my only honest thought right now is more of a question than a declaration:
Where are we headed with all this?
Forgive the rant. And thank you for being here. God bless you hugely this weekend.
Love,
Joe
