ROB BELL COMES OUT GAY AFFIRMING

By on Jul 26, 2012 in Current Issues, Emergence Christianity, Emergent Church, Features, Homosexuality/"Christian", Rob Bell

I would say that as a reader of Apprising Ministries this would not exactly come as a shock to you considering my longtime coverage of Rob Bell, the former rock star pastor of the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church operating within the Emerging Church.

You’re likely aware that September 22 of this past year Bell stepped down as teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, which he had planted. Christianity Today would later tell us in Reports: Rob Bell Working on TV Show with Lost’s Carlton Cuse that:

Rob Bell is reportedly working on a television drama called Stronger with Carlton Cuse, executive producer and screenwriter for the show Lost, according to New York magazine and Deadline.

New York’s Vulture site reports that the show will be loosely based on Bell’s life story as a musician and eventual founder of his church, Mars Hill Bible Church. (source)

So, we hadn’t heard much about Rob Bell until the other day in Rob Bell, He’s Back…Well, Almost where I told you that he has a new book coming out called What We Talk About When We Talk About God. While we wait for that, HarperOne (HO) is releasing the paperback version of Bell’s Love Wins mythology.

In fact, I showed you in Straightening Out Mickey Maudlin’s Lessons From Publishing Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” that back on July 16th HO’s SVP, Executive Editor and Director of Bible Publishing took to the Christian Wire with a press release. It appeared to me an attempt to try and begin to stir up a swirl to publicize it.

Which brings me to Rob Bell to Appear at a Livestream Event July 24; there we’re told:

“Still Painting” is a night of storytelling with Rob Bell. Many people have asked him “What’s next?” Rob will answer this question with stories. (source)

Vintage Rob Bell; postmodern storytelling which never definitively takes any real stance. The writer continues:

He may talk about the time he dressed up like a sheriff and it backfired. Or maybe the time he had a brain infection. Or an anecdote from writing Velvet Elvis. Or, possibly, he’ll share how sitting next to a stranger at dinner changed the direction of his life. He loves to tell these stories because they’re humiliating and painful and funny.  (source)

I’ll offer that another reason Rob Bell likes to tell stories is that he can then hide in their shadows and let the hearer attach their own meanings to them. Then we’re told:

These are the moments when it appeared that everything had fallen apart. The moments when he thought he’d lost all control. What he learned is that these moments not only belong in daily life, but they’re absolutely necessary for people to become who they truly are. And so they hunt and explore and discover. It’s all just part of it. They have to keep painting. (source)

Let me translate for you what the Bell-speak “keep painting” actually means: Keep making up their own versions of the Christian faith. In closing this out, for now, below I’ll give you an example of how this works for Rob Bell himself. The following comes from the Q&A session at the aforementioned Livestream Event.

Rob Bell is asked a question that is concerning the subject of sexual relations with another of the same sex aka homosexuality, which because it will always be outside the marriage covenant established by God, is a sin of sexual immorality. I’ll also provide you with a transcript as well after the clip.

When you watch this, as far as I see it, there can be no doubt in the mind of someone who is unbiased that—at the very least—Bell is gay affirming. ((e.g. see http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/03/hear_rob_bell_support_same-sex.html#incart_river_default)) Notice that man clearly sets himself apart from believers in Christ as he says: A lot of the words that Christians have for us have been very negative.

Those who think Rob Bell is an actual Christian minister of the Gospel need to note he never comes close to sharing the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name with this man. Instead, we get Love Wins mythology and a damnable lie: People in willful sin are “disciples of Jesus.”

One under the spell of Bell will take issue with me, but when asked what he thinks of alleged “negative” words by supposed “Christians” he lies to the man—whom we have every reason to believe in lost—telling him that LGBT people still in their sin are “our brothers and you’re our sisters.”

While Rob Bell is right, we love the precious LGBT souls for whom Christ died. However, we must love them enough to tell them the truth; they need to believe the Gospel and repent from their sin. No one who is unregenerate and in willful rebellion against God can be considered “passionate disciples of Jesus.”

Let me also draw to your attention this interesting bit of information Bell lets slip:

at an early age I was like, some people are gay; an’ God loves them just like God loves me.

Sounds like this has already been his warped and toxic position for many years now. This brings us back to Rob Bell’s storytelling and making up one’s own version of the Christian faith. That’s precisely what he’s done with that foolish statement. Can you show me where that is in the Bible, Rob?

Answer: No, he can’t. It isn’t there. Finally, notice how he sloughs off the issue of homosexuality and switches categories to supposed:

truly big problems in our world; that I believe Jesus would us to band together, and tackle together.

Not the Jesus of the Bible, which by the way is the only One there is, because He tells us the whole world is less important that one’s soul:

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36)

How sad that when given the opportunity to share the Gospel with, at least, that one soul Rob Bell chose to tell him he was already a brother and to merely make him comfortable in his sin. The fact is it’s way, way, past time to stop listening to those like Rob Bell in The New Downgrade With Its Apostles Of Unbelief.

[mejsvideo src=”https://www.apprising.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BellGay.mov” width=640 height=360]

Rob Bell: Yeah.

Man in audience: On a more serious note. You’re here in West Hollywood.

Bell: Yes.

Man: [Kind of] the epicenter center of the gay community in southern California.

Bell: Yes. Yeah.

Man: A lot of the words that Christians have for us have been very negative.

Bell: Yeah.

Man: What do you think about that?

Bell: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. We’re here in West Hollywood, epicenter of a lot of gay culture and you’re asking—some people are gay (pause) and you’re our brothers and you’re our sisters, and we love you.

We love you. (audience applauds) And it’s really, really, really, important that we’re clear. I had a good friend—when I was in my teens—who was gay. And hadn’t told anybody. An’ I was the first person he told.

And (pause) probably the most loving, generous, holy—one of the most—he was extraordinary, is extraordinary. But at an early age I was like, some people are gay; an’ God loves them just like God loves me.

And they’re passionate disciples of Jesus, just like I’m trying to be. So, let’s all get together and try to do something about the truly big problems in our world; that I believe Jesus would us to band together, and tackle together.

So there you go.

Further reading