'Gay' Christianity and Holy Fear

Originally published March 21, 2022

‘The sin of this century is the loss of a sense of sin.’- Pope Pius XII Holy fear over the horror of sin levels us at the Cross. Facedown, our hearts behold the Lamb (Jn. 1:36). Love is the Lamb. Christians define love as the grace that commands us to repent of our sin, so we can live soberly from the Lamb who was slain, now Risen, His wounds still visible (Rev. 5:6). ‘Gay’ Christianity offers us a vision of love that defies any holy meaning of the word. Revoice (a watering hole for ‘gay’ Christians founded by Episcopalian Wesley Hill) invites us into love without the Lamb, ‘grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus, living and incarnate’ (Bonhoeffer). Revoice speaker and writer Eve Tushnet, an out-and-proud ‘gay’ Catholic, lamented in mid-January for those persons ‘crushed between the unstoppable force of Catholicism and the immovable object of their sexual orientation.’ On the fault-line of an alien anthropology (‘immovable sexual orientation’), Eve excuses moral actions that ooze from the ‘crushing’ by telling sinners ‘how to stay close to God even when we’re not living the way we know we should.’ The only thing crushing ‘gay’ Christians are the sins they refuse to surrender: misbegotten identities (‘what counts is a new creation,’ Gal. 6:15) and the adulteries that issue from such ‘selves’ (‘learn to reverence your bodies, not in lust like unbelievers…’1 Thess. 4:4-5). Behold the sham that takes away our sin. Eve and cronies stand in the place of Jesus. Becket Cook hosted a fiercely good podcast last January ‘outing’ Revoice with the help of Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan. I urge you to listen to the mostly brilliant 2 hours, full of zinger quotes from Butterfield like ‘Christ is never loved until sin is loathed’ (Thomas Watson). With tender love, implore the sinner to go the way of the Cross. His way is sure. Jesus commands it. We are dull and divided creatures, unchallenged by familiar demons and charmed by our cleverness and fake compassion. For all the above we need a fresh glimpse of the Lamb, to behold Him above all else and to forego anything or anyone for the Way He makes for our broken lives. “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world “(Jn. 1:29). Beware of sentimental versions of love that bypass Calvary and seek to assuage sinners’ distress by taking away their sin. Love means losing our lives! Don’t obstruct repentance! Tremble over your sin and the ways you've been complicit in others’ sin. ‘Don’t be afraid! You have done all this evil…Only fear the Lord and serve Him with all your heart’ (1 Sam. 12:20-24).