Four years ago here at Apprising Ministries in Tony Jones: Stop Performing (Legal) Marriages I told you that there’s a very real reason why the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church de-formation of Christianity has been so interested in promoting the issue of same-sex, i.e. homosexual, marriage.

You see, once it is finally officially recognized as a legal marriage (and it’s only a matter of time) then their argument will be homosexual relations within “marriage” cannot be considered sin; to such as these, it’s considered their escape clause from what is a sin of sexual immorality.

Then the other day in World Vision U.S. to hire “Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages” I pointed out to you that gay affirming EC “pastor” Jay Bakker, who’s the son of the infamous Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, is a close friend of Emerging Church anti-theologian Tony Jones,

Another friend of Jones who is important to this conversation is Andrew Marin. ((http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2013/04/15/dan-savage-vs-andrew-marin/, accessed 4/25/14.)) If you don’t know, Marin is the President and Founder of The Marin Foundation and author of the book Love Is An Orientation. Keep in mind here that all of this is coming on the heels of Watermark Multnomah Dividing Against Itself.

There I showed you Watermark Multnomah has now published a pro-homosexual book by Matthew Vines ((Vines received notoriety “in 2012 when a video of him making the case that homosexuality is not a sin went viral.” )) who considers himself “a conservative evangelical.” ((http://bit.ly/1lPKX5o, accessed 4/25/14.)) Vines is also founder of The Reformation Project and makes the claim “to uphold the authority of the Bible.” In his book Vines, who is gay, does attempt to use Scripture.

However, he argues in vain that it does not condemn homosexual relations, even within “loving, same-sex relationships.” ((In Romans 1:26-27 the Bible clearly refers to homosexual relations as being contrary to nature as I show you e.g. Brief Word on the sin of Homosexuality.)) But getting back to Andrew Marin, here’s what’s important to understand about him before we get to Dan Haseltine of the widely popular contemporary Christian music (CCM) band Jars of Clay.

Marin still has the reputation of taking a conservative evangelical view concerning homosexuality, despite his sending quite obviously mixed signals. In addition, Marin’s bio as an author with InterVarsityPress gives us more indication of his influence within mainstream evangelicalism by informing us that Marin’s:

Foundation is quickly becoming a leading national organization in the Christian and mainstream cultures regarding religion and homosexuality. Specific to gays and Christians,

The Marin Foundation is focused on training and teaching churches around the country how to systemically build bridges with their local gay and lesbian community in order to make a significant impact for the kingdom. (source)

Be that as it may, let’s ask why Andrew Marin would wish to promote people like Jay Bakker, ((http://bit.ly/1pzeNRw, accessed 4/25/14.)) who shouldn’t be teaching a Sunday School class—let alone be considered a pastor—and Bakker’s horribly misguided teachings about homosexuality and God’s grace. Likely the reason is that they find common ground on same-sex marriage.

From my research, it appears they look forward to the day homosexual union becomes more widely recognized as a legal marriage; and as I see it, this only a matter of time in the United States. Then the argument people like Marin and Bakker will advance is that homosexual relations within “marriage” cannot be considered sin.

To those who hold such a view, it then becomes their escape clause from considering homosexuality a sin of sexual immorality. As more and more states within America make same-sex marriage legal,  you are absolutely going to find that younger evangelicals will be reveal they’re completely in agreement with those like Jay Bakker.

Now you’re positioned on the battlefield at the proper vantage point to best observe Dan Haseltine, front-man of Christian band Jars of Clay, takes to Twitter to support gay marriage over at Metro Weekly. This is a pro-hoomosexual publication which I’m not endorsing. In this piece from April 22 Chris Gerard writes:

Contemporary Christian music isn’t a format where one might think to look for vocal supporters of same-sex marriage, but as with anything else times are changing. Dan Haseltine, front-man for the popular Christian band Jars of Clay, yesterday took to his Twitter account in a series of posts supportive of same-sex marriage, posting “Not meaning to stir things up BUT… is there a non-speculative or non ‘slippery slope’ reason why gays shouldn’t marry? I don’t hear one.”

He went on to write “I’m trying to make sense of the conservative argument. But it doesn’t hold up to basic scrutiny. Feels akin to women’s suffrage. I just don’t see a negative effect to allowing gay marriage. No societal breakdown, no war on traditional marriage. ?? Anyone?” (source)

Leaving aside Haseltine’s red herrings, let me point out a couple of things that are important here. 1) Though most aren’t aware of it, Dan Haseltine began drifting from orthodox evangelicalism a couple of years ago, ((http://danhaseltine.com/blog/2012/7/19/an-unfinished-record-an-uncharted-path.html, accessed 4/25/14.)) and 2) he’s bringing up the same old tired arguments that have been also used e.g. by Emergents like Rob Bell. ((You can read his tweets in Et tu, Jars of Clay?))

These were long ago dealt with by reputable Christian apologists when they first began surfacing circa early 80’s when the pro-homosexual lobby first slithered into now mortally wounded liberal mainline denominations. There’s really nothing new here at all in what’s being advanced by Haseltine in his Twitter rants. ((Haseltine has since further elaborated upon his Twitter discussion: http://bit.ly/1lOEBaF, accessed 4/25/14.))

Then there’s another interesting post, Frontman For Christian Band Jars Of Clay Speaks Out For Marriage Equality by Evan Hurst at Truth Wins Out (TWO), another pro-homosexual outfit I do not recommend other than as source material. What Hurst offers is important, which is why I chose to bring this to your attention.

Hurst is “Associate Director” of TWO ((https://twitter.com/EvanHurst, accessed 4/25/14.)) as well as Co-Founder at The NALT Christians Project, ((http://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-hurst/61/748/597, accessed 4/25/14.)) which stands for Not All Like That “Christians proclaiming their belief in full LGBT equality.” ((http://notalllikethat.org, accessed 4/25/14.)) You need to realize here that, through Haseltine, all of this now moves one step closer to the youth/young adults in your church.

NALT Christian Evan Hurst tells us:

I grew up listening to Jars Of Clay in the 1990′s. They burst onto the scene in 1995 with a hit, “Flood,” that was played quite a lot on mainstream alternative radio, but if you bought their record, you would learn quickly that they were a decidedly Christian band, and have remained so for coming up on twenty years now. (source)

He goes on to explain the significance of the CCM act Jars of Clay: and brings us Hazentine’s Twitter discussion in support of homosexual marriage:

It’s hard to underestimate their impact on Contemporary Christian Music, either. They were at the forefront of a handful of acts that forced the rest of the industry to step up its game, in a big way.

Fast forward to 2014, and frontman Dan Haseltine is on Twitter, expressing support for marriage equality and forcing his followers to have a really hard conversation about why many of them are so unwilling to see their LGBT brothers and sisters as humans… (source)

Resisting the urge to wrestle with the snake, I’ll just point out that no one credible sees precious LGBT souls for whom Christ died as less than human. It’s after his quote from the article I referenced above from Chris Gerard that Hurst shares the following commentary concerning CCM artists:

Some readers may be surprised at this, but I’m not. Knowing musicians for my entire life, I am well aware that, even among conservative Christian circles, the artists are always ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to acceptance, tolerance and understanding people different from them.

Moreover, the Christian music industry, just like the rest of the music industry, is chock full of gay people. (source)

There’ no reason to doubt the truth of Hurst’s last statement; however, it would likely coma as a surprise to some. I also agree with Hurst in regard to many ostensibly “conservative Christian” artists who are full of “acceptance, tolerance and understanding,” which is LGBT-speak for being affirming of “Christian” homosexual behavior.

Here’s the very critical points I want you to take away from this. Of course CCM musicians, by and large, are squishy emerging types in general, so no surprise they’d be pro-gay. As I’ve warned you before, beware, there is a very dark and threatening same-sex storm looming just barely off the coast of your own local evangelical church.

With the things I’ve shown you in this piece alone, I’m sad to say that this homosexual whirlwind is, right now, beginning to approach hurricane force. I urge you to examine your  young adult and youth groups who’ve been listening to the messages of these CCM artists and supposedly conservative evangelicals like Andrew Marin.

If you do, you’ll likely find they’re quite familiar with rebels against the Word of God like Jay Bakker because of them. Now consider that years ago mainstream evangelical churches used their young as guinea pigs feeding them the corrupt teachings of Emergent leaders like Tony Jones and the warped and toxic messages of Rob Bell.

So, don’t be surprised to find they don’t hold to sola Scriptura and follow suit as Rob Bell comes out Gay Affirming.

Further reading

• JAY BAKKER CRITIQUES KEN SILVA AT RELIGION DISPATCHES
• JENNIFER KNAPP AND HOMOSEXUALITY
• HOMOPPRESSION IS AT LEAST AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA