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Ex-gays respond to Andy Stanley’s remarks on gay churchgoers

| Screenshot: YouTube/Gwinnett Church

Christians who once identified as homosexual have mixed opinions about recent remarks by Pastor Andy Stanley, in which the megachurch leader said that LGBT individuals who go to church have “more faith than a lot of you.”

Last month, a short clip of Stanley was posted on Twitter in which he said, “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 a lot of you.”

“A gay person who knows, ‘You know what?’ ” “I might not be accepted here, but I will try it anyway.” Have you ever done that as a straight person? “Where do you go when you’re not sure you’re going to be accepted, and you go over and over and over?” Stanley asked in the viral clip.

Stanley acknowledged that there were verses in the Bible that condemned homosexuality but then added, “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, and they still love God?”

“We have some things to learn from a group of men and women who love Jesus that much and want to worship with us,” he continued. “I know the verses; I know the clobber passages, right?” “So we’ve got to figure this out.” And you know what? “I think you are.”

Christopher Doyle, a professional counselor and executive director of the Institute for Healthy Families, told The Christian Post that because the entire sermon is not easily accessible online, Stanley’s “words leave me with more questions than answers.”

“I appreciate Pastor Stanley’s compassion for Christians struggling with sexual and gender identity. “As a young man, I experienced unwanted same-sex attractions, and having a safe place surrounded by loving, embracing Christians would have helped me on my healing journey,” said Doyle.

“Stanley is also correct that LGBT-identified Christians have been unfairly marginalized in the Body of Christ, and we certainly have a lot to learn from these sensitive souls.” In my experience, they are creative, artistic, and mercy-driven individuals with unique character qualities. But, unfortunately, the church has historically used Scripture [as Stanley said] to “clobber” them instead of appreciating and loving the whole person.

Nevertheless, Doyle also told CP that it’s “important to recognize we are all sexually broken and in need of emotional, relational, and spiritual healing,” adding that “the Gospel remains the same and calls us to pursue righteousness.”

“Is Pastor Stanley challenging his entire congregation to pursue holiness and righteousness or providing a seeker-friendly environment with a watered-down gospel?” Doyle asked.

“In my personal experience as a sexually broken Christian man and my professional experience as a counselor walking with believers pursuing healing, holiness, and righteousness, I have found that they can only come with a renewing of the mind and a sanctification of the heart.”

Stephen Black, an author and executive director of First Stone Ministries, told CP that Stanley’s remarks showed that his church has “a terrible theology based in psychology rather than an actual biblical theology.”

“Stanley is filled with such corrupt theology that he believes “gay,” and other corrupt identities are legitimate,” said Black. “This is not a biblical worldview.”

“Andy Stanley repeatedly communicates “gay people” as a legitimate identity given to this modern culture over the last 100 years from psychology and the American Psychological Association, legitimizing corrupt human sexual desires as orientations.”

Black believed it was “important for sincere Bible-believing Christians who have a saving faith to pay attention to what leaders like Stanley are communicating in their nuanced words.”

“Simply put, people like Stanley are filled with unbelief concerning the transforming grace of God,” he continued. “They are telling themselves that they have a terrible theology of easy-believism that does not require real change or a repentant life that endures to the end.”

Black drew a parallel to the ministry known as Revoice, a Christian ministry that, while adhering to the belief that homosexuality is sinful, garnered controversy in theologically conservative circles for its embrace of ideas like Christians being able to identify as LGBT.

“Stanley and leaders like him in Revoice are communicating a psychological worldview,” Black added. “They believe more in the APA’s orientation narrative and belief structures than the Holy Scriptures.”

“We need to pray that Andy Stanley and other Revoice leaders come into the full revelation of Jesus, resulting in righteousness, a saving faith with a confessed life, and living out repentance.” “I know hundreds of ex-homosexuals who are living out a life without labels and are found in Jesus Christ alone.”

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