The large GracePointe Church near Nashville has changed its stance on “gay Christianity.” After country music star Carrie Underwood, who attends GracePointe, spoke in favor of “gay marriage” in 2012, the pastor led the church in a three-year process of “listening on the topic of sexual orientation and identity.” Though the issue has been settled in Scripture for thousands of years and Bible-believing churches since the apostles have universally treated homosexuality as a sin to be repented of, the very modern senior pastor Stan Mitchell has led GracePointe to accept homosexuals into “the full privileges of membership,” including “being able to serve in leadership.” It is yet another example of how that the ears of this generation itch for new things, and there are heaps of teachers willing to scratch that itch (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Mitchell said that the responsibility for homosexual church members will be the same as for heterosexual members, which includes “holiness and godliness,” thus calling good evil and evil good. No amount of “listening” and cunning exegesis can change the Bible’s simple and clear teaching that marriage is limited to one man and one woman and that any sexual relationship apart from sacred marriage is sin before God. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Mitchell framed the issue in terms of “love.” If we love the homosexual, we are supposed to sympathize with his condition rather than sit in judgment on him. In fact, the issue is love, but the first direction of our love must be toward God, as per His first law, and toward His infallible Word which cuts against the grain of this proud generation. Further, the call for sinners to repent is the truest definition of love, for this makes it possible for them to have a right relationship with God. Mitchell also framed the issue in terms of inclusion. He said, that “inclusion means that we can live together in agreement and disagreement.” That is not what Paul taught the churches. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be NO DIVISIONS among you; but that ye be PERFECTLY JOINED TOGETHER IN THE SAME MIND and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). There is no unity in diversity here. We don’t know what the long-term effect will be at GracePointe, but in the short-term, Time magazine reports (“Nashville Evangelical Church Comes Out for Marriage Equality,” Jan. 29, 2015) that the church’s attendance and offering are half of what they were before the announcement. (Friday Church News Notes, February 6, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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