Living In

The Bible teaches us the difference between who we were outside of Christ and who we are in Him, and there are elements of the old nature, even though they will manifest themselves, should be dealt 

with Biblically so that we experience victory. 1st Corinthians 6 says:
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

We are not called to identify with any of these sins - in fact, the Bible teaches that because we are in Christ, we have crucified old desires; we are new creatures in Christ Jesus.  Yet, today, in the name of tolerance, there is a tendency to not "call out" certain sins.  There are even those who identify as LGBT who are carrying that label into the church and attempting to get churches to recognize that identity as legitimate for Christians.  We have to guard against teachings that undercut the sufficiency of Christ.

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In Galatians 5, we see the listing of the fruit of the Spirit, contrasted with a listing of works of the
flesh. We are called to display Godly character, not to accommodate sinful behavior.  We read:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

This is going to be somewhat of a Community Calendar, but the events that I will mention are not the ones that you probably want to attend, even though there is an association with the church.  The attempt to infiltrate evangelical churches and denominations with the LGBT agenda and an acceptance of homosexual identity is on, and the hits just keep on coming.

Earlier, this year, the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign released a "guide," according to PJMedia.com, "for LGBT people in evangelical Christian churches. The guide twisted the Bible, painted traditional Christianity as hateful, downplayed the crucial role of repentance in the Christian life, identified people with their sin, and pushed a radical acceptance of LGBT ideology on churches."

Just over two months ago, those embracing this notion of "gay Christianity" or "Christians who are same-sex attracted" held a conference called "ReVoice" at a PCA church in St. Louis.  In a story on the conference, WORLD Magazine stated that, "conference organizer Nate Collins spoke of a larger gay role in churches," and added:

“Is it possible that gay people today are being sent by God like Jeremiah to find God’s words for the church to eat them and make them our own; to shed light on contemporary false teachings and even idolatries—not just the false teaching of the progressive sexual ethic, but other, more subtle forms of false teaching?” he asked attendees. “Is it possible that gender and sexual minorities who live lives of costly obedience are themselves a prophetic call to the church to abandon idolatrous attitudes toward the nuclear family, toward sexual pleasure? If so, then we are prophets.”

In a series of tweets, Tom Buck, who pastors First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, criticized Collins’ implication that “those who oppose the ‘Gay Christian Prophets’ are like the bad shepherds in Jeremiah who act unjustly towards them.” Buck asked whether “we are to believe that the ones God has sent to save the church from His created order in Genesis are those who are disordered in their attractions as described in Romans 1?”

As the article pointed out:

One reason the conference was controversial: Its use of fuzzy pro-gay terminology such as “sexual minority” and “queer culture.” One breakout session on redeeming “queer culture” spoke of the “virtues of queer culture” and asked, “What queer treasure, honor, and glory will be brought into the New Jerusalem at the end of time?”

By the way, this wasn't a convention center-filling type crowd; no, it was reported by WORLD to be 400 people.  But, there are more conferences consistent with this identity to come - according to Robert Oscar Lopez on his English Manif blog:

This summer, they organized a conference called ReVoice, which was meant to sell a new gay identity politics to Presbyterians and Baptists. The conference seems to have been born as Act I of a series of conferences designed to convince evangelicals that everything gay is wonderful: A leadership conference led by Preston Sprinkle in Los Angeles, a "Love Boldly" conference in Cincinnati, and more.

Sprinkle heads the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender.  His website says:

Join us for the Los Angeles Leaders Forum. This is a time where we will focus on equipping Christian leaders to engage the LGBTQ conversation with theological faithfulness and courageous love. This event is open to all Christian leaders: pastors, staff, church and parachurch leaders, lay leaders, etc.

Now, things get really interesting - when you are looking at groups that deal with matters of LGBT and sexuality, check out the endorsements:  not surprisingly, you'll find Karen Swallow Prior, who was also out front on endorsing ReVoice.  But, other endorsers of Sprinkle's organization include: Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, and Gabe Lyons.

Some of the ReVoice guys, namely Nate Collins and Greg Coles are showing up in Cincinnati to speak at the Love Boldly "Devoted" conference.  The conference web page says:

Is it possible to maintain a traditional Biblical view on sexuality, yet remain devoted to the youth in your care who identify as LGBTQ+? Join us for this one-day seminar that will equip you to take practical steps towards loving the LGBTQ+ students in your community with a new boldness, while avoiding common pitfalls that erode relationships, harm your students, and damage those who identify as LGBTQ+.

In other words, it sounds like they are saying to affirm young people who are struggling by accepting their attraction.  Not repentance that produces the fruit of holiness.  The "gay Christian" crowd has its fingerprints on this one as well.

And, then you have - the audit.  Living Out, the organization that is led by three individuals, including "same-sex attracted" Episcopal priest named Sam Allberry, has released an audit of churches to see how they measure up on accepting the gay people in their midst.

Toby Sumpter, Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho and co-host of Faithwire's CrossPolitic podcast, has a point-by-point analysis of this so-called audit on his website.  Taking it from the top, he writes:

1. “Your church family meetings include people who could be labeled LGBTQI+/same-sex attracted.” While the Church should be a place that welcomes all sexual refugees, people fleeing sexual slavery and sin of every sort, those who might be “labeled as LGBTQI+ and same-sex attracted” is way too ambiguous to be helpful. The gospel rightly preached calls all people who could be labeled in those ways to repentance. Church discipline lovingly practiced would include driving some of those people away for refusing to repent. But a church that begins giving any sort of credence to those labels has already compromised with the world. The whole point of those labels is to carve dignity out of sin. But there is no dignity in sin.

A couple more:

2. “Derogatory language or stereo-typing attitudes towards sexual minority groups would not be tolerated either up-front or in conversation between church family members.” The unhelpful ambiguity continues with the use of “sexual minority” language.

Continuing, Sumpter writes:

The cause of social sin is not power struggles between the “haves” and “have nots.” The cause is sin, manifested in hatred of the image of God, envies, lusts, and refusal to worship the Triune God. Therefore the church must not adopt such a language as “sexual minorities.” It’s also unclear what constitutes “derogatory language” or “stereo-typing attitudes.”

I think #4 is perhaps the most damaging, because it encourages churches not to single out homosexuality.  Sumpter writes:

4. “Same-sex sexual relationships are never mentioned in isolation from other sinful patterns of behavior, or from the forgiveness offered to all through faith in Christ crucified.” Related to the previous one, even if a case can be made that homosexual sin should be ordinarily connected to other sin (following the NT example), the full biblical record still singles out particular sexual sins as abominations and particularly foul and unnatural lusts (e.g. Rom. 1, 1 Cor. 5).

 And, then, there's #7:

7. “A godly Christian’s sexual orientation would never prevent them from exercising their spiritual gifts or serving in leadership in your church.” Can I imagine a repentant homosexual ever being an elder in a church? Of course. Such were some of you… (1 Cor. 6:9). But as it is worded, I have no idea whether this is talking about someone walking in a homosexual lifestyle, a man embracing a queer/effeminate orientation, or what. I get that it says a “godly Christian’s sexual orientation” but this is a contradiction, doublespeak, an oxymoron because there is only one godly sexual orientation: heterosexual. There is no case in which a “homosexual orientation” (or any other “orientation”) goes together with been a “godly Christian.” This contradicts the point of number 6. If our identity is in Christ, then every Christian’s “orientation” is as a man or a woman, regardless of ongoing need for mortification or temptations.

And, Living Out is taking its show on the road, sort of speak, offering "training" for local church leaders in Massachusetts at Hope Fellowship Church, as well as Capitol Hill and Del Ray Baptist Churches in Washington, DC.  The purpose: "Living Out wants to help churches understand how they can better help those who experience same-sex attraction to stay faithful to biblical teaching on sexual ethics and flourish at the same time."  Will Living Out teach pastors how to help congregation members experience freedom in Christ by overcoming their sinful propensities?  That does not seem to be a tenet of this new Christian "gay identity" movement.

Unfortunately, a person cannot flourish in his or her Christian life as long as he or she identifies with and harbors sinful desires.  The Bible doesn't teach people to "live out" an identity that God calls sinful, rather to crucify those desires, repent, and release the power of God to experience His transformation. You don't flourish "in" sin, rather by taking steps to walk in victory, putting off the old and putting on the new - our identities are based on the new creation of Christ, rather than the old person of sin.

This, to me, is double-mindedness, and Lopez contends the fruit of gay advocacy is tarnishing.  He says:

Taking over the schools, the military, commerce, government, courts, academia, the press, social media, and professional organizations still cannot change the fact that God reigns higher than all those things. And God loves everybody, but He hates homosexuality. So the LGBT movement doomed its followers to misery when it convinced them that they were homosexuality, convincing them that they could never separate their identity from the unhealthy and abominable things they did with their lower regions.

So, there you have it - in candid and blunt terms.  And, we have to be careful that we believe in liberation through Christ.  You have those who teach others to embrace their gay identity, but do not act on it, so you're OK as a Christian.  But, Christ calls us to embrace our God-given identity, which is predicated on Christ's death on the cross; He enables us to renounce sin and live in our God-given righteousness.  There is no middle ground, and the principles apply to all sin.

Finally, it's important to be discerning.  We have to make sure that we are learning and growing in the Scriptures, so that when we are exposed to Bible teaching that doesn't line up with Biblical principles, that we can process that and reject it.