Rousing Her Radiance: Day 22

Who’s Evangelizing Who?

‘The only problem with homosexuality is the one you have with it.’-‘gay’ Christian student to campus pastor

I love warm welcoming churches where everyone can experience palpable grace. I was converted through one and have contributed to many. Just keep in mind that some of those welcomed want to convert the Church to their version of the good news.

One such church welcomed a band of 5 ‘gay’ Christians seeking a ‘church’ home. The community surrounded them with love and opportunities for involvement. Elders there assumed that such acceptance would result in conviction of sin, which never happened. Instead, the group began to influence the church with a ‘gay’ gospel: ‘Jesus embraces us, St. Paul wasn’t speaking to the “good gay” people we are’, etc. They converted some church members. Mortified when the pastor made it clear that they were in error, the group went to the local newspaper to ‘out’ the church as homophobic.

Churches are social hubs where each person influences the whole. So communities need to be clear: Jesus’ good news gives everyone freedom to lay aside ungodly stuff. Sexual sinners need to know that and either get the help they need or go somewhere that supports unchastity.

I fear some leaders in their compassionate hearts are so moved by the struggle of rainbow people that they surrender God’s truth and take up confusing pastoral praxis. Well-known Baptist pastor Andy Stanley is doing this clearly, as is Pope Francis.

The company Francis keeps evangelizes him with their ‘gay’ Gospel. These include Father James Martin, whose ‘Outreach’ is a refuge for persons with little if any intention of becoming chaste (his own admission), ‘gay’ activist Juan Carlos Cruz, and Sister Jeannine Gramick who founded New Ways Ministry, an organization celebrating LGBTQ+ Catholics.

One might say Francis is just being Francis, ‘going to the margins’ and wooing the least back into the Church. Think again. Francis’ partners in forging pastoral care–Martin, Cruz, and Gramick–are political animals who seek to weaponize and mainline LGBTQ+ personhood into the Church. No field hospital here: the only problem with life under the rainbow is the problem stodgy Catholics have with it.

For example, Martin slyly invokes the catechism in his LGBTQ+ care (‘respect, compassion, sensitivity’ #2358) while refusing the clarion call to repentance from serious sin unto chastity that bookends his sweetness (#2357 and #2359).

Martin’s selective use of truth is diabolical. And effective. Sexually disordered people can be poignant, dramatic, and persuasive. They convert the unaware. ‘Gay’ Activism 101: ‘be the best “gay” person you can be to everyone and change their minds about homosexuality.’

Sadly, Martin’s view is winning Francis. No ministry that provides avenues of wholeness and chastity for the sexually broken was represented at the synod or has Francis’ ear now.

Let’s turn that around with the tender almighty love of Jesus. May we reflect Him well to our leaders and to friends far away. May the wounded come near through us who embody ‘good news’ with compassion and clarity.

‘Please Jesus, open doors in our churches to embody and declare the good news, especially to ‘gatekeepers.’ May we win them over. Goad us to go; incite us to say all that You have done for us! Jesus, You are the Father’s justice for our wounds (Ps. 103:6). Let that Gospel resound throughout Your Church.’

‘Father, we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell will not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on Her firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the deceiver and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members of Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace to sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the chaste radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe, holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’