The LGBT Narrative

By Ted Fenske / October 23, 2023

In the first installment of this series, we saw that biblical sexuality is lived and defined in terms of creative, covenantal, sacrificial and sacred characteristics. Here I hope to demonstrate how the pagan worldview of the LBGT movement promotes precisely the opposite. The LGBT narrative rejects the Bible and celebrates the very antithesis of the Christian sexual ethic. Central to this celebration is the emphatic non-binary pronouncement of sexuality. Instead of the sacred male and female distinction, there is a blurring of all boundaries, epitomized by androgyny, where male and female reduce down to a neither-nor neutral, sexually undefined person. Since this ideology flies in the face of reality, indoctrination needs to begin early and be propped up by repeated reinforcement. This is why pre-schoolers are read LGBT children’s literature by drag queens in our public libraries, and why school children are daily encouraged to pick their own pronouns, play for either the boys’ or girls’ sports team, use either the male or female washroom, and choose whichever changeroom they’d prefer.[1] Otherwise, it’s feared, children wouldn’t give their gender or sexuality a second thought and simply be content with their God-given design, girls playing with dolls and skipping rope and boys playing with sticks and skipping rocks.

With loss of male/female distinction comes loss of function. Same-sex couples can’t biologically reproduce, and mutilated, transgendered genitalia will never function in that elegant and complex capacity, either. Since having babies is no longer possible, this central role of our sexuality gets discarded. Rather than seen as a means of procreation, sex is strictly considered a form of recreation. As journalist Gregory Herdt observed, “only by disengaging sexuality from the traditions of family, reproduction, and parenthood was the evolution of the gay movement a social and historical likelihood.”[2] Separated from God’s design of male and female, sex is disengaged from family structure, and no longer functions for reproduction and child-rearing, but merely hedonistic pleasure. Instead of being protected within a covenantal relationship, sex is let loose and considered an impersonal act, even a commodity, where masturbation and the use of pornography are legitimized and encouraged. Rather than one-flesh covenantal fidelity, promiscuity is celebrated. Children are provided graphic material on sexual practices, positions, and products, and told “not to knock it till you try it.”[3] Instead of self-giving, sex is all about self-gratification. No longer a means of tangibly expressing one’s love for one’s spouse, sex becomes an end in itself, and an idol. Deposing purity, honor and sacredness, sex becomes dirty, profane and perverse; men with other men, women with women, mixing and matching of multiple partners and orgies, with no taboos or limits, joining what God has separated, and separating what God has joined.

Impoverished Church Response

As disturbing as this flagrant abuse of God’s good gift of sex is to consider, what’s even more troubling are the disappointing ways in which the church has responded to the LGBT movement. Instead of fulfilling its God-ordained role “to proclaim the gospel, observe the ordinances, and make disciples,”[4] winsomely serving as a counterpoint and corrective for societal transgressions, the church in our day has more often than not missed the mark. Some churches have chosen to simply condemn non-heterosexuality – no dialog, no engagement, no nothing, end of discussion. Others, in an attempt to avoid conflict, have tried to keep a neutral ground and remain silent on the issue, hoping it might just go away. Still others, trying to extend grace in some sort of misdirected way, have chosen to affirm the gender identity confusion of those who struggle with their sexuality, and have even resorted to raising the rainbow flag and joining in on the Pride celebration.

Although the hostile anti-Christian attacks lobbed by the LBGT lobby groups can be vicious, our response to them shouldn’t be. We have to guard ourselves from trying to fight fire with fire, and retorting to their taunting “Oh Yah?” with an even louder “Yah!” Protesting in the streets with vulgar placards which read “God hates…” or the trite, “God didn’t create Adam and Steve,” accomplishes no good thing. Profanity, sarcasm, pettiness, and ridicule should have no place in our vocabularies. Rather, we need to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, which is first patient and kind, gentle and self-controlled (Gal 5:22-23). As Apostle Paul reminds us, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (2 Cor 10:3-4). This necessitates, regardless of how our opposition may choose to operate, that we restrict ourselves to the high-road. William Ralph Inge observed that “The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.” However, our means to advance the Kingdom of God can’t be accomplished with hostile protests or petty argumentation. It’s important that we remain biblically-faithful and ensure that our methods reflect our gospel message. Otherwise, we misrepresent Christ to the world, and only end up adding fuel to the leftist’s fire in their branding of all Christians as “haters” and “bigots.”

The attempt of the church to be neutral and avoid the LGBT controversies has been regarded as a thoughtful and gracious approach. In an interview on HuffPost, former President Jimmy Carter tried to argue that since “Jesus never said a word about homosexuality,” we shouldn’t either, particularly a harsh or condemning word.[5] As a skilled statesman and peacemaker, this long-lived politician shined like few others, but as an expositor of Scripture trying to handle the word of God, he shows his limitations. While the red letters of Jesus didn’t include the word “homosexuality” per se, Jesus had plenty to say about condemning sexual immorality, and significantly raised the bar of sexual purity, pronouncing that “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:28). The Bible, taken as a whole, represents the authoritative Word of God with the voice of Jesus throughout, and places homosexuality clearly under the banner of sexual immorality, and condemns it explicitly (Lev 18:22; Lev 20:13; Ro 1:26; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 9). While such proof texts shouldn’t be used to clobber people, ignorance of God’s word needs to be countered. As the Christian influence on our culture wanes, so too, has the understanding of Scripture. Biblical illiteracy has become the norm in our society and even churches, and with it, many Christian churches suffer from doctrinal confusion and have become prone to liberal trends, such as actually believing the societal lie that “homophobia is the problem, not homosexuality,” or the slogan “love is love.” Slogans make for impoverished thinking. Love as some ill-defined passion may, indeed, equate with itself, but it isn’t necessarily good. Afterall, someone could love to cheat, to steal, to use pornography… Only God is good and only the biblical definition of love – that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8) – should be our guiding principle for the concern for others.

While the silent treatment some churches give to these challenges may derive from a superficial treatment of Scripture, or possibly even represents an ignorance as to our fundamental calling to be salt and light in the world (Matt 5:13-6) – to preserve what’s godly and expose what’s not – more likely, however, their “no comment” represents plain old cowardice, and betrays a fear of man. No one wants to offend others or be seen as harsh, but as the Bible makes clear, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe” (Prov 29:25). When we allow the fear of man to dominate our concerns, instead of the fear of the Lord, we are no longer trusting in God or believing that He reigns sovereign. Using our own wits and wisdom as a moral guide, we enter into tiger country, leaving ourselves wide open to temptation, compromise, and eternal destruction. Jesus warned not to fear man, but to fear God, “who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). And make no mistake, although trying to dance around LGBT controversy might provide some temporary side-stepping of conflict and maintenance of our charitable status-quo, in the end, this anemic approach will prove futile. LGBT activism is on the forward move. Just as the gay rights activists in Canada weren’t satisfied with merely Pierre Trudeau’s concession to decriminalize sodomy in 1969, so too, the LGBT activists won’t be satisfied with our present state of non-heterosexual affirmation and Pride celebration. They won’t stop until all obstacles have been completely removed from their steady forward advance into sexual depravity. The political sphere has already caved to their present demands, as has law, healthcare, arts and entertainment, media, business, and education. The church of Christ represents the final remaining bastion of truth and decency, and they’ve got us in their sights. As gay columnist Paul Varnell summarized, “The chief opposition to gay equality is religious. We may conduct our liberation efforts in the political sphere and even the cultural sphere, but always undergirding those and slowing our progress is the moral religious sphere. If we could hasten the pace of change there, our overall progress would accelerate – in fact, it would be assured.”[6] And assured it has become, in part, thanks to the silent church.

The response of some churches to affirm and celebrate the LGBT movement has led to a fundamental compromise of the gospel of Christ. Proponents maintain that the Bible is fallible, that it represents a book of its time, and that it isn’t particularly clear on the moral status of homosexuality. They assert the ancient sexual ethic of the Christian church is “irrelevant and offends moderns too much to be useful.” They hold that because the Bible was misused in the past to justify slavery and anti-Semitism, it can’t be regarded as a societal standard for contemporary human sexuality. Pastor Brian McLaren of the so-called Emerging Church stated, for example, that the beliefs of traditional evangelicals represent a “reactive, combative brand of religious fundamentalism that preoccupies itself with sexuality” and that “evangelicals who consider homosexuals sinners are really just looking for an enemy – a scapegoat.”[7] A flagrant example of gospel compromise would be the recent promotion of the so-called Sparkle Creed by a liberal Lutheran church.[8] This heretical mockery of the Apostle’s Creed refers to God to as “non-binary,” Jesus as having “two dads,” and the Holy Spirit as the “rainbow spirit” with the proclamation that “love is love is love, so beloved let us love.”

The Gay Gospel

In an attempt to reconcile pagan sexuality with the Christian worldview, gay advocates reinterpret Scripture to align with their autonomous desires. Treating the Bible as if it were some wax nose to be shaped any which way, they render homosexuality as simply another expression of God’s diversity in the created order to be celebrated. In their “fresh understanding of the Bible,” they propose that the sin of Sodom, for example (Gen 19), wasn’t in regards to homosexuality at all, but was about rape, inhospitality, or general wickedness, and the homosexuality cited in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 referred to prostitution or an idolatrous form of homosexuality. These proponents of the Gay Gospel suggest that when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant (who they suggest was “highly valued” because he was the soldier’s gay lover), that Jesus gave tacit approval of homosexuality. So, too, they consider the comments Jesus made about eunuchs (Matt 19:12) a favorable view of homosexuality, even though, of course, castration and sexual orientation are not at all one and the same. They go on to claim that Apostle Paul’s comment about “men abandoning natural relations” (Rom. 1:26) was in reference to heterosexuals who practice homosexuality, not born-that-way genuine homosexuals doing so. Their mistreatment of Scripture is a shameful attack on the integrity, sufficiency and authority of the Bible.[9] In essence, “they are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all… and are throwing people into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal 16-7). Not surprisingly, their twisted and tortured exegesis has no credible scholarly support.[10]

The fruit of the Gay Gospel has been bitter. This watering down and distortion of the gospel has proven to be detrimental for the liberalized churches, dividing leadership, splitting congregations, impairing gospel witness, invalidating missional outreach, and decimating membership and church attendance. Homosexuality is a critical watershed issue of our time. By endorsing the LGBT movement, the church has accelerated its own steady and swift decline in the West.[11] Leading this decline has been the United Church of Canada (UCC), which ordained openly gay clergy as early as 1992. Over the decade prior to the 2005 legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada, the UCC provided liturgical covenants for same-sex couples, and then in 2012, elected an openly gay moderator. Once the largest Protestant denomination in the country, the UCC is now but a dying remnant, forced to sell off its church real estate in order to desperately keep afloat. Shrinking faster than any other denomination, the UCC lost over 40 percent of its affiliates in the past decade, with nationwide attendance declining to under 120,000 people, most of whom are elderly with no desire or means to move on.[12] The Anglican church of Canada has followed suit, both in their allegiance to the LGBT narrative, and with their resultant steep decline in parishioner base.[13] So too, the Lutheran Church in North America is also on the steep decline.[14] With the recent decision to bless same-sex couples, the Church of England isn’t likely very far behind this decline, either. And why should it be otherwise? As Greg Bahnsen wisely said, “When the church begins to look and act like society, there is no reason for its continued existence.”[15]

Previous: Reclaiming the Rainbow. Next: Responding with Grace & Truth

[1] “Guidelines for best practices: creating learning environments that respect diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions, Government of Alberta, last modified January 1, 2016, https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9781460126240.

[3] https://teachers-ab.libguides.com/lgbtq/general

[4] The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. https://www.chapellibrary.org/pdf

[5] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/president-jimmy-carter-bible-book_n_1349570

[7] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/why-evangelicals-should-ignore-brian-mclaren-how-the-new-testament-requires/

[8] https://washingtonstand.com/commentary/progressive-christians-can-now-confess-heresy-with-sparkle-creed

[12] https://broadview.org/inside-united-church-decline/

[13] https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2022/12/14/anglican-church-of-canada-membership-fell-10-each-year-in-2020-and-2021-data-show/

[14] https://www.canadianlutheran.ca/decline-and-growth-a-look-at-the-lutheran-world-today/

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