Who will hold the line on sexual truth?
Pope Francis, Andy Stanley compromising on LGBTQ+ issues
(Photo credit: Andy Stanley photo is his profile photo on Twitter/X.
In one of the famous final scenes of the movie “The Patriot,” Mel Gibson, who plays the lead character Benjamin Martin, grabs the Colonial American flag screaming, “Wait! No Retreat! Hold the line! Hold the line!”
It’s a critical turning point because the Colonial Army wins that critical battle, and eventually the American Revolution.
Pastors and followers of Jesus Christ everywhere must hold the line for such a time as this. The defense of timeless objective sexual truth is required now more than ever in a culture screaming boys can be girls, girls can be boys, and your feelings are worth mutilating yourself.
A three-week meeting started Wednesday at the Vatican in Rome. Five cardinals, from Germany, the U.S., China, Mexico, and Guinea, wrote a letter, or dubia, to Pope Francis in July. The Vatican released the Pope’s response Oct. 2.
Pope Francis indicated a shift from two millennia of Roman Catholic teaching on homosexuality. He wrote:
For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage. For when a blessing is requested, one is expressing a request for help from God, a plea for a better life, a trust in a Father who can help us to live better.
If this happens, the American Roman Catholic church will be blessing same-sex marriages before the end of the decade. And with such a move, it would mark a tectonic shift in Western civilization. The Roman Catholic church, and the Protestant Reformation spawned from it, has anchored Western civilization with faith and family.
The left-leaning Catholic dioceses would celebrate such a move in a postmodern era where “your truth is not my truth” and a growing chasm between objective truth and reality. German bishops and lay people pushed this move in March. Meanwhile, bishops in Africa and Asia oppose this shift toward the god of this age.
American culture is now at the cultural climate change of chaos, confusion, upside down and backwards. This is the time for pastors, priests, and lay people around the world to scream, “No retreat! Hold the line! Hold the line!”
With eyes focused on the Vatican in coming weeks, the American evangelical world centered attention on Andy Stanley last weekend. Stanley, son of the late Charles Stanley and pastor of North Point Community Church (NPCC) in Alpharetta, GA hosted the Unconditional Conference on Sept. 28 and 29. The conference was billed for helping parents to affirm their gay or lesbian children. It included at least two speakers, Justin Lee and Brian Nietzel, living in same-sex relationships. WORLD magazine reported “Lee believes God blesses same-sex marriages, and Nietzel co-founded Renovus, a nonprofit that aims to create ‘a world where no one has to choose between their faith and sexual orientation.’ ”
Two other speakers were Greg and Lynn McDonald, who have gained popularity in non-denominational church circles, such as NPCC, WORLD magazine reported. On Oct.1, Stanley used his sermon in both services to tackle the criticism focused on him and NPCC surrounding this conference. The audio of Stanley’s sermon is linked here.
There is a move among some American evangelical churches to push the “third way.” One way says, “I can be gay and a Christian.” A second way says that is unscriptural and those in the homosexual lifestyles must “repent and believe” as stated in Mark. The third way states there is quieter middle ground.
The Unconditional Conference received attention in advance from Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and Charismatic podcaster Dr. Michael Brown, among others. Their contention is that the church is for sinners to “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15). Once someone accepts by faith the grace that only Jesus Christ can grant, that starts a life of transformation and sanctification, not “affirming” the gay lifestyle, or any other sin.
It’s not hard to see what happens next. Just as Mainline Protestant churches have plummeted in growth since the 1960s, that is the likely result here. Mainline Protestants now represent just 10 percent to 13 percent of the population, according to data compiled by researcher Ryan Burge. America also has seen these Mainline Protestant denominations encounter church splits over LGBTQ+ issues.
The challenge with non-denominational churches is the lack of church hierarchy because there is no denomination. Unless the Holy Spirit enlightens someone to false teaching and folks leave those churches, ears will get tickled, there will be no conviction of false teaching, and they will continue being deceived.
WORLD magazine also reported:
But he’s also no stranger to controversy related to his views on the Bible and sexuality. In 2018, Stanley suggested in a sermon that the Christian faith must be “unhitched” from the Old Testament. At a pastors’ conference last year, Stanley dismissed the Bible’s so-called ‘clobber passages,’ verses that speak directly against homosexuality.
In the days since his Sunday sermon, Stanley defended the conference, even saying homosexuality is a “defining attraction,” saying it’s immutable, or it doesn’t change.
Stanley, and other Christian thinking like this are in error. It is a loving thing to correct errors, as long as we speak the truth in love.
In John 8, Jesus is confronted by the scribes and Pharisees, who caught a woman in adultery. As the crowd gets armed with stones, Jesus stoops down to write on the ground. Jesus said in John 8:7 (NASB), “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Then, we get the standard for how Jesus dealt with sin in John 8:10-11 (NASB):
And straightening up, Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.’
