Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV)

It’s Not Loving And Tolerant To Withhold Truth From Someone; It’s Hateful And Harmful

One of the defining issues of our lifetime figures to be how the mainstream evangelical community is going to deal with those insisting that the practice of sexual immorality, in the deviant lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex i.e. homosexuality, is not sinful for the Christian.

A few months ago I told you in Homosexuality, Megachurches, And Andy Stanley that looming only slightly off the horizon of the heart of the church visible there is indeed a same-sex storm that’s right now gathering hurricane force. So those of us who confront the pro-homosexual lobby are deemed homophobic.

I say it’s about time that we answer that baseless charge by offering that, just maybe, they are heterophobic. And the homoppression I refer to here is not telling the truth to someone, claiming to be Christian, who self-identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) and thereby leaving them under oppression in their sin.

For you see, as with any other sin, e.g. heterosexual adultery or fornication, we are specifically commanded to tell people the truth according to God’s Word:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

Here the comment of L. Ann Jervis, associate professor of New Testament at Wycliffe College, concerning the above Scripture—which is actually pretty Seeker Driven and Emerging Church-friendly—will prove helpful:

Addressing his readers as brothers, Paul turns to a fuller description of how a community living by the Spirit should behave.

He first says that if someone is caught in a sin those who are spiritual should restore him gently. In contrast to 5:21, where Paul warned that those who do sinful acts would not inherit the kingdom of God, here Paul addresses the practical situation of a believer doing wrong.

This circumstance does not  call for the believer to be excommunicated or handed over to Satan (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5). Instead, the transgressor is to be restored, “put in order,” corrected for his or her own good. ((L. Ann Jervis, New International Biblical Commentary [Peabody: Hendrickson, 2005], 153, bold hers.))

Well, we can’t very well restore someone until they are first “corrected for his or her own good,” now can we? Don’t go running down the rabbit trails. Sin, is sin; period. As our opening text tells us with crystaline clarity, unless one is willing to forsake it in the first place, i.e. repent ,they will not enter the Kingdom of God.

However it’s also wrong, not to mention downright cruel and unloving, to withhold the truth from precious LGBT souls for whom Christ died. The same goes for simply leave professing believers under the oppression of their sin should they transgress; and let’s not forget, Christians can do a lot a stupid things.

So the issue isn’t about whether or not Christians can commit sexual sin; only those with their heads deeply buried beneath the sand will deny that. Rather, the heart of the matter, is the appalling homopression and unloving refusal to follow what the Bible says concerning those openly practicing the sin of homosexuality.

It’s a largely unnoticed tragedy that so many today are flat-out lying to the LGBT community and telling them that they are just fine in the practice of their sin. They most certainly are not. The truth of the matter is neither they, or anyone else for that matter, can ever be in right standing with God while remaining in willful sin.

Some may ask at this point: Why is that Apprising Ministries has “singled out” those practicing homosexuality? Well, I’m so glad you asked. First of all, actually we have not; and secondly, I’ve yet to notice any websites for organizations such as Christ-Followers In Fornication, or We Are—Thieves 4 Jesus, or Adultermergent.

As I brought out before I have, however, been led by Emergence Christianity theologian Dr. Tony Jones to Queermergent; a website and group headed by “Christ-follower” and practicing lesbian Adele Sakler,  an LGBT advocate who was co-leader of Richmond Emergent Cohort, with whom I’ve had many run-ins.

Keep in mind that openly gay “Bishop” Gene Robinson used to be the overseer of the Episcopal churches in the state of New Hampshire where I currently reside; and the issue of homosexuality is one I also deal with within my own family. It really didn’t take a genius to figure out that I needed to begin covering it here.

I realized that the Lord was leading me to speak out against the homopression currently slithering into mainstream evangelicalism, just as it once did the now dead mainline denominations. In closing this, for now, I’ll give you a glaring example of this homopression at The Gay Christian Network (GCN).

Having already acknowledged the possibility of a gay Christian we turn now to their Help section under “frequently asked questions.” There we find a number of questions, which if one is not careful can, again, send us off chasing rabbits. A critical question there is: “Does the Bible condemn gay sex?”

Opening that link we’re told:

The Bible doesn’t discuss gay feelings, but it does discuss gay sex. There are only a handful of passages which mention same-gender sexual relationships, and all of them are negative.

There are basically two ways to interpret these passages, and gay Christians are divided on which is the appropriate one.

One view holds that the Bible does condemn gay sex, and that gay Christians should commit themselves to lifelong celibacy. This is the predominant view in the Roman Catholic Church, for example.

The other view holds that the Bible condemns certain sexual practices – including the homosexual sex rites of ancient pagan idol worship – but that God blesses a loving, monogamous, Christ-centered, same-sex marriage. A lot of information on this view can be found in the “Bible & theology” section of our resource page. (source, emphasis mine)

Let’s stick to the most important concerns, which I have highlighted above, and not wrestle with the snake here. Yes, there are kernels of truth within the eternally deadly lie. Those would be: 1) The Bible condemns “gay sex”; and 2) sadly, professing Christians really are divided concerning these passages.

However, the fatal poison that’s been injected is that there are two legitimate ways to interpret those admittedly negative passages. Frankly, the Christians who would try to reinterpret the Bible in this area are thinking with their feelings and are not going by what the text of Scripture actually says.

Whether well-meaning or not, these people are still falling for the oldest lie that the enemy has: “Did God actually say” (Genesis 3:1)? It’s so bad men and women that, tragically today, someone like me runs the risk of being branded homophobic because I happen to love LGBT people enough to tell them the truth.

But rather, it’s really those such as GCN and Tony Jones who are, in very fact, actually perpetrating a type of homopression—albeit sincerely—by lying to these LGBT people in Jesus’ Name. And shouldn’t the Body of Christ also love those others enough to admonish them to stop this madness, before it’s too late?

Further reading

• THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT
• EMERGENCE APOSTATE DOUG PAGITT INTERVIEWS GAY AFFIRMING “PASTOR” JAY BAKKER
• JAY BAKKER CRITIQUES KEN SILVA AT RELIGION DISPATCHES