Jay Bakker Is Wrong – God’s Grace Doesn’t Lead Us into Sin

Jay Bakker

Note: here is a previous AFTAH article on homosexuality-affirming apostate Jay Bakker: “The Latest Bakker Scandal”. We hope Jay repents and gets back to defending Bible truth rather than subverting it. (Did you know that God spoke personally to Jay and told him that homosexuality is not a sin? Quick, launch a massive recall of all those “homophobic” Bibles so they can be updated with Bakker’s politically correct “truth”!) And don’t get me started on confused Wheaton College alum Cathleen Falsani, praised HERE by renegade “evangelical” Brian McLaren (never a good sign). Phil Magnan is right on below: God does not enable sin but in His great love and mercy helps repentant sinners overcome it [listen to our interview with former homosexual DL Foster HERE]. Those who shill for “gay christianity” (small ‘c’) are denying Jesus Christ’s — God’s –power to transform the lives of humbled sexual sinners. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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God’s Grace Doesn’t Lead Us into Sin

By Phil Magnan, President, Biblical Family Advocates

It isn’t as though you want to throw stones at this guy. I truly pity Jay Bakker and the people he met in this article in the liberal Huffington Post. Bakker, the son of the past televangelist, Jim Bakker, is so lost in his interpretation of what grace really means. If you read the article, it’s an eye opener of what we are up against — in which, so-called preachers are leading others into sin. Bakker pastors his own church but according to this article, he is sliding into apostasy with the best of intentions.

You can tell that the “drag” crowd about which Bakker writes yearn to be accepted, but on their terms and not on God’s terms. Jesus came into the world to call sinners to repentance; not acceptance to live in sin. We truly need to reach out to the lost, including the homosexual community. But real love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, it rejoices in the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6)

You see, when people live in the real truth, it will set them free! But when you think that grace leads you to sin more, you do not have grace at all. In fact, Jesus said He would declare that He never knew us if we embrace sin. There is no question that we all want grace and forgiveness from God; but the grace He gives enables and teaches us to deny ungodliness.

As the scripture says in Titus 2:11-15; “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority Let no one disregard you.”

These false shepherds are leading people into sin as they have transformed the grace of God into license for sin. As Jude 1:4 affirms: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

I would implore all pastors and believers alike to consider the fact that God has indeed called us to liberty; but that liberty should not be used as an opportunity for the flesh, but through real love serve others. (Galatians 5:13) Helping others to practice sin is one of the greatest acts of disservice we can do to our neighbor. So how are we walking in love if we cause one another to stumble into the bondage of sin?

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Excerpt from Jay Bakker’s article in Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-bakker/finding-jesus-in-drag_b_812159.html

Finding Jesus, in Drag

Cathleen Falsani (aka God Girl) caused quite a stir here at HuffPost when she cited my new book “Fall to Grace” as evidence of a potential “great gay awakening” in the evangelical church.

The response was heated: 1,400 posts (and counting) filled with everything from enthusiastic support, to reasoned dissent, to emoticon-happy vitriol. Things got so unruly at Cathleen’s own website that she shut down the comments thread and posted an instructional video on how to administer hugs.

This column isn’t the space for a blow-by-blow account of the biblical passages on homosexuality. (For that, you’ll have to check out my book. Nudge, nudge.) Instead, I’d like to challenge readers with a story about my own struggle to overcome the fear of judgment and live grace.

During a trip to California a few years back, my then-wife Amanda and I were invited out to a drag show by RuPaul, the famous drag queen (recording artist, supermodel, VH1 talk-show host, etc.) who did the voice-over for the 2000 documentary about my mom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

The invitation came at a delicate moment in my own spiritual evolution. I was working my way toward becoming a gay-affirming pastor — someone who welcomes gay people into the church without asking them to compromise their love or lifestyle — but I hadn’t yet declared this position publicly. Frankly, I was really nervous about how the Christian magazines and festival organizers and even some of my Christian friends would react if they knew I’d been to a drag show.

I came up with lots of excuses not to accept the invitation: I told myself that I was trying to gradually bring conservative Christians around to a more loving and understanding attitude toward our LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) brothers and sisters in Christ. And I thought that meant not reinforcing stereotypes or inflaming fears about the gay community — and you don’t get more flaming than a RuPaul drag show!

In the end, I decided to overcome my fears and go. (When the queen of drag queens invites you to a drag show, you really don’t have a choice.) Thank God I did.

When we arrived at the club, RuPaul said hello and ushered us in past the crowd thronging outside. There were about ten of us in the VIP area. It was a very hip group including risqué celebrities like Dita Von Teese, the famous burlesque dancer who was married to the singer Marilyn Manson. The first half of the show passed without incident. Then, during intermission, I stepped outside to have a cigarette. While I was standing there, one of the drag queens — a seven-foot tall black man in heels who was wearing a massive replica of the Eiffel Tower on his head — approached to say that he was a preacher’s kid too and that he had grown up in the church. He went on to explain how much he loved my mom and how worried he was about her cancer.

“Please tell your mom that I’m praying for her and that I love her,” he said, Eiffel Tower bobbing as he spoke.

“Well, let’s get a picture together so I can show my mom who you are,” I said, letting my guard down a little and taking a photo with him. Stubbing out my cigarette, I went back inside for the second half of the show.

Near the end of the show, a drag queen got up onstage and began spotlighting the famous people in the crowd: “Dita Von Teese is here!” (cheers). “And RuPaul is here!” (cheers). And all of a sudden he said, “Did anyone here ever watch the Praise the Lord ministry?”

I thought, Oh, no, here it comes. But half the crowd raised their hands and cheered (and chuckled). I think they were expecting someone to come out and impersonate my mom or something. “Well, Jim and Tammy’s son, Jamie, is here,” the emcee said. And suddenly, this huge spotlight hit me.

As I blinked into the blinding light, the emcee asked teasingly, “Are you straight?”

“Yeah,” I said, blushing and pointing a thumb at my wife, Amanda.

“Lucky girl,” the emcee said.

And then the emcee got real serious. Standing there in high heels and a sparkly dress, he said: “You know, this is where Jesus would be if He were alive today. Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners … ” He then launched into a three-minute speech about how Jesus loved everybody without judgment.

Then he looked back up at me and asked, “Jay, are you still doing your church?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s so wonderful. Best of luck to you on that.” And everybody clapped.

So there I was, stunned, not knowing what to make of this. One minute a drag queen was making cracks about whether I’m gay, and the next minute he was saying these really amazing things about Jesus and grace. I looked over at Amanda, not knowing what to expect, and she had tears in her eyes.

To read the rest of the Huffington Post article, go HERE.