Pastor, author, and apologist Sam Allberry has resigned from his position at his church and from the Keller Institute after revealing that he had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a man several years ago.
Allberry, a gay Anglican priest who endorsed celibacy for the same-sex attracted, served as associate pastor at Immanuel Nashville Church alongside leaders such as Russell Moore, Ray Ortlund, Gavin Ortlund, Barnabas Piper, and T. J. Timm. According to a statement from The Gospel Coalition:
A statement from Immanuel Church about Sam Allberry reveals they knew he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with another man in 2022 but didn’t believe it rose to the level of being disqualifying, and still decided to bring him on as pastor. They later discovered new information about this relationship that was previously undisclosed, and then terminated his employment.
In addition to his apologetic work, he wrote several books, including Is God Anti-Gay?, Biblical Manhood, One with My Lord: The Life-Changing Reality of Being in Christ and What God Has to Say About Our Bodies. He was a prominent partner and editor with The Gospel Coalition, the founding editor of Living Out, a ministry for those struggling with same-sex attraction, and one of the key architects for the acceptance of same-sex attraction within evangelical circles.
SSAC is the movement within the larger evangelical movement that narrowly defines the sin of homosexuality to include only acting upon one’s sinful desires, and defines the sinful desires themselves as simply a part of a person’s identity and something God is content with not changing in the heart of the believer.
The false beliefs of the SSAC movement include:
- Same-sex attraction is not a result of early childhood abuse and is always unchosen.
- Same-sex attraction only becomes sin if it is acted upon.
- Homosexual acts are no different than other sins.
- Christian regeneration has no influence over same-sex desire.
- The church is guilty of oppressing this group instead of helping them bear their cross of unchangeable same-sex attraction.
