North Point Community Church ‘impastor’ Andy Stanley continued his wretched job of smarmily making his way into the consciousness of Christendom, this time by lauding up the faith of gay Christians as exemplary, over and above that of straight ones, while dismissing and brushing off certain scriptures as “clobber” verses.
You’ll recall that Stanley previously said that it doesn’t matter if the bible is true, so long as it’s ‘mostly reliable, and that the “foundation of our faith is not the whole bible. In 2018, he got shellacked from all sides for saying that Christians needed to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament and in a recent sermon told Christians not to follow Jesus through the Old Testament, but only through the Gospels.
Speaking at the Drive 2022 confernece, he explains.
(If we could) figure out how to get straight people as excited about serving and engaging as the gay men and women I know, we would have a volunteer backlog. That’s my experience in our churches. Let me just read it to you. A gay person- when I say gay, men and women, okay? A gay person who still wants to attend church, after the way the church has treated the gay community, I’m telling you, they have more faith than I do. They have more faith than alot of you. A gay person who knows, ‘you know what, I might not be accepted here, but I’m going to try it anyway.’
Have you ever done that as a straight person? Where do you go where you’re not sure you’re going to be accepted, and you go over and over and over and over? Only your in-laws house, that’s the only place you go where, you know you’re not completely accepted but you go over and over and over and it’s because you have to. But other than the in-laws, what environment do you continue to step foot in knowing at any moment, you may feel ostracized? No place.
I’m telling you, the gay men and women who grew up in church and the gay men and women have come to faith in Christ as adults, who want to participate in our church, Oh. My. Goodness.
He continues, calling certain portions of the scriptures “clobber passages.”
I know 1 Corinthians 6 and I know Leviticus and I know Romans 1– so interesting to talk abut all that stuff (Editor’s not. Pay attention to his tone there) but just-oh my goodness, a gay man or woman who wants to worship their Heavenly father, who did not answer the cry of their heart when they were 12 and 13 and 14 and 15?
God said ‘no’, and they still love God? We have some things to learn from a group of men and women who love Jesus that much and who want to worship with us. And I know the verses. I know the clobber passages, right. We got to figure this out, and you know what? I think you are.
