GAY TRUTH

Eric Metaxas touches down in Brisbane next week for the first stop of his East Coast “Fearless” tour. ACL is delighted to host the New York Times best-selling author of biographies on Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer. For those who don’t know, William Wilberforce was the 19thcentury English parliamentarian who was instrumental in abolishing slavery and Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the courageous Lutheran pastor who defied the Nazis. Both faced intense opposition from politics and religious people. There are obvious echoes of the challenges we face today. Eric’s books on these men have inspired tens of thousands to be courageous Christians. With pressure mounting on Christians to be silent on issues like changing the definition of marriage and human rights for the unborn, we at ACL thought a visit by Eric would be just what us Australian Christians needed at this time. If you have yet to register for an event in Sydney , Brisbane or Melbourne, please do so . (Apologies to our friends in o

Cover of William Shakespeare In January 1944, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in a Gestapo prison. He passed the time by writing, and in one of many letters to his dear friend Eberhard Bethge , Bonhoeffer tenderly reflected on what Bethge meant to him. Back then his missives didn’t raise eyebrows. They sounded like those of so many before him who, in moments of triumph and trial, had taken their greatest joy in the love of a friend of the same sex. Of course, times have changed. Years after Bonhoeffer’s death, while speaking publicly about their friendship, Bethge found himself facing an awkward question: Surely, said one audience member, your friendship with Dietrich “must [have been] a homosexual partnership.” How else could Bethge explain the startling affection Bonhoeffer had for him? Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s friendship was not an isolated victim of this kind of revisionism. Modern readers seem to be on a virtual crusade to open every closet in history. Thus, we’re told

Exodus International president Alan Chambers has, explained the Orlando-based ministry's recent U-turn on reparative therapy. And while the organization's stance remains acceptable to most evangelicals, some scholars fear that Chambers's theological convictions—sprinkled throughout those interviews—have not. "It's not that he is simply not saying the warnings [against homosexual activity] in Scripture. I could live with that," Pittsburgh Theological Seminary professor Robert Gagnon said of Chambers's recent comments. "It's that he is saying the exact opposite of what Scripture clearly teaches … . He's preaching an anti-gospel." The theological heresy in question is antinomianism. The term was coined by Martin Luther to refer to those who believe that since faith is sufficient for salvation, Christians are not obligated to keep God's moral law. Gagnon, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice and a plenary speaker at Exodus'