gay christian – Protestia

Gay ‘Christian Leader’ Credits Tim Keller For Entrenching his Queer Identity

Tim Keller recently made a bunch of his acolytes and spiritual children upset by releasing an article where he reflected on the failure of the PCA to pass Overtures 23 and 37, which were passed at their general conference and basically said that any PCA pastor identifying himself as a gay/ queer Christian was disqualified from the ministry. This was ultimately overruled by 2/3 of the presbyteries,- cowards all- resulting in the status quo remaining. In his article Keller was not particularly honest, basically claiming that the PCA and its leaders never once said anything suggesting that Side B Christianity was acceptable, despite the specter of Revoice looking over them.

Popularized by Justin Lee of the Gay Christian Network, ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’* refer to two opposing perspectives and a way to categorize different beliefs among ‘Gay Christians’.

Side A. God makes people gay. God blesses same-sex marriages in the same ways He blesses opposite-sex marriages. Holding these beliefs typically requires some theological maneuvering around the six “clobber passages” that people claim refers to same-sex sexual activity, but most Side A gay Christians believe that the Bible is not binding or prescriptive for a modern context.

Side B. Same-sex attraction is not what God intended and is a result of the Fall. But people do not choose who they are attracted to and there is no formula for changing one’s attractions. There is no context for same-sex sexual or romantic activity that God blesses, so they are sins. (ED.N They also don’t believe SSA attraction is a sin, only if it is acted upon) God calls all Christians to vocational singleness or marriage with someone of the opposite sex. Side B gay Christians may identify as “gay” in a limited way, finding it helpful to identify with those of a shared heritage and similar life experiences.

Not only did this cause the great compromiser Nate Collins to go off on Keller, but Grant Hartley also shared his thoughts. Hartley is a former Campus Crusade leader and Revoice presenter who ultimately converted to Roman Catholicism. Hartley claims to be part of the ‘Side B’ club, and to his meager credit, has always maintained that, officially, homosexual sexual acts are sins. Yet damning with faint praise aside, every word out of his mouth is what you’d expect from a flaming sodomite hell-bent on waging war against God’s designs and intention for sex, having given himself utterly and completely over to the trappings of queer culture and an LGBTQ identity.

On Twitter then, he offers Keller profuse credit for shaping his belief system, explaining that it was because of his ideology that he came to believe as he did and became comfortable in his queer identity.

Of course, this was like by Revoice and Sara Collins, Nate’s wife.

Knowing the positions and tolerances and eye-winking and looking the other way that Keller and the PCA has had over the years, and their impact in being the intellectual basis for growing the side B movement we’d feel burned too.

Editor’s Note. We at Protestia are neither Side A or Side B, but rather what many distastefully call “Side X”, which believes that homosexuality is sinful, not only in the acts, but in the thoughts and attractions. Unlike most Side B, we believe that Christ actually can redeem one’s sexuality and that through prayer and accountability, homosexuality will wane and heterosexuality will flourish. ie “Such were some of you. “There is no such thing as a homosexual community or queer identity, and any Christian identifying themselves as a “Gay Christian” needs to stop doing that right away, as we don’t attach sinful modifiers to Jesus to express our faith.

Asbury Theological Seminary President Timothy Tennent came under a bit of fire from the gay Twitterati last week after one of their students publicly announced on social media that they had walked out of the chapel service after he preached a perfectly orthodox and biblical sermon on the topic of ‘personhood’, according to the Juicy Ecumenism.

Tennent preached the message during the seminary’s new year convocation. Asbury is not a conservative seminary by any stretch; they are in the United Methodist tradition and are the largest seminary of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, and this seminary in particular is known for promoting egalitarianism. Still- they have so far resisted the push of the pro-LGBTQ movement and take a biblical perspective on the issue of homosexuality.

For this reason, Tennennt gave a high level and mildly esoteric discussion on the relationship between oner’s expressive self and what it means to be human, saying things like:

“New individualism….is a new vision of human personhood has created a seismic dualistic separation or fracturing of the human will from the physical body. In this twist of Neo-gnostic dualism our bodies become moldable, like plastic contingent instruments which must be conformed to the intuitions, feelings and what other social constructions we may dream of in order to conform to our understanding of ourselves.”

Heady stuff. Tennent made similar comments like this, explaining how some people within the LGBTQ community do likewise, and that the whole idea of a man trapped in a woman’s body is based on an ungodly individualism and a skewed sense of self. The whole message can be heard here, and there was nothing remotely controversial about it.

This didn’t stop a vocal left from condemning Tennent and the school after one of their students announced that he walked out as a result of the message, feeling disrespected and like the seminary was making the campus a “dangerous place” for him.

Elijah Drake identifies as a “side B” “celibate Gay Christian” and a “Celibate SSA/gay student” who wrote this thesis arguing that it is perfectly acceptable to identify himself by his sin and sexual proclivities. Though professing to hold what is the “orthodox position” (It’s not. The sexual attraction itself is a sin, not just the action) It’s clear that there is something seriously wonky with his theology if that is the reaction he had after listening to such a benign sermon.

His actions afterward sealed the deal that he was being petulant, showing up in the front row for the next message with his ‘gay pride’ shirt on, demanding that the speaker look at him and geared up to walk about again in full view of his peers if they cross his line again, all the while receiving clout on the internet for being “brave” and “savage” and “a badass”

Even Revoice founder Nate Collins got in on the action, telling him he was “so, so sorry” that he was experiencing this, and gave little praying hands after he snapped the above picture with his pride shirt.

Despite hundreds of tweets directed his way, many from openly “side A” “gay Christians” inviting Drake to come to they/their seminary while bashing Asbury (“I know a really gay-affirming place isn’t for everyone, but I love working at @VUDivinity because we are queer & trans-inclusive & in admin, anything mostly run by lesbians is just gonna be better organized.”) Tennent has not responded publicly to the brouhaha. We have reached out for comment and will update this post accordingly.