Christians must reach out with Gospel in love but avoid “soulish sympathy” for practicing homosexuals, says Bible scholar
By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:
“But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
“Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
“You Christians are so judgmental.”
Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.
Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.
Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term ”gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”
“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown's talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]
Hope and change. Right. Below is then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s July 17, 2007 speech at Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest “provider” of abortions. (Q: What services do you provide? A: We will snuff out the life of your innocent, unborn child, for a fee– minority babies preferred.) It should be remembered that this evil organization is also a leading and aggressive advocate for homosexuality and extramarital sex (check out their reckless “Teenwire” youth sexual advice website).
Obama likes to play basketball, and the head fake is an important part of the game. You try to get your defender to commit with a head or body fake, throwing him off balance so you can move in to take the real shot (or get a clear shot at the basket). “Both Sides” Barack, the candidate, made some pretty good head fakes on abortion and homosexual “marriage” during the campaign, and many Americans were fooled. He said he wanted to “reduce the number of abortions” and pretended to be a strong supporter of preserving traditional marriage. (Remember the Saddleback Church debate moderated by Rick Warren?)
Then the real Obama went to the hoop: he championed the radical Freedom of Choice Act to rally his pro-abortion base as a candidate, expanded taxpayer-funded abortions worldwide as president, and now is moving to destroy DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act (signed into law by Democrat Bill Clinton in 1996). But the double-game is getting much tougher for Obama: a growing number of Americans are seeing him for what he is: the most radically left president ever to occupy the Oval Office. Shame on the gullible Christians and religionists who went for his head fakes. We’d be fools to rely on them again to “defend” life and marriage. — Peter LaBarbera
Calls Prop 8 “divisive,” touts DOMA repeal, links “Selma to Stonewall”
America is getting to know the real Barack Obama — and he’s a lot more radical than a 2008 presidential candidate by the same name. This aggressively pro-homosexual speech by Michelle Obama to the Democratic National Committee’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council (June 27, 2008) had only 56,805 views on YouTube as of August 7, 2009. Most Americans have never seen this side of Michelle Obama, just as most have not seen the side of her husband that celebrated America’s biggest abortion “provider,” Planned Parenthood, in a 2007 campaign speech. (That speech had only 84,875 views on YouTube as of Aug. 7.) Social liberals and “gay” activists will cheer this speech by Michelle; everyone else won’t recognize her vis-à-visthe “apolitical” First Lady described by the national media. (A transcript follows the video; emphasis and web links added.) — Peter LaBarbera
To put it in perspective: timeless truth from that “obscure” passage in the New Testament.–Ed.:
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (Romans 1:26-27)
I sent a version of the following letter to a “Christian” writer who appears to have accepted the Big Lie put forth by pro-homosexual ideologues and liberal religionists — that some people (in this case, his son) are intrinsically “gay”; that God “created” them that way (i.e., as a loving creation); and hence, by implication, that God approves of their homosexual behavior:
Dear Sir,
…. Are you saying that a holy God made your son to desire and have sex with other men — even though that same God in the Bible clearly and unequivocally condemns homosexual practice (Old and New Testaments)? Do you believe God designed nature so that “men who have sex with men” (MSM), to use sterile CDC terminology, even though MSM suffer disproportionately from all sorts of sexually transmitted diseases? With all due respect, I think that is an untenable position. (See Professor Rob Gagnon’s website, www.robgagnon.net, for more information on the Bible and homosexuality.)
Popular mega-church pastor says protecting the definition of marriage “very low” on his list of priorities
MEGA-PANDERING MEGA-PASTOR: “Purpose-Driven” Rick Warren sells out defense-of-marriage movement, telling CNN’s Larry King that he “apologized” to his homosexual friends for his role in supporting Prop 8, which reinstated the historic definition of marriage in California. Warren said he was “oblivious” to the Iowa supreme court’s ruling imposing “same-sex marriage.” Go to end of article to watch the YouTube video of Warren’s stunning CNN interview.
The following is excerpted from Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren’s interview with Larry King on CNN April 7 (emphasis added). Following that is a YouTube video of that segment of the interview (except the last few comments and questions from the transcript):
LARRY KING: … How did you handle all the controversy that resulted [from] the President selecting you [to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration]:
RICK WARREN: You know, Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told. In the first place, I am not an anti-gay- or anti-gay-marriage activist. [I] Never have been, never will be. During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never—never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.
The week before the—the vote, somebody in my church said, ‘Pastor Rick, what—what do you think about this?’ And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is—really should be defined, that that definition should be saved—between a man and a woman.
“I probably will get hate mail for saying this but this type of hookup culture is common in the homosexual world. Another guy in NY who did the same thing was murdered. And yes heterosexuals do it to, but no matter what type of sexual proclivity it is, SIN leads to death. The best course of action is to get out of the deadly sin business and live for Christ.“
–DL Foster, former homosexual and publisher of Gay Christian Movement Watch, commenting on the murder of homosexual New York City newsman George Weber.
DL Foster, founder of Gay Christian Movement Watch, and
the beautiful family that his former life of homosexuality could not have produced.
By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, I heartily recommend that you become regular readers of DL Foster’s important blog, Gay Christian Movement Watch, analyzing and monitoring the so-called “gay christian” movement. DL gets attacked often by loving and tolerant homosexual activists because he tells it like it is. Go there often, tell all your friends about it, and take a stand for truth with DL against those who would pervert the Gospel of Christ.
But I digress. Below Foster comments on the sad irony that less than a year before his death, George Weber — who was murdered by a 16-year-old boy he hooked up with for sex — complained about evangelical Christians witnessing at an airport. “Jesus freaks,” he called them. DL is right: many of America’s problems can be traced to the fact that there is so little fear of God in this nation. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12).
Homosexual activists are “using you as a patsy,” he tells evangelcal professor
Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton has escalated his homosexuality-affirming rhetoric in recent years, as he has sought to “expose” conservative Christians standing boldly against the GLBT agenda.
I was recently attacked by Grove City College Professor Warren Throckmorton on the false charge that I called for Uganda to force homosexuals into therapy. In recent months, Dr. Throckmorton has become the darling of the “gay” movement for his criticisms of ex-”gay” ministries and recovery methods. Without checking first with me, he took the word of “gay” activists about my recent mission in Uganda and blasted me on his blog. I exchanged e-mails privately with him about that matter, but a bigger issue deserves to be aired publicly, which is his endorsement of mutually consensual unions of principle of homosexuals who don’t want to change.
WARREN THROCKMORTON: The aim of Sexual Identity Therapy is a satisfied life – a client who believes that they have come to an integration of their conflicts, and we’re, by the way, only talking about people who are in conflict.
MIKE SIGNORILE: So you think it is normal, natural and healthy for people who come out and accept that being homosexual — accept being gay — and completely have no issues with their religious faith — you believe — would you describe the words as [strong emphasis by Signorile] “normal, natural and healthy” – that that is fine?
THROCKMORTON: Yes. Yes, I have been very clear about that in my public statements, that the efforts to demonize people who accept their homosexuality and come out as gay have been futile. The research–[Signorile cuts him off] …
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By Peter LaBarbera
Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.
