The LGBTQ issue is a fundamental of the faith. It was not listed among the fundamentals a century ago because it was not conceived as a controversy then. This piece articulates the issue well (KSchaal).
Make sure you don’t miss this. The Revoice conference wants to empower “gay Christians,” “lesbian Christians,” “other gender Christians,” and “sexual minority Christians” (there’s a malleable definition if I’ve ever seen one) so they can “flourish while observing the historic Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality.”
The problem, which even newly converted Christians should recognize, is that “Christian” is not an identity that you can hyphenate with any other identity that is lawless in God’s eyes and still lay claim to what the Bible says a Christian is. As Dr. Rosaria Butterfield has stated, speaking of the Revoice conference, “Gay Christianity is a different religion.”
Yet, President Danny Akin, President of Southeastern, has hired Dr. Karen Swallow Prior to teach at his school when she has unapologetically endorsed a conference that, in the words of Dr. Butterfield, promotes a different religion. And he expects Southern Baptists to sit back quietly and pay her salary.
Dr. Prior recently addressed her endorsement and the criticism she has received from orthodox, evangelical Christians because of it. She said,
The reason why I supported the Revoice conference is because the people I know who organized it are people who believe in the Biblical sexual ethic.…I want to support those who are struggling with same-sex attraction in their desire to live up to a traditional Biblical sexual ethic….I still support its mission of helping Christians live faithfully regardless of what their sexual struggles are.
While we appreciate her expressed desire to be loving and supportive of those trapped in sin, the problem with Dr. Prior’s approach is so basic that it is easy to miss. The biblical sexual ethic does not start at physical, sexual contact. It starts where all sin does—in the heart at the point of desire. Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22).
How would you support someone who identifies himself as a “sexually immoral,” “thieving,” “murderous,” or “adulterous” Christian? If you don’t help him see that all of those descriptions refer to sin that must be mortified, then you are of no help at all. If you tell him it is ok to identify with those sins and to accept the remaining desire to commit them as innocuous as long as you don’t physically act on them then you are spiritually harming him.
Discover more from Proclaim & Defend
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
