I recently read an evil article by Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church, part of the Nashville Presbytery of the PCA. His central claim in the article is that “homosexuality and devout Christianity” are not “forces in fierce collision.” The article was filled with the sort of insidious errors and lies that faithful men must do their best to expose in order to protect the souls of Christ’s sheep. Because his errors are so common today, I’ve broken my response into parts in an attempt to make it easier to digest and apply to other writers and situations.
Sauls begins his article by arguing that those who portray “homosexuality and devout Christianity as forces in fierce collision” are wrong. He quotes a New York Times article by Frank Bruni, who claims that homosexuality is not a sin. But Bruni is honest, and Sauls isn’t. Sauls knows he can’t say that (yet) in the PCA. So even though his claim is that Christianity and homosexuality are not in conflict, he doesn’t defend that statement. Instead, he immediately changes his terms.
He says, “I think I speak for a majority of Christians in saying that I would never want to be part of a movement that is “in fierce collision” with those who identify as LGBTQ.”
Do you see what he did? He changed “Christianity” to “Christians,” and “homosexuality” becomes “those who identify as LGBTQ.” He then goes on to explain that Christians should be like Jesus and have friends who are homosexuals, not hate them and be in conflict with them. This is not just a logical fallacy. It is dishonest. Why? Because he knows full well that Christianity being in conflict with homosexuality does not mean that individual Christians must hate individual homosexuals.
Jesus didn’t and neither must we.
But any Christian who reads Sauls’ article and buys into his lie is being led down an inevitable path. Sooner or later, when you believe that there is no conflict between Christianity and homosexuality, you’re going to “realize” that homosexuality isn’t wrong at all. If they aren’t in conflict, it is possible to be a good Christian and a homosexual at the same time.
Sauls’ demonstrates his hatred of homosexuals in being unwilling to call them to repentance. He is unwilling to proclaim the Gospel of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. Instead, Sauls is planting the seeds of doubt in people’s minds like Satan’s question, “Has God truly said ‘Thou shalt not’?”
The truth is that Christianity and homosexuality cannot be reconciled any more than Christianity and greed or Christianity and idolatry or Christianity and murder. Christianity and all sin are in perpetual “fierce collision.” Is Scott Sauls willing to admit that? Sadly, it does not appear so, but God’s word is clear:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” — 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
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