“Disdain for gay individuals”, according to the latest Barna Research, “has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith” so far as Americans aged 16-29 are concerned. “Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is ‘anti-homosexual’. Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young church goers say this phrase describes Christianity.” Barna president David Kinnaman discusses these findings in a new book, unChristian (Baker). Both Christians and non-Christians “believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a ‘bigger sin’ than anything else.” Kinneman says he was “surprised how much their perceptions were rooted in specific stories and personal interactions with Christians and in churches. When they labeled Christians as judgmental this was not merely spiritual defensiveness. It was frequently the result of truly ‘unChristian’ experiences. We discovered that the descriptions that young people offered of Christianity were more thoughtful, nuanced, and experiential than expected.”
Kinneman reminds his Christian readers: “When the Apostle Paul advises believers to ‘live wisely among those who are not Christians’ and to ‘let your conversation be gracious and effective,’ (Colossians 4:5-6, NLT) he could be writing no better advice to committed Christians in America.” Kinneman says: “Christians need to downgrade the importance of being antihomosexual as a ‘credential’ [and need] to avoid rhetoric that dehumanizes people, especially in interpersonal interactions.” He quotes Bonhoeffer: “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don’t do, and more in light of what they suffer.”
Realizing that “many Christians may be offended by this conclusion,” Kinneman reminds his readers to “consider the ultimate goal of our lives: pointing people to Jesus.”
“How do we present the Gospel to people who disagree with us on homosexuality?” This question was posed to internationally renowned apologist Ravi Zacharias in Q & A following his lecture on worldviews at Gateway Cathedral in New York City on September 8.
Zacharias said that he views homosexuality as a “desacrilizing” of sex, but he warned against Christians’ wounding already-wounded people while they try to share the Gospel. He illustrated his point with an experience he’d had while he was recovering from back surgery. He’d been told by his doctors that he’d need to be turned in his bed from time to time but that it must be done by at least two big strong men so as not to cause needless pain. When a small female nurse came into his room and insisted she could turn him all by herself – and tried – she caused him excruciating pain and he let out a loud yelp. She backed off, exclaiming: “You had back surgery? I thought you’d had a hip replacement.” He joked with the audience that, at that moment, he’d thought he was going to need a hip replacement! He then drew the analogy to one’s rushing in to undertake what one might not be all that prepared to understand and urged that, instead, a simple sharing of the Gospel is what would make more sense.
Tim Keller, one of America’s best expository preachers, recently preached on Abraham’s prayer for the city of Sodom – without mentioning homosexuality. Though he does not condone same-sex relationship, in preaching on Genesis 18:16-33, Keller noted Ezekiel’s commentary on the sin of Sodom’s being greed and a refusal to aid the poor and needy. He talked about Abraham’s bargaining with God to save Sodom for the sake of ten who might be found to be righteous – but even ten could not be found. Then Keller followed through with the message of God’s grace in saving the world for the sake of Jesus, the only righteous one.
Go to www.Redeemer.com to download this September 30 sermon as well as other helpful sermons by Keller, founding minister of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York City.
Wichita megachurch pastor Joe Wright tells The New York Times Magazine: “If we had to depend on the young evangelical pastors to get us a marriage amendment here in Kansas, it never would have happened.” This minister of the Central Christian Church made his assessment following Immanuel Baptist Church’s board of deacons’ ousting of its senior minister, Terry Fox, the megachurch’s senior minister and the prime promoter of the Religious Right’s antigay agenda in Kansas. According to this Times cover story, the Baptist deacons thought Fox’s unremittingly antigay message was “getting in the way of the Gospel”. Patrick Bergquist, a 28-year-old pastor who was reared in Immanuel Baptist, says: “From a theological standpoint, I am an evangelical. But I don’t mean that someone who is gay is necessarily going to hell.” Another Wichita minister and former activist in the conservative political movement, 70-year-old Gene Carlson, has soured on politics. He says: “When you mix politics and religion, you get politics.” He concludes: “The religious right peaked a long time ago. It has seen its heyday. Something new is coming.”
Come Let Us Reason Together is a 44-page document of agreement between evangelicals and non-evangelical Americans on currently controversial issues. The report, sponsored by the Third Way think tank in Washington, DC, affirms the dignity of gay men and lesbians, calls for reducing the need for abortion, places moral limits on the treatment of human embryos, calls for safe spaces for children online, and seeks to promote more responsible fatherhood.
In background data on gay issues, the document notes that 2006 Pew research findings show that 13% of evangelicals support marriage for same-sex couples (compared to 35% of the general public) and 30 % of evangelicals support civil unions for same-sex couples (compared to 54% of the general public). The document further notes that the American Values Survey in 2006 concluded that approximately 4 in 10 evangelicals (compared to 6 in 10 in the general public) supported some type of same-sex relationship recognition.
The team that hammered out the “Shared Vision” on gay and lesbian issues agreed that “Human dignity is innate”, “Protecting the human rights and dignity of all, even for those with whom one disagrees, is not only a consistent thing to do; it is a proud American tradition and a high moral and religious calling,” and “No legislation to protect the human dignity of gay and lesbian people should or need abridge the religious liberty of religious communities”.
Focus on the Family’s CEO says: “I’m sure there are wonderful gay parents out there.” Nonetheless, the Focus executive, Jim Daly, says same-sex marriage would be bad for families. He himself comes from a broken home of heterosexuals. His mother died when he was 10 and he grew up with his alcoholic father, a stepfather, a foster family and a divorced brother.
Looking toward the next Presidential election, the Pew Research Center finds that white evangelicals rate as “very important” concerns: the economy (72%), the war in Iraq (66%) and social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage (56%). White evangelicals are in parallel with mainline Protestants and Americans in general on the economy and the war, though in their concern about the social issues, many more of them rate these as of greater importance than do mainline Protestants (28%) and Americans in general (38%). Among black Protestants, the figures are: on the economy (88%), on the war in Iraq (78%) and on abortion and same-sex marriage (42%).
Bob Jones III endorses Mitt Romney for President, even though the BJU chancellor views Mormonism is a cult. Jones says he’s supporting Romney “for President, not preacher”. He says he endorses Romney’s “morality” positions. But the endorsement is not in keeping with a long held position of Jones’ late father, Bob Jones, Jr., who never failed to fault this “morality” approach of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority. Jones Jr. used to say that the way to get people to be moral is to first get them saved. He argued that the Religious Right had things backwards.
Pat Robertson endorses Rudy Giuliani for President, even though Giuliani disagrees with the Religious Right’s opposition to gay rights and abortion. A Christianity Today online poll finds that 80% of over a thousand readers say Robertson’s endorsements have no effect on their opinions and another 12% say they’re now even less likely to vote for Giuliani.
The Gallup Poll reports that 46 percent of all Americans say same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. In 1996, only 27 percent said so. Among all Americans, 57 percent say same-sex relationships are acceptable, while among the 18-34 year-olds, 75 percent say such relationships are acceptable.
“Anne Rice, the queen of Gothic fiction, has found Christ and dedicated her writing to God.” With these words, the Charismatic/Pentecostal magazine, Charisma, presents the new Rice to its readers. “When I was an atheist, I thought Christianity was a dying religion. That’s nonsense; it’s like an explosion going off all the time,” she says. She says she was helped along in her journey to Christ by reading C. S. Lewis. Although the article, “Out of the Darkness”, notes that her son, novelist Christopher Rice, is gay, it fails to report that she is fully supportive of his being gay. Her second book on Jesus’ life, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, will be published by Knopf in March.
For Such a Time as This is a feature length documentary film that aims “to build a bridge” between people of opposing religious views on homosexuality. Novelist Anne Rice commends the film: “I am eager to do something positive, to reach out to gays who feel bitter and angry against us Christians”. The 2007 Southern Gospel Music “Songwriter of the Year”, Kirk Talley, says he hopes the film “encourages us all to justy see people, not gay or straight, black or white, Republican or Democrat – Judge Not”. Says Ralph Blair: “Whether gay or not, Christian or not, it’s my hope that, as they watch For Such a Time as This, viewers might honestly ask themselves: ‘Whether or not I agree with views expresse4d, do I now better “get” where these other folks are coming from? Whether or not I’ve really much changed my mind, will I now be less likely to stereotype and distance the others? Do I now see that the issues are both more and less complex than I thought?’ If these questions are answered in the affirmative, the hard work put into this documentary will have been worthwhile, for some of the distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’ will have been traveled”.
The film includes Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Ralph Blair, Peggy and Tony Campolo, Chuck Smith, Jr., Cynthia Clawson, Marsha Stevens, Jack Rogers, Justin Lee, John Evans, Ann Phillips, Deanna Jaworski, Joseph Nicolosi, Judy Gold, Robert Spitzer, Jay Bakker, Alan Chambers of Exodus, Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family and others.
Filmmaker Lisa Darden is looking for financial assistance as production heads into its final phases. Readers may go to www.hopeunlimitedproductions.com to learn more about the project and find out how they may be of help.
In Frederick Buechner’s sermon, “The Word of Life”, in his book, Secrets in the Dark, (2006), he recounts his attending “a celebration of love and commitment” for two women, one of whom had been a friend of his daughter’s since childhood. He says that when he and his wife received the invitation, he had mixed feelings. He says: “I found it hard to believe that Jesus himself would do anything but bless a commitment as honest and brave as the one they were making to each other. The Bible has hard things to say about homosexuality in the sense of prostitution and lust and exploitation – just as in has equally hard things to say about heterosexuality in the sense of prostitution and lust and exploitation – but about homosexuality in the sense of the kind of loving, faithful, monogamous relationship that these two women were entering upon, it seems to leave it to us to search our own hearts, and with part of my own heart I was nothing but happy for them and wished them nothing but well.” Buechner acknowledges, however that he was also “afraid for these two people and ambivalent in all sorts of ways.” He says: “I wished that in a world that God knows is dangerous and complicated enough as it is she and her friend had chosen a safer, simpler, more well-marked path.” Yet, he concludes that, at the service of commitment “there was one feeling that I am as certain as you can be about such things that we all shared, and that was the feeling that something honest and loving and brave was happening before our eyes, and that something kind and affirming and hopeful was happening inside ourselves, and that grace, never more amazingly, was somehow in the very air we breathed. In other words, for a few moments that summer afternoon, it seemed to me that we were what I believe the church was created to be.”
The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference has launched the California Latino Steering Committee to Protect Marriage. It is doing this to prevent California’s same-sex couples from having the rights and responsibilities of marriage. The NHCLC claims to represent 15 million Hispanics in 18,000 congregations. According to Matt Daniels, president of Alliance for Marriage, another antigay lobby, “the most critical community in California’s debate over marriage is the Latino community.” He says notes that Hispanics voted for antigay Prop 22 “by a higher margin (65 percent) than any other group, including African-Americans, who have usually led marriage-protection vote tallies in other states”
In “One Mother’s Tragic Lesson”, People magazine (Nov 19) presents Mary Lou Wallner’s story of how it took her lesbian daughter’s suicide to make her search out a better understanding of homosexuality than what she’d been taught. Devastated by her daughter Anna’s “coming out”, she’d insisted that she change. After Anna’s suicide, Wallner learned that it was she, herself, who had to change. She and her husband have a ministry, teach-ministries.org, focused on consequences of homophobia They’ve received some venomous phone calls and emails in response to the People article.
GOP Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego changed his mind at the last minute and signed the city’s amicus brief for same-sex marriage in California. He held a press conference on September 19 and, choking back tears, said that he was signing the resolution because of what he’d observed in his lesbian daughter and her life-partner as well as in gay and lesbian members of his personal staff. He said: “I want for them the same thing that we all want for our loved ones – for each of them to find a mate whom they love deeply and who loves them back; someone with whom they can grow old together and share life’s wondrous adventures. And I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law. In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships – their very lives – were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife, Rana.”
“Help for the Homosexual” was what the big sign said. It was in front of the Cumberland County Community Church in Millville, New Jersey, and signaled the Rev. Salvatore Roggio’s Sunday sermon. The sermon was a typical antigay sermon. When Roggio’s 29-year-old lesbian daughter, Sharon, heard about it in Michigan, she came out publicly against it. She’d come out to her parents a decade ago. “It is with great sadness that I learned of the public statements my father has made against my community,” she told NBC. “Just as straight people never made the choice to be straight, gays and lesbians never made the choice to be gay.” Her father disagrees and links his church’s web site to James Dobson’s Focus on the Family.
Yet another “ex-gay” leader is convicted of sexual assault against those who came to him for “change”. It’s as old news as the case of Guy Charles who, as one of the first celebrated leaders of the “ex-gay” movement in the 1970s, was having what he rationalized as “David and Jonathan” relations with young men who sought the “ex-gay” experience at his ministry at a Truro, Virginia Episcopal church.
In September, longtime “ex-gay” therapist Christopher Austin of Dallas was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two counts of felony sexual assault (“penetration”) at his Renew “ex-gay” ministry. But he was given probation, required to register as a sex offender and ordered to pay a fine of $2,500. Back in 2002, his clients had accused him of including nude counseling sessions and “oral copulation” among his “touch therapy” techniques but he remained in operation. Austin was affiliated with NARTH, the “ex-gay” association of “reparative therapists” and worked through the auspices of a local church of Christ. He is married to a woman who has been writing a book for wives married to gay men.
“Ex-gay” Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin was a big hit at a Barack Obama campaign concert in South Carolina in October. When it was announced that this “ex-gay” black artist was to sing at the gospel concert, the Human Rights Campaign and other gay activists voiced their disapproval. Obama refused to drop McClurkin from the line-up but he added a local, openly gay, minister to give the concert’s opening prayer. When McClurkin told the 3,000, mostly African-American, attendees: “Don’t call me a bigot or antigay. Don’t call me a homophobe, because I love everybody. Let me tell you something, the grace of God is given to all”, he was greeted with loud “Amens!” and applause.
Outside the concert, about 20, mostly white, protesters chanted: “We’re here, we’re queer and we’ll vote next year!” African-American lesbian, womanist and relgion columnist, Irene Monroe, called Obama “ a vote whore” for inviting McClurkin.
AND FINALLY:
ABC NEWS was caught using fake “gays” to set up Southerners as bigots. Actors were hired by ABC NEWS’ “Primetime Live” to “make out” in a public park in Birmingham, Alabama. The point was to do a hidden video of the expected “homophobic” reactions of local “bigots”. Police uncovered the plot. Columnist Michelle Malkin reports that her readers suggested a hidden videotaping of an actor’s wearing a pro-life T-shirt to a Women’s Studies class or an American flag pin in an Ivy League faculty lounge in order to catch the rest of the bigotry for a more balanced hoax