Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:22-27, ESV)

Those Who Claim To Be So Tolerant Are Really The Most Cold-Hearted Of All

Today it’s not uncommon to hear evangelicals crying “homophobia” when, based upon its clear condemnation in the Bible, someone like myself  speaks out concerning the sin of practicing homosexuality. But I wonder: Where is the outrage against someone like Tony Jones of Emergence Christianity? You see Jones, who’s “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch of Doug Pagitt,” is lying to people concerning homosexuality e.g. practicing lesbian, co-leader of Richmond Emergent Cohort, and GLBTQ advocate Adele Sakler when he says:

I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state. (Online source, bold his)

So why aren’t people, who say they love Jesus, angry about Jones’ homopression of GLBTQ people by withholding God’s Gospel from them, and instead, oppressing them by leaving GLBTQ people in their sin? Because if someone loves truly loves someone else they will tell them the truth; and Jesus said to God the Father — “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17, KJV). Yet how sad that Sakler tells the world how Emerging Church philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins, a friend of Emergent Church icon Rob Bell, was:

a HUGE part of my coming to terms with my sexuality and reconciling it with G-D. i am forever indebted to you, my dear friend. THANK YOU!

Adele (Online source)

And where is Bell’s most influential voice while the awful injustice of this homopression of GLBTQ people is being perpetrated? As you can see in the Apprising Ministries piece Where Does Rob Bell Stand Regarding The Practice Of Homosexuality? when an AM correspondent wrote his Mars Hill Bible Church all we received was a form letter which says nothing at all concerning this important Christian issue. Hmm, and here we thought Rob is supposed to be the champion for Jesus against social ills; then why the timid silence?

You may also recall that in Rob Bell hits Lexington and a Packed-Out House Christian scholar Ben Witherington, who’s definitely not one of those who have questionable mental states in the “cult” of so-called ODMs dreamed up by Rick Warren apologist Richard Abanes, told us about a li’l problem of:

ethics, which became very apparent tonight when Rob Bell was asked about homosexuality. His answers was evasive in part, and disturbing in other parts, and clearly unBiblical in other parts and in this he sounds like some other leaders in the Emergent Church movement. Some specifics should be mentioned.

First of all, Rob made the blanket statement that you have no moral authority to speak on this issue unless you have gay friends and understand their struggle. While I am all for having pastoral empathy with people and their struggles, on that showing, Paul should never have spoken on this issue at all. This comment by Rob is simply an unhelpful way of silencing important voices in a divisive conversation, and its not helpful. Indeed it goes against the whole M.O. of Rob himself, which is to honor other people’s views and beliefs and questions.

Secondly, Rob then makes an argument from silence which is in fact misleading. The argument is this— “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality”. This is not quite true. Jesus took all sorts of sexual sin very seriously, even adultery of the heart, as Rob admits, and so it is no surprise then that we find Jesus telling his disciples in Mt. 19 that they have only two legitimate options: 1) marital fidelity (with marriage being defined as a relationship between one man and one woman joined together by God which leads to a one flesh union), or 2) being a eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom. (Online source)

But apparently we’re just supposed to give Rob Bell a pass here. Why? Well, because he’s Rob; he’s so Biblical, and he’s cool and so loving, right. Wrong. Even the notorious heretical “Bishop” John Shelby Spong, a scholar slithering along the liberal lines of Living Spiritual Teacher and “Progessive Christian” scholar Marcus Borg, admits the Bible—God’s Word (and Jesus is God)—condemns the practice of homosexuality. Consider the following from a November 1989 edition of The John Ankerberg Show.

Spong says to Ankerberg:

Spong: But let me say that I do not disagree that homosexuality is condemned in Scripture. I do not agree with that.

Ankerberg: Yes, you’ve said that before.

Spong: I think that is obvious. It’s in Leviticus; it’s in the Sodom and Gomorrah story; it’s in the Pauline  corpus at least, and probably some other places…

Ankerberg: All right, we’re…

Spong: The issue in my mind is not that. The issue is whether or not the people who lived at the time of the Bible and who wrote about homosexuality understood the scientific meaning of homosexuality. (Spong/Martin Debate on Sexual Ethics, transcript 9, 10, emphasis mine)

Lord willing, should He sustain me we’ll unpack that further another time. For now I will simply point out that the only way around what the Bible quite literally says about the practice of homosexuality, which is sexual immorality with someone of the same sex, is to dispute the doctrine of verbal, plenary inspiration of these writings. And to do so you must then deny 2 Timothy 3:16 — All [not just some] Scripture is God-breathed [Greek: Theopneustos] i.e. breathed by God through His human authors as a creative act.

O, and as far as Rob Bell’s comment that “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality,” he’s probably just having some provocative postmodern phun at our expense. You see, Bell is reputed to be very Jesus-centered in his own ministry, and as you can read in Most Mainline Protestants Say Society Should Accept Homosexuality, when he planted MHBC Rob tells us he even:

preached through Leviticus—verse by verse… We ventured into its lair and let it devour us, trusting that God would deliver us with a truer picture of his Son… Leviticus—is alive… many people don’t see the connection between the Moses part and the Jesus part. But Moses’ Leviticus is all about Jesus. (Online source, emphasis mine)

Rob Bell is right; “Leviticus is all about Jesus,” and therefore he should know very well that, as the Creator God (see—John 1:1-4), it was Jesus Who said — “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22, NASB). And so, I will it yet ask again: Why is there no evangelical outrage over this despicible Emerging Church homopression of the precious GLBTQ people for whom Jesus also died?

See also:

APPRISING MINISTRIES: SHOCKING NEW EVIDENCE JESUS CONDEMNED THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUALITY

HOMOSEXUALITY AMONG SIN OF OUR TIMES

ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER

BUT DO EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY AND BRIAN MCLAREN REALLY LOVE GAY PEOPLE?

SADNESS FOR “GAY CHRISTIANS”

WE FEEL HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A SIN

REJECTING SOLA SCRIPTURA OPENS THE DOOR FOR LESBIAN EPISCOPAL PRIESTS