Gay pastor Greg Johnson is fightg for the future of the PCA | STLPR

Contents:

• IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?
• HOW A GAY ST. LOUIS PASTOR TRIGGERED A WAR WH THE PRBYTERIAN CHURCH AMERI
• A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY
• REFLECTNS OM A CLOSETED GAY PASTOR
• WHEN HIS SON CAME OUT AS GAY, THIS PASTOR DELIVERED A SERMON OF SUPPORT
• WHAT IS THE THEOLOGIL JTIFITN FOR MY PASTOR IENDG GAY MEN ON FACEBOOK? [CLOSED]
• FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
• MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY
• PASTOR SAYS 'SOLUTN' TO GAY PEOPLE IS EXECUTNS: IT'S THE BIBLE
• THE GAY CHURCH
• PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”

IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?

So may be biblilly allowable for a pastor to nsir himself gay—that is, he stggl wh homosexual attractn—if he is mted to sexual pury, never acts on those sir, and never enurag anyone else to do so (see Romans 1:32). A pastor is a fallible human beg jt like those his ngregatn; so is biblilly allowable for him to stggle wh homosexual sir, adultero sir, greedy sir, priful sir, etc.

HOW A GAY ST. LOUIS PASTOR TRIGGERED A WAR WH THE PRBYTERIAN CHURCH AMERI

Greg Johnson scrib himself as a “gay atheist teenager” who fell for J — and found himself at the center of evangelil Christiany’s ternal battl over nearly 20 years, Johnson has pastored Memorial Prbyterian Church St. When he me out to his church, he said he received a standg ovatn and shouts of “We love you, Greg” om sce Johnson went public wh his orientatn Christiany Today, pastors his nomatn, the Prbyterian Church Ameri, have tried to banish clergy who intify as gay, even if they m to celibacy. ”The ln Johnson is referrg to are people who participated the so-lled “ex-gay movement, ” which centered on the theory that one n change sexual orientatn.

Last year, Johnson released a book lled “Still Time To Care: What We Can Learn om the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexualy, ” which scrib the fall of the ex-gay movement. ”When the PCA nomatn voted last year on whether to keep gay people om beg clergy members, one observer wrote that the actn was signed to “prevent another Greg Johnson.

Among the many enuragg ments on that post was one om a gay pastor who betifully explaed his unrstandg of the Bible, Christiany, and pastor gracly agreed to let me share his ment as blog post here.

A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

If I ever meet a fe gay man who is Spirual and lovg and mutually attractive, and if I felt the Lord leadg me to him and him to me, I would feel ee to be his mate. In our culture homosexualy has bee associated wh a llectn of behavrs, liftyle choic and mannerisms, yet we mt separate nocent mannerisms om homosexualy's te offense. Vol patterns, hand gtur, and other non-sexual behavrs monly associated wh homosexualy (or even matag a sgle liftyle, sharg a home wh a male roommate a plutonic relatnship, etc.

Instead, J tght we have an obligatn to rrect s the body, so even if a pastor is found engaged homosexual s, we have a Biblil obligatn to help rrect the behavr, not n om . 2, 2010— -- The pastor of a Geia megachurch wh thoands of followers, who was twice married and is a father of four, is speakg out about his recent cisn to publicly clare he is gay. I want to tell you that is not, " Jim Swilley said a vio shot the nonnomatnal megachuch Swilley found 25 years Swilley said g out was a cisn he's stggled wh sce childhood, he ma the announcement last month not for personal reasons -- he said he hop to save 52-year-old founr of Church the Now Conyers, Ga., said he's g out to help stem the recent ti of gay suicis Ameri and won't be swayed by some hateful msag that have been wrten about him onle.

""Hearg about the kids who are mtg suici, the reactn as a gay adult is, 'I wish I uld have jt talked to them for 15 mut or five mut and told them gets better, '" Savage said. "Officials, Celebri Jo 'It Gets Better'Three weeks later, a cy uncil meetg Fort Worth, Texas, gay cy uncilman Joel Burns was moved to share his own emotnal story about how close he me to killg himself at age 13. Gays started g phras like “g out of the closet” the 1960’s, the same when I was figurg out that I had this huge problem that I did not want, did not unrstand, and that I had no one wh whom to talk over.

GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY

No one celebrated beg a queer 1967 – that’s the word they would have ed the time before the word “gay” entered my public school panns’ vobulary or my fay’s nversatns. The other people who really know me are my therapist – an atheist who saved my life --, iends a lol artistic muny where I have found some solace wrg fictn, my doctor, and a gay man my age who got divorced om his wife of almost forty years. Thirty years ago, when pastors my nomatn first began to separate to acuntabily groups, admtg to beg gay – even if I had no sful gay act to nfs – would have end my reer and would not have remaed secret.

" At the time, Danny told his ngregatn about the moment his son me out: "I was drivg my son Drew to school, and he turned over to me and he says, 'Dad, I'm gay. “My whole pot is, the Bible has been mised, to jtify keepg gay people out of our church and tellg same-sex upl that they nnot be together, ” Mart told NBC OUT.

REFLECTNS OM A CLOSETED GAY PASTOR

“'UnClobber' not only reveals the rults of my study of the Bible on homosexualy, also tells the story of how I me to align my head wh my heart through a reful, thoughtful and prayerful study of the clobber passag. I me up wh the term 'unclobber' as a way to pot to my efforts of showg that the Bible do not actually nmn those who are gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr or queer. Whether ’s tellg slav to obey their masters, or tellg women to be silent church, or sayg that gay people serve to die, the Bible is full of plited ias.

If you said someone was evangelil you knew pretty much what you were gettg – errancy of the Bible, importance of preachg, a foc on evangelism, warngs of hell and most of all – opposn to gay marriage.

While still far om the mastream and the overwhelmg majory of self-scribed evangelils are still opposed to gay marriage, there are a growg list of pastors who scribe themselv as evangelil and yet support same sex upl.

WHEN HIS SON CAME OUT AS GAY, THIS PASTOR DELIVERED A SERMON OF SUPPORT

'It has taken untls hours of prayer, study, nversatn and emotnal turmoil to brg me to the place where I am fally ready to ll for the full acceptance of Christian gay upl to the Church, ' he wrote.

WHAT IS THE THEOLOGIL JTIFITN FOR MY PASTOR IENDG GAY MEN ON FACEBOOK? [CLOSED]

In a bate at San Francis's Grace Cathedral 2013, the thor and pastor Rob Bell, already discreded by many evangelils for his book Love Ws, gave a blanket endorsement of gay marriage.

FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE

An outspoken cric of the Relig Right and print of the Sojourners magaze, Jim Wallis reversed his stance on gay marriage an terview wh the Huffgton Post  2013. Several of Jen Hatmaker's books have been produced by LifeWay's B&H Publishg, who announced they would no longer work wh her after she changed her stance on gay marriageFacebook / Jen Hatmaker.

One of the relatively few proment female voic on the evangelil scene, Hatmaker received a fierce backlash when she said she thought God saw monogamo gay relatnships as holy. In an terview wh Relign News Service she said: 'From a spirual perspective, sce gay marriage is legal all 50 stat, our muni have plenty of gay upl who, jt like the rt of , need marriage support and parentg help and Christian muny. 'In Augt of 2013, on a sunny day at the beach, I realized I no longer believed the tradnal [church] teachgs regardg homosexualy, ' Cortez said a letter published on Patheos blog.

'And was pecially the ttimony of my gay iends that helped me to see how they have been margalised that my ey beme open to the jtice that the church has wrought. I me to Christ thkg I uld show him a ntered part of me, and I would still reap the benefs—that I would be celibate and he would fix the gay part, somehow.

MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY

Followg the news of Merrt’s homosexual adventure wh Southworth, Ken Silva of Apprisg Mistri penned a piece entled “Homosexualy and Jonathan Merrt” where he wrote:. Here at Apprisg Mistri I’ve told you that I believe a major evangelil figure will e out as homosexual “soon” servg to fully tonate this whole gay bate—currently rippg apart and dividg male nomatns—right wh the mastream of evangelilism self.

So today, I’m raisg a glass to my full and plete self—a gay man, beloved by God, who has endured the worst the world uld throw at him and fought his way to health and wholens. It is troublg to hear Jonathan Merrt jtify his cisn to live as a gay man (a chosen inty and activy) ma out of whole cloth that has nothg to do wh the Lord J’s view of homosexualy that is the Bible. He knows this but perhaps, like so many other lud homosexuals and heterosexuals who dulge sexual activy out of marriage, he has chosen to put the tth asi and embrace a liftyle of his own choosg.

He n believe what he wants to, but what this tells me is that this profsg follower of J Christ, who brags that he’s “raisg a glass to my full and plete self—a gay man” is actually thumbg his nose at his Creator. Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God. From the two pots, follows that adoptg a homosexual inty is also a s, sce such an inty entails at least a tac approval of homosexual sir (Si B), if not also of homosexual practic (Si A).

PASTOR SAYS 'SOLUTN' TO GAY PEOPLE IS EXECUTNS: IT'S THE BIBLE

"In a Sunday sermon tled "Why We Won't Shut Up, " Aw of Stedfast Baptist Church said that "every sgle" gay person Ameri should be executed by the ernment.

THE GAY CHURCH

""The state of Texas still has the ath penalty for many crim, and this is not advotg murr, " he Sunday, Christian hate-preacher Dillon Aw said that the ernment should execute every gay person. In his Sunday sermon, which took place durg the first week of Pri month, Aw alleged that all gay people are pedophil and that all child molters are gay.

Aw' remarks echo the nspiraci ma by right-wg protters who have rallied agast "groomg" the wake of the ntroversy surroundg Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. "The Bible also teach homosexuals and all those the LGBT are pedophil who would molt children if given the chance, " Shelley said fendg his lleague.

"Sunday's sermon is not the first time members of the Stedfast Baptist Church have preached anti-LGBT year, Shelley, who has repeatedly lled for the ath of gay people, celebrated the ath of a gay man at a Pri para. In a later list of vic we mt avoid, he clud idolaters, adulterers, thiev, the greedy, dnkards, revilers, and swdlers as well as “men who practice homosexualy” (1 Corthians 6:9–10). In the Uned Stat, however, where there are 37, 000 prits, no pennt study has found fewer than 15 percent to be gay, and some have found as many as 60 percent.

PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”

A church that, sce 2005, bans prits wh “ep-seated homosexual tennci” and officially teach that gay men are “objectively disorred” and herently disposed toward “trsic moral evil” is actually posed, ways very few other stutns are, of gay men. The llapse of the closet public and private life the past three s has ma the disproportnate homosexualy of the Catholic prithood much ls easy to hi, ignore, or ny.

This cultural and moral shift has not only changed the nscns of most Amerin Catholics (67 percent of whom support civil marriage for gay upl) and gay prits (many of whom are close to qutg) but also broken the silence that long shroud the subject. “I replied wh another qutn: ‘Tell me, when God looks at a gay person, do he endorse the existence of this person wh love or reject and nmn this person? ” In the fal draft of the 2014 Synod on the Fay, Francis clud explic mentn of the “gifts and quali” of homosexuals, askg, “Are we pable of welg [them]?

Alarmed by the possibily that divorced and remarried people might be weled as well as gays, tradnalists lnched a fierce rearguard mpaign agast the new papacy, wh a foc on what some lled a “Lavenr Mafia” nng the church, and broke new ground nnectg this directly to the horrifyg revelatns of sex abe that me to light 2002. In creasgly direct ways, they have argued that the root of the sndal was not abe of power, or pedophilia, or clerilism, or the distortive psychologil effects of celibacy and stutnal homophobia, but gayns self. “There is a homosexual culture, not only among the clergy but even wh the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root, ” the Amerin rdal Raymond Burke clared Augt.