(Photo: Reuters/Daniel Munoz)LGBT rights activists hold a rainbow flag in central Sydney in this file photo from August 11, 2012.
Robert* grew up in a strong Christian family and attended a large,
conservative evangelical church. In high school, he was active in his
church's youth group. and after graduating, attended a conservative
Christian college and got involved in ministry.
By all appearances, Robert was a well-adjusted and healthy, young
Christian man. Yet during college, Robert confessed to his family and
Christian friends that he struggled with attraction to other men.
Robert's family and Christian friends responded with love and
compassion. His parents didn't shun or shame him, but instead expressed
support. Similarly, Robert's friends continued to include him in their
social group. And his church responded with open arms, allowing him to
serve in leadership, so long as he resisted acting upon his same-sex
desires.
Yet no one seemed to know how to help Robert.
His parents sent him to a secular therapist, who helped Robert
recognize some unhealthy relational patterns in his family and process
an incident of sexual abuse from middle school. Robert found this
helpful, but it didn't lessen his same-sex attraction.
The leaders at Robert's church tried to be sympathetic to his
struggle. And in an effort to show they were listening, they went with
Robert and a family member to a conference sponsored by the Gay
Christian Network (GCN) – now Q Christian Fellowship.
But this conference only convinced Robert that his same-sex attraction
was immutable and encouraged him to embrace gay identity. Soon after the
conference, he did. And shortly after that, he began engaging in gay
relationships.
Robert's church leaders didn't condone Robert's behavior and urged
him to resist his same-sex desires. A few times, Robert repented of his
homosexual behavior and vowed to stop. But after three years of
struggle, Robert gave in. He began living openly as a gay man and left
his church. His parents left too, and began attending a gay-affirming,
mainline church.
Robert's story is heartbreaking, but it is also increasingly common.
There was a time when the majority of conservative, evangelical churches
believed that healing was possible for sexually broken people, even if
very few knew how to administer that healing. But now all the church
seems capable of offering is a sympathetic ear. Few offer any hope of
deliverance. Few believe in supernatural power. All that's left is
handwringing and the ineffectual repeating of biblical prohibitions.
It's no wonder conservatives are rapidly losing ground when it comes to
LGBTQ issues..
The Revoice Conference & the Church's Failure
This sad state of affairs in the church is on full display this summer as conservative Christians debate the upcoming Revoice Conference. This conference at the end of July has been endorsed by several leading evangelicals and is being held at a church in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
– generally regarded as a more conservative, biblically-faithful
denomination. Revoice organizers also state on their website that they
"believe that the Bible restricts sexual activity to the context of a
marriage covenant, which is defined in the Bible as the emotional,
spiritual, and physical union of a man and a woman that is ordered
toward procreation."
Yet as several conservative Christian leaders have rightly noted,
Revoice crosses a line that biblically-orthodox Christians should not
cross – that is, it claims that LGBT identity is compatible with
Christianity. The Revoice website openly states, "We envision a future
Christianity where LGBT people can be open and transparent in their
faith communities about their orientation and/or experience of gender
dysphoria without feeling inferior to their straight, cisgender brothers
and sisters."
As Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently noted in a podcast,
this language is significant – and problematic. "What is implied in
that language?" he asks. "Well, at least a part of what's implied . . .
is that this kind of sexual orientation or sexual identity gets right to
the very being of an individual."
Embracing gay identity clearly contradicts Scripture. As the apostle
Paul makes abundantly clear in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, believers root
their identity in Christ, not their sin tendencies. "From now on,
therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh . . . " Paul writes.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
passed away; behold, the new has come."
Yet as Revoice shows, embracing gay identity is becoming increasingly
popular among Christians. In fact, it is a hallmark of two of the four
major views in the church regarding LGBTQ issues. And sadly, among the
two other views, only one proclaims any hope to those struggling with
same-sex and transgender issues.
The Four Main Views on LGBTQ Issues
As the graphic below produced by Portland Fellowship illustrates,
there are four schools of thought within the church regarding LGBTQ
issues. The "revel" school encourages both embrace of gay identity and
behavior. The "resist" school encourages embrace of gay identity, but
not behavior. The "renounce" school rejects both gay identity and
behavior, but is silent or opposed to any efforts to heal sexual
brokenness. And only one school, labeled "rebuild," proclaims hope and
healing to those struggling with same-sex and transgender issues.
The Revoice conference falls squarely within the "resist" category.
Though it's commendable that those within this camp reject gay behavior,
their embrace of gay identity is tragic.
But Revoice organizers go even further. They actually suggest that
LGBT identity can be a virtue. As presenter Grant Hartley states,
"Christians have often discarded the virtues of queer culture along with
the vices . . . So questions that have until now been largely
unanswered remain: what does queer culture (and specifically, queer
literature and theory) have to offer us who follow Christ? What queer
treasure, honor, and glory will be brought into the New Jerusalem at the
end of time (Revelation 21:24-26)?"
That Christians would suggest that "queer culture" has "virtues" or a
"glory" that might be included in the "New Jerusalem" is shocking, and I
appreciate that leaders like Mohler, Owen Strachan, Kevin DeYoung, Richard D. Phillips, and others have addressed these glaring problems with the Revoice conference.
Yet pointing out these problems is not enough. If the church is going
to effectively address LGBTQ issues, it must offer hope of sexual
redemption. But many conservative Christian leaders are afraid to do so.
They land squarely in the "renounce" camp – quick to renounce error,
but slow, or even unwilling, to offer any solution. This must change.
Two weeks ago, I spoke at Hope 2018 – a conference hosted by Restored Hope Network (RHN),
a network of Bible-believing, Holy Spirit-empowered ministries offering
precisely the kind of gospel-centered transformation that Scripture
describes. At the conference, I heard testimonies from numerous people
who have been liberated from same-sex desires just as 1 Corinthians 6:11 suggests.
The conference didn't promise instant liberation, nor that God would
make everyone straight. But it did proclaim the gospel – that the same
power that raised Jesus from the grave is at work in us, and that no
brokenness, including sexual brokenness, is beyond God's redemption.
This is the message every church should be proclaiming, but few do.
Sadly, RHN and other ministries in the "rebuild" camp have been
marginalized in the church. They're often dismissed as "ex-gay"
ministries that simply advocate that same-sex attracted persons "pray
the gay away."
But this is a gross caricature of the deep soul care and healing
ministry that those in the "rebuild" camp offer. Yes, these groups
believe in the power of prayer – and how sad that many in the church
apparently do not. But they are often led by people who have walked the
difficult road to sexual wholeness and understand what's required to do
so.
What they advocate is not easy, but it is biblical. It's what
theologians have long referred to as progressive sanctification – the
doctrine that as a believer walks with God, he becomes progressively
more holy or Christlike. This process is not limited to one's sexual
desires, but it certainly includes them. And it's stunning that many
otherwise-orthodox Christians are shrinking from openly advocating this
doctrine as it applies to same-sex and transgender issues.
Christian leaders need to understand that when we fail to proclaim
the full gospel, we invite heresy and unbiblical solutions. As Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane write in How People Change, what happens when people turn to the church for help crucially impacts their view of the gospel:
Their experience will either encourage them (and others) to see the
power of the gospel or convince them that the gospel is not enough to
deal with life's problems. If the latter happens, the local church
becomes a place of confusion. The impact and influence of the gospel is
weakened significantly, or totally replaced by another message and
method of change.
This is precisely what has happened in the evangelical church. We
have failed to apply the full gospel to the LGBT issue, and as a result,
people are confused and are embracing non-gospel centered solutions.
This is why Revoice is happening. This is why the gay Christian movement
is gaining momentum. And this is why people like Robert, who struggle
with same-sex attraction, are finding no help in our churches, and are
defecting.
If we truly love people like Robert, and truly believe the gospel, we
must move from simply renouncing error to proclaiming the hope of
transformation. Yes, this is counter-cultural and will meet with
resistance. Yes, this is risky and puts our faith on the line. But this
is the way of Christ and the only way to successfully address the LGBTQ
issue at this critical moment in the life of the church.
