Charles Stanley and his son Andy represent two generations of Baptist pastors, one conservative and one emerging. Charles, 82, is the long-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, while Andy, 56, is the cool pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, an Atlanta suburb. One of their fundamental differences is their view of homosexuality. Charles believes that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexual marriage is absolutely wrong, based on the Bible, while Andy holds a broader, more “tolerant” view based on a “consensus.” In the book The New Rules for Love, Sex and Dating, Andy says, “My purpose in writing this book was not to push a religious or even my Christian agenda.” So much for God’s command to “preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2)! At an event in April promoting his “change maker’s” organization called Catalyst, Andy said, “We need to decide, regardless of what you think about this topic [homosexuality], no more students are going to feel like they have to leave the local church because they’re same-sex attracted or because they’re gay. That ends with us” (“Dr. Charles Stanley and Son Andy,” The Gospel Herald, Apr. 23, 2015). “Conservative” Charles Stanley built the bridges to the emerging church on which the second generation is treading, particularly by his broad-tent SBC philosophy and acceptance of contemporary worship music. I visited First Baptist of Atlanta in the 1990s and they were rocking even then. Many older independent Baptist preachers are building the same bridges and the result will be the same. Already many of the younger independent Baptist preachers have crossed the bridges of compromise and are walking in dangerous territory. (Friday Church News Notes, December 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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