During China’s Cultural Revolution, villagers in town squares witnessed the public shaming, torture, and death of those Mao and his socialists smeared as “enemies of the people.” Believers in China are still being shamed, persecuted, and murdered as I write.
In the West we have different mobs. Now, it is those warning against sexual perversion’s destruction of immortal souls who are enemies of the people. As in the time of Lot and Abraham, the Sodomites mob our town squares shaming believers and threatening them with loss of job and fines; even rape and death. Read their forums and notice the similarities between their words today and at Lot’s doorstep. Sodomites have never been a benign influence on any society.
Their mob occupies Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter where God’s sheep are hounded and shamed. But not just the sheep—also the shepherds. Reading social media and watching the show trials of cake bakers have led pastors to adopt rigid self-censorship.
In the book on the Church just finished, I warn of the damage this shaming and self-censorship have done to preaching. The law and the faith of repentance cannot be preached in the particular without risking the church and her members being labelled “haters.”
Beyond the corruption of preaching, even more insidious is the corruption of pastoral care. In this connection, note the laws being passed criminalizing sexual identity counselling.
This is what must be understood about the betrayal of Scripture’s doctrine of sexuality led by Covenant Seminary’s Revoicers, Al Mohler, the UK’s LivingOUT guys, and Gospel Coalition: when they tell the Church to accept self-affirming gay Christians and when they condemn counselling aimed at helping souls embrace the sex God made them (the “conversion” or “reparative” counseling which Mohler and the ACBC command pastors not to do), the inevitable result among those pastors is that their pastoral care of LGBTQ souls becomes “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Mohler and his men have succeeded in making effeminacy (men) and butchness (women) perfectly acceptable in the Church. The only thing that will raise any alarm is if the gay or lesbian couple actually touch when they’re out in public—say sitting in worship Sunday morning. Effeminate and butch will get good at hiding and pastors and elders at not seeking.
But this is the very opposite of what Scripture and church history teach us about pastoral care within the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s the very opposite of what Scripture and church history teach us about the calling and duty of pastors who keep watch over our souls as men who must give an account.
Such sophisticated evasions and deceptions will lead the church and her shepherds astray:
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2Corinthians 11:3)
Reading through some of my Dad’s old correspondence yesterday, in a letter to his editor at Eternity magazine (he was a monthly columnist), Dad stated he was deeply disturbed over the acceptance of homosexuality in the Evangelical church of that time. This was back in the late seventies and he mentioned a number of people and institutions including Fuller Seminary and missionaries affiliated with Evangelical missions agencies. Dad then said he thought it wouldn’t be long until Evangelical churches accepted homosexual couples living together in monogamous relationships as members in good standing of their churches.
This is what Al Mohler, Russ Moore, Tim Keller, their Gospel Coalition buddies, LivingOUT, and the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors have ushered into the Reformed church today. Because of their leadership, most every Reformed church will have souls openly given to effeminacy and butchness living with other souls openly given to effeminacy and butchness; they will adopt children and raise those children together; it will be assumed those two souls are not having sex with each other; and no one ever will ask or tell.
We make a big show of drawing our lines Biblically, then we abandon the souls who have placed themselves under us for the guarding of their souls.
President Clinton created the policy for our military, and now we ape it in the church. We’ve long been doing the same with greed and pornography and fornication and adultery. It’s only fitting that we’ve moved on, adding sodomy, lesbianism, effeminacy, and butchness to our list.
Get The Grace of Shame and read it. Then speak up condemning these leaders and warning souls to turn away from them. The sheep need protection, especially gays, lesbians, the effeminate, and the butch. Christ died for sinners and we should protect those bought by His precious blood.
