GAY TRUTH

Jen Hatmaker recently celebrated her daughter’s lesbian identity, saying, “I’m so glad you’re gay.” Many say that we cannot take a position on homosexuality because all positions will hurt someone. Here’s my question: “Are those who defend homosexuality, or who say nothing, truly loving the homosexual, or are they simply seeking to avoid conflict?” If they are more worried about being liked than being truthful, do they really care for homosexuals more than the person who is willing to risk their reputation, and quite possibly their safety, in order to speak the truth in love? The answer is obvious: Authentic Christians love the truth, and others, so much so that they are willing to risk the consequences of confrontation in order to help others. This is genuine love, not hatred. “When we become so tolerant that we lead people into the mental fog and spiritual darkness, we are not acting like Christians—we are acting like cowards” (A.W. Tozer). Many who support their childre...

In an effort to be compassionate and loving, popular Christian author Jen Hatmaker came out in support of LGBT relationships , referring to them as “holy.” While other Christian influencers have come out in favor of affirming theology, this caught my attention because many have benefitted greatly from her books. Rosaria Butterfield wrote a poignant reply to Jen Hatmaker, which is worth reading, regardless of where you stand on the issue. And so have Jake Meador and Kevin DeYoung . The issue seemed closed to me, until a close friend sent me a link to a Facebook post by Jen’s husband Brandon Hatmaker , clarifying their position on LGBTQ . This particular post needs to be addressed.  Essentially, Brandon describes how he and Jen have been on a yearlong journey trying to reconcile the pain they see in the lives of LGBTQ people with the “historic Christian position” on homosexuality. After much study and prayer, they mutually concluded that God blesses homosexual relationship...

In the past week we’ve seen a prominent  Christian philosopher  and a prominent  Christian author  state publicly that they no longer hold to the historic understanding of biblical sexuality. A number of excellent responses have already been written—most significantly, Wesley Hill  challenging   Nicholas Wolterstorff ’s shallow exegesis and lack of charity, and Rosaria Butterfield   reminding   Jen Hatmaker that we must love our neighbors enough to speak the truth. I’ve written before about  gay marriage  and about why the  church can’t simply agree to disagree  on this issue. And if you want more in depth discussion, I wrote a book entitled  What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? . No doubt, you can find even better stuff out there from other men and women defending the historic understanding of biblical marriage and sexuality. I won’t repeat those arguments here. But I do want to offer a few qui...

A RESPONSE TO JEN HATMAKER - HOMOSEXUAL SIN IS HOLY If this were 1999—the year that I was converted and walked away from the woman and lesbian community I loved—instead of 2016, Jen Hatmaker’s words about the holiness of LGBT relationships would have flooded into my world like a balm of Gilead. How amazing it would have been to have someone as radiant, knowledgeable, humble, kind, and funny as Jen saying out loud what my heart was shouting: Yes, I can have Jesus and my girlfriend. Yes, I can flourish both in my tenured academic discipline (queer theory and English literature and culture) and in my church. My emotional vertigo could find normal once again. Maybe I wouldn’t need to lose everything to have Jesus. Maybe the gospel wouldn’t ruin me while I waited, waited, waited for the Lord to build me back up after he convicted me of my sin, and I suffered the consequences. Maybe it would go differently for me than it did for Paul, Daniel, David, and Jeremiah. Maybe Jesus could sav...

She smart, articulate, lovable but very wrong - even apostate. Jen Hatmaker uses a muddle of words below - but essentially without further clarification on point 3 - she appears to have moved from believing the Bible to liberation theology without even knowing it ....to promote homosexual sin as holy. Here is her wordy, flowery response. Hi, everyone. A couple of quick thoughts on all these tender things: 1. First, regardless of what you see from strangers on the internet, our real friends and ministry partners and colleagues and fellow pastors have been across the board, carte blanche, by the dozens and dozens and dozens...kind and good to Brandon and I this week. Every one of them. We can't even keep up with it. So know that regardless of headlines, we have very much experienced a faithful witness to Jesus through our friends in our real life this week. They give the church a beautiful name worthy of its source. 2. I'm not here to defend or explain right now...

Days after Jen Hatmaker sat down for what would become an infamous interview with Jonathan Merritt of Religion News Service , LifeWay bookstores have decided to pull her titles from their shelves. In that interview , Hatmaker articulated her changing view of same-sex marriage. She said she believed a same-sex marriage could be holy and that we as the church “have to do better” at treating the LGBT community like family. The interview with Merritt was published on October 25, 2016. Two days later, LifeWay spokesman Marty King spoke to Baptist Press , saying, “In a recent interview, [Hatmaker] voiced significant changes in her theology of human sexuality and the meaning and definition of marriage—changes which contradict LifeWay’s doctrinal guidelines.” The Christian bookstore chain has decided to discontinue selling Hatmaker’s resources as a result of the interview. This is not the first time Hatmaker has said something on the topic of homosexuality that has caused waves in the C...