Dr. Rob Gagnon has posted a new article enlightening the reader on four points:

1. Did the debate over homosexuality trigger divisions over Scriptural authority among mainline Protestants or did those differences already exist when discussion about ordaining gays started?
2. Why is it that Protestants with different understandings about Scripture seemed to peacefully co-exist at one time, but appear unable to do so now?
3. Why has this debate gone on for so long?
4. Is there any way to reconcile differing views over homosexuality and interpreting Scripture?

He concludes that the decision which must be faced by each mainline denomination regarding the homosexuality issue is this:

They will operate either under the motto that innate biological urges are Lord, and we their slaves, or under the motto that Jesus is Lord even of such urges.

From his interview with Jake Shears:

“Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.”

“From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it… But the reality is that organised religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate…”

I am reminded of a phrase from II Peter 2:12: “blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.”

It is not enough to “love the idea of” the teachings of Jesus; we must actually love and delight in the teachings themselves (Psalm 1), which include the command to evangelize and to respect the church, the bride of Christ:

“Go and *make disciples* of all nations, *baptizing them* in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, *teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.*” – Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will *keep* my commandments” (John 14:15). – Sonja Dalton

From Gay Culture and the Riddle of Andrew Sullivan, by Dr. Albert Mohler, published Oct 27, 2006:

Andrew Sullivan is a man of ideas. In recent years, Sullivan has emerged as one of the most influential intellectuals in American public life. Furthermore, he has been identified with some of the most controversial issues of our times–a fact that is hardly surprising given his libertarian view of morality, conservative views of politics, Roman Catholic views of Christianity, and the fact that he is a prominent homosexual advocate…

In the October 24, 2005 issue of The New Republic, Sullivan writes about “The End of Gay Culture.” Of course, Sullivan’s perspective on homosexuality and gay culture is deeply rooted in his own homosexuality and his ardent embrace of his own homosexual lifestyle. He is anything but a dispassionate observer…

As he reviews the impact of the HIV crisis, Sullivan points to some patterns that emerged in its aftermath–patterns that would likely be missed by those outside the gay subculture. The emergence of lesbians as leaders of the major gay rights organizations was, Sullivan suggests, largely due to the fact that the gay male leaders were largely dead…

“Gay marriage is not a radical step,” Sullivan insisted…

But, even as Sullivan argued for the acceptance and legalization of same-sex marriage, more radical homosexual theorists were dismissing marriage altogether. As Sullivan explained,

“Marriage of all institutions is to liberationists a form of imprisonment; it reeks of a discourse that has bought and sold property, that has denigrated and subjected women, that has constructed human relationships into a crude and suffocating form. Why on earth should it be supported for homosexuals?”

Sullivan’s 1995 book, and his most recent article, must be read in light of his 1998 testimonial, Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival. This book was written after Sullivan had been diagnosed as HIV-positive. As he recalled:

“I contracted the disease in full knowledge of how it is transmitted, and without any illusions about how debilitating and terrifying a diagnosis it could be. I have witnessed first-hand a man dying of AIDS; I have seen the ravages of its impact and the harrowing humiliation it meant. I had written about it, volunteered to combat it, and tried to understand it. But I still risked getting it, and the memories of that risk and the ramifications of it for myself, my family, and my friends still forced me into questions I would rather not confront, and have expended a great deal of effort avoiding.”

When a high school friend asked Sullivan how he had contracted the virus, Sullivan informed him that he had no idea which sex partner had been the source of the viral transmission. “How many people did you sleep with, for God’s sake?,” his friend asked. Note Sullivan’s answer carefully:

“Too many, God knows. Too many for meaning and dignity to be given to every one; too many for love to be present at each; too many for sex to be very often more than a temporary but powerful release from debilitating fear and loneliness.”

In other words, the public Andrew Sullivan emerged as a major proponent of responsibility, stability, and self-control, while the private Andrew Sullivan was deeply involved in homosexual promiscuity.

All this broke into public view in 2001, when a homosexual columnist discovered that Sullivan had been posting advertisements for unprotected homosexual sex at internet web sites. The ensuing controversy within the gay community was vitriolic, even as it was revealing.

“The End of Gay Culture” is an eye-opening essay. As an exercise in cultural analysis, it demonstrates genuine insight and an insider’s perspective. More than anything else, Sullivan’s article should awaken thinking Christians to the fact that homosexuality is being normalized in the larger culture. This surely represents a matter of urgent missiological concern, for the normalization of sin represents a progressive hardening of the nation’s heart against the Gospel.

At a more personal level, this article reminds me to pray for Andrew Sullivan. I say this even as I realize that he may be more offended by my prayer than by anything else. In most of his writings, Mr. Sullivan demonstrates a consistent and ardent determination to celebrate homosexuality as central to his own self-discovery and personhood. Yet, he also reveals significant doubts. When he explains that he “never publicly defended promiscuity” nor publicly attacked it because “I felt, and often still feel, unable to live up to the ideals I really hold,” I detect a glimmer of doubt. I have faced Mr. Sullivan in public debate on issues related to homosexuality. I consider him to be among the most gifted, thoughtful, and unpredictable intellectuals on the current scene. More than anything else, I want Mr. Sullivan to find his self-identity and deepest passions in the transforming power of Christ–the power to see all things made new. Without apology, I pray that one day he will see all that he has written in defense of homosexuality, and all that he has known in terms of his homosexual identity, as loss, and to find in Christ the only resolution of our sexuality and the only solution to the problem we all share–the problem of sin.

Andrew Sullivan has been a focus of my prayer since I first learned of his HIV-positive status. I do pray that God will give him strengthened health and the gift of time. After all, our Christian concern should be focused not only on the challenge of homosexuality in the culture, but the challenge of reaching homosexuals with the love of Christ and the truth of the Gospel.

Continue reading at Albert Mohler…

From NAE and All Evangelicals Must Seek The Lord — Haggard Failure May Explain Liberal Drift of NAE, a press release from Rob Schenk, president of the Evangelical-dominated National Clergy Council in Washington, DC, and chairman of the Committee on Church and Society for the Evangelical Church Alliance:

The moral failure of recently resigned president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Rev. Ted Haggard, may explain in part the leftward drift of the organization over the last several years. It has been a mystery to many of us who watched this venerable institution shake lose of its once secure foundation and slide onto the shifting sands of political correctness, postmodern jargon and social trends. Whether its immediate past president’s troubles came before or after this slide is not as important as what its board of directors does next. The NAE has an opportunity to make a critically important course correction.

I recommend NAE leadership call all of us who label ourselves Evangelicals to a time of humble repentance, contrition and seeking the Lord and His will. Instead of concerning ourselves with what rock superstar Bono thinks we ought to do, let’s instead inquire of the Lord and His Word. Let’s repair the Temple, as King Josiah did, and bring out the Book instead of the polls. Let’s read God’s Holy Law and forget the New York Times.

The NAE will need a leader who holds God’s Word above all else, who is keenly aware of our human predilection toward rebellion against God and His moral will and who sets the organization’s agenda only by the time-tested dictates of the Book. Being a Christian has never been a popularity contest. Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

We are all deeply saddened to see a brother fall, a family suffer, a church injured and reproach of the ministry of the Gospel. We must pray for the repair of the Haggard family, for the accuser to find salvation and deliverance, for the New Life Church to be restored and the NAE to find solid biblical direction. As we do, we must look inward to see our own failings and bring to the Lord the fruit of repentance.

As Evangelicals are once again put in the spotlight this Tuesday, Election Day, let’s tell the reporters at the voting stations, “I don’t take my cues from Ted Haggard, or party leaders or pollsters and pundits. I prayed today, read my Bible and asked the Lord alone to help me. Then, I cast my vote. Now, I pray, ‘thy will be done.’”

Let’s see this episode as a gift from our Heavenly Father who chastens those He loves.

“And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage.” (Ezra 9:8)

A reader reacted to a quote cited here:

“Have the churches that sponsor Hell Houses forgotten that the New Testament teaches us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself?’ Have they forgotten that Jesus taught that we must love and include everyone? Cloaking hate in Christian language does not mean that it is not hateful or harmful. Religious leaders know that sexual difference is a blessed part of our endowment. These Hell Houses are fear-based education at their worst; their homophobic and anti-choice messages must be exposed.” — Rev. Debra W. Haffner

His response to Ms. Haffner…

You need to read the book of Jude [written by the half-brother of Jesus Himself] which is in the New Testament. Love is not a temporal thing; it is eternal. If the New Testament is to be believed then using fear to save someone from eternal damnation is an act of love because you snatch them from the fire by fear. (Jude 1:23) It is neither loving nor kind not to tell someone that they are standing in the railroad tracks when a train is coming just because they don’t believe in trains.

Jude 1

1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called:

1:2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like * * manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

1:8 Likewise * * also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh * *, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

1:16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

1:17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

1:18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

1:19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

1:22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:

1:23 And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Agape <>< Mark Rouleau Rockford, IL

This pastor put in writing what I have repeatedly said to friends regarding the UCC’s “God Is Still Speaking” campaign. Hebrews 1:1 says…

Long ago, at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days *He has spoken* to us by his Son…

There is no new revelation on divorce or pre-marital sex or adultery or homosexuality; there is no other name by which we must be saved. “God has spoken.” – Sonja Dalton

LET IT BE KNOWN:

As Jesus did not come to change the law, but to fulfill it, His obedient Church has no authority to change the ancient laws prohibiting fornication and adultery, nor those prohibiting homosexual acts. It was Jesus who affirmed the old teaching that a MAN cleaves to a WOMAN, husband to wife, in a sanctified union. Those who teach otherwise – including the President, officers, delegates and ministers in the United Church of Christ – are Satan’s false prophets and blind leaders who lead the unwise and naive to the Pit of Sheol. We have heard their protestations of holiness, but Jesus has taught us it is not those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the Kingdom, but those who do God’s will.

The God who is still speaking is not one whose word changes with our whims – but who changes us instead, to willingly listen and eagerly do what we have read in the holy scriptures inspired by the Lord – indeed, who through them has already spoken!

Rev. Albert W. Kovacs, Pastor
Hungarian Reformed Church
Woodbridge, New Jersey

A letter to Allyson Smith and Americans for Truth…

From: Nick B
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:47 AM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: [AFT Web Site] What’s wrong with you?

The following message was sent from the Americans for Truth Web site:

I learned this morning that you people have gotten the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence kicked out of our local church. Why do you want to prevent organizations that serve the homeless, hungry, and sick from getting the help they so desperately need. The Sisters raise alot of money that is all given back to the community. You have stopped this. Why? Are you really filled with so much hate that you have no room for Christ’s love? You aren’t going to give one dime to help any of these people- to feed them, house them,heal them. Neither will the local Catholic Archdiocese. You all are false prophets who use Christ’s name to hurt others. You are the devil for trying to get people to deny the creation that God made them. You seek to hurt people that you deem lower than you- that is the work of the devil. If you feel better when you harm others that is on you. But don’t hurt others in the name of Christ. A Real Christian

Allyson Smith’s eloquent response…

Dear Nick B.,

Thank you for writing to Americans for Truth. It’s good to hear from you.

However, I’m afraid you have gotten your facts wrong. Neither I nor Americans for Truth got the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence “kicked out” of Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco’s homosexual Castro district. We did not stop the bingo games; the San Francisco Archdiocese did. Your quarrel is with them.

After learning of the games from another source, I as a faithful Catholic simply wrote an open letter to pastor Stephen Meriwether, with a copy to the Archdiocese, demanding the games be stopped because they make a mockery of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ Who died to save sinners, including me and all homosexuals, and because they flout authentic Catholic doctrine which declares that homosexual acts are acts of deep depravity. I am not the only person who did so. Orthodox Catholics from throughout the United States
contacted the Archdiocese after learning of this situation.

You are also off-base in assuming that Americans for Truth wants to prevent organizations from serving the homeless, hungry, and sick — yes, including those who are sick with HIV/AIDS due to their own personal, preventable behaviors. But there are other ways to help such people than by holding sexualized bingo games in a Catholic parish hall with men who dress up in drag nun costumes and give away pornographic DVD and sex toy prizes.

In April 2005, I prayed at the hospice bedside and witnessed the holy death of a former homosexual friend who died of the AIDS scourge. The difference in his case is that he amended his life and sought forgiveness from Jesus Christ for his former sinful life before he passed away. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence not only refuse to repent; they parade their sin openly in “gay pride” events and other venues, including Most Holy Redeemer parish.

Jesus Christ forgave the woman caught in adultery, but he also told her to go and sin no more. (John 8:3-11). He offers the same forgiveness to all, if we will take Him up on His invitation to turn away from iniquity. All of us are sinners. No one is higher or lower than anyone else in that respect, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“Real Christians” recognize sodomy as an egregious sin that destroys individual lives and entire societies. Real Christians turn away from homosexuality and refuse to condone, rationalize, or abet it. I pray you will do the same.

Allyson Smith

Our friend, Dr. Rob Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has a new article up online:

Jack Rogers’s Flawed Use of Analogical Reasoning in Jesus, the Bible, & Homosexuality.

Dr. Gagnon is arguably the foremost theologian on the issue of homosexuality and the Bible; his books and articles are an invaluable resource. This installment is his fifth in a series of critiques on Jack Rogers’s book, Jesus, the Bible, & Homosexuality. A few of the points he covers in this article are:

• Why slavery and the role of women are poor analogies to homosexuality
• Refuting the claim of a pattern of misusing the Bible to justify oppression
• Rogers’s misguided remarks about promiscuity and homosexuality
• Is homosexuality advocacy threatening?