More SBC Mess?

ALAYMAN said:
I don't keep up with Southern Baptist convention a whole lot, so if Merritt has claimed that he is a homosexual by this position/orientation but he is celibate and not acting upon those feelings then what is the issue? Is he endorsing that kind of a lifestyle of those who do engage?
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James Merritt is defending and promoting his son's immoral lifestyle and pushing his preaching. Plus, I don't know where one could get that homosexuality, with or without following up on the attraction with sex isn't sinful...I think the Bible makes it pretty clear that sin is sin, even if the person isn't acting upon the feelings. To ignore that God made male and female instead of male and male is wrong, plain and simple.
 
Here is Jonathan Merritt's latest word on his personal status, as of August 12, 2021: He says, "So today, I’m raising a glass to my full and complete self—a gay man, beloved by God, who has endured the worst the world could throw at him and fought his way to health and wholeness." It appears that he has admitted to a gay encounter which took place in 2012. (Azariah Southworth posted a detailed account of that encounter in Salon - I'm not going to post that link).

Major evangelical figure comes out as gay | Christian Research Network

Gay Dude, Jonathan Merritt, Praises Theologian for Embracing Sodomy - Protestia

I post this for informational purposes only. Everyone is free to decide for themselves whether or not Merritt has a problem, or if it is appropriate for his father, a prominent SBC leader, to endorse his ministry (see post #21 in this thread).
 
AverageJoe said:
James Merritt is defending and promoting his son's immoral lifestyle and pushing his preaching. Plus, I don't know where one could get that homosexuality, with or without following up on the attraction with sex isn't sinful...I think the Bible makes it pretty clear that sin is sin, even if the person isn't acting upon the feelings. To ignore that God made male and female instead of male and male is wrong, plain and simple.
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Is there a passage of scripture that says attraction to the same sex is a sin?
 
voicecrying said:
Is there a passage of scripture that says attraction to the same sex is a sin?
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Anything that is not in the way that God originated it is sin. If the person is claiming that they're still homosexual and they expect to go to heaven, then they're contradicting the Bible in their beliefs!
1 Cor 6:9-11 9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
If they're still homosexual, regardless of action on the attraction...they're not what God has commanded them to be, and I find it hard to be those people have been "washed, sanctified, or justified" as the Bible says. The Holy Spirit of God doesn't contradict himself.
 
Matthew 5:28-29, if a man lusts after a woman, it is a sin so serious that it just might be better to pluck out one's eye than to commit that sin. So, how is it that if a man lusts after another man, that is not a sin?
 
illinoisguy said:
Matthew 5:28-29, if a man lusts after a woman, it is a sin so serious that it just might be better to pluck out one's eye than to commit that sin. So, how is it that if a man lusts after another man, that is not a sin?
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Lust & attraction are different.
 
AverageJoe said:
Anything that is not in the way that God originated it is sin. If the person is claiming that they're still homosexual and they expect to go to heaven, then they're contradicting the Bible in their beliefs!
1 Cor 6:9-11 9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
If they're still homosexual, regardless of action on the attraction...they're not what God has commanded them to be, and I find it hard to be those people have been "washed, sanctified, or justified" as the Bible says. The Holy Spirit of God doesn't contradict himself.
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I'm missing it. Where does that say same-sex attraction is sin? Is it a sin if a single man is attracted to women but doesn't act on it?
 
illinoisguy said:
Matthew 5:28-29, if a man lusts after a woman, it is a sin so serious that it just might be better to pluck out one's eye than to commit that sin. So, how is it that if a man lusts after another man, that is not a sin?
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Sadly in this day and age, I'm finding that many Christians try to excuse sin, or look over it saying that this is what Jesus would do...I don't believe so. It seems to me that he called it out very clearly to the people involved....the woman at the well, the people of the religious establishment, etc. I'm just shocked to see how this philosophy has permeated the church and continues to increase in it.
 
I think there are several issues that needs to be sorted out here. I believe that from God's creation order we know that any desire of a homosexual nature is a sinful desire because God's design in sexual relationships is for the purpose of procreation, at a minimum. Having said that, I think the next issue that needs to be identified is that of endorsement in Christian leadership. Any Christian leader that is admittedly struggling with sin, by definition, whatever that sin might be, is not to be endorsed (as the Merritt father did and is doing) or put into a position as an example to be followed. And lastly, it is appropriate to acknowledge that we conservatives have at times been overly disproportionate in our judgment and condemnation of one kind of sin over another. Such mistreatment and unequal discernment in judgment must not be our standard for calling each other to live holy. Put another way, homosexuality isn't unforgivable sin.
 
AverageJoe said:
Sadly in this day and age, I'm finding that many Christians try to excuse sin, or look over it saying that this is what Jesus would do...I don't believe so. It seems to me that he called it out very clearly to the people involved....the woman at the well, the people of the religious establishment, etc. I'm just shocked to see how this philosophy has permeated the church and continues to increase in it.
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Voicecrying nor I are going soft or excusing sin. Quite the contrary, we are trying to not add to Scripture, as well as properly apply it. I will wager voicecrying has ZERO qualms about calling homosexuality and its consequent relationships being nothing less than absolute sin.
 
illinoisguy said:
Here is Jonathan Merritt's latest word on his personal status, as of August 12, 2021: He says, "So today, I’m raising a glass to my full and complete self—a gay man, beloved by God, who has endured the worst the world could throw at him and fought his way to health and wholeness." ...
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I would like to hear a more clearly articulated explanation of what he means by "complete self". He could mean that in the sense of acknowledging all of who he currently is, not making excuses for his warts and all, but rather being transparent about his struggles. Having said that, from what I have read, his father is clearly in the wrong for endorsing him in what is apparently a state of ambiguity over the subject.
 
We are told to ‘flee youthful lust’ not embrace or act on them. Sinful Lust, if acted upon become sin….when they are acted on. I have no idea about Merrit.
 
Ransom said:
Romans 1:27 suggests that both the behaviour and the attraction are unnatural and sinful.
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Romans 1:27 seems to me to refer to those who have surrendered to and revel in their unnatural lust.
 
Ransom said:
Romans 1:27 suggests that both the behaviour and the attraction are unnatural and sinful.
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I disagree that Romans 1:27 is addressing attraction. It certainly addresses lust and behavior. I am attracted to women, but that doesn't mean I lust after them.
 
Personally, I do see a distinction between attraction and lust. To me, lust is a biblical sin, attraction is not. If attraction is a sin, then the author of the Song of Solomon may be in hot water.

Speaking of hot water, the controversy over the elder Merritt's endorsement of his son's ministry continues to heat up. See this statement from the Conservative Baptist Network:

CBN Calls Out SBC Seminary Professor for Promoting Gay Son's Sermon (churchleaders.com)

"The statement went on to state concern that an SBC pastor and SBC seminary employee was promoting the sermon, saying, 'To present to Southern Baptists a man living in unrepentant sin as someone to whom they should listen for a sermon that is "faithful to the gospel," as the elder Merritt tweeted, is wholly illogical and demonstrably dangerous. For one who is employed by a Southern Baptist seminary receiving Cooperative Program tithe dollars to promote an unrepentant sinner—no matter whose son he is—as a trustworthy preaching source is a betrayal of trusting Southern Baptists.'”

One reviewer of the sermon that the elder Merritt endorsed says it wasn't even a very good sermon (see page 3 of link above):

"Tom Buck is the senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas . . . 'I listened to the "sermon," and it was completely VOID of THE gospel. It’s pure Henry Emerson Fosdick social gospel' . . . Buck said he found it disturbing that a professor at SEBTS publicly is promoting a sermon given by 'an openly homosexual man,' but said what was more 'troubling' is the fact James calls the promoted sermon 'faithful to the gospel and coming of Jesus.' Buck then called out the SBC seminary saying, 'If this is the gospel at @sebts, we’re in trouble!'. . . 'It’s a train wreck, whether preached by a homosexual or heterosexual,' Buck said. 'The saddest thing is what he thinks the gospel is. He can never be saved by that ‘gospel.’”
 
Ransom said:
I can't necessarily control my natural lust, but that doesn't make it not sinful.
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I’m not sure that simply having such lust is sinful until that thought is entertained…which is why Paul told us to take every thought captive…to make it obedient to Christ.
 
illinoisguy said:
Personally, I do see a distinction between attraction and lust. To me, lust is a biblical sin, attraction is not. If attraction is a sin, then the author of the Song of Solomon may be in hot water.

Speaking of hot water, the controversy over the elder Merritt's endorsement of his son's ministry continues to heat up. See this statement from the Conservative Baptist Network:

CBN Calls Out SBC Seminary Professor for Promoting Gay Son's Sermon (churchleaders.com)

"The statement went on to state concern that an SBC pastor and SBC seminary employee was promoting the sermon, saying, 'To present to Southern Baptists a man living in unrepentant sin as someone to whom they should listen for a sermon that is "faithful to the gospel," as the elder Merritt tweeted, is wholly illogical and demonstrably dangerous. For one who is employed by a Southern Baptist seminary receiving Cooperative Program tithe dollars to promote an unrepentant sinner—no matter whose son he is—as a trustworthy preaching source is a betrayal of trusting Southern Baptists.'”

One reviewer of the sermon that the elder Merritt endorsed says it wasn't even a very good sermon (see page 3 of link above):

"Tom Buck is the senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas . . . 'I listened to the "sermon," and it was completely VOID of THE gospel. It’s pure Henry Emerson Fosdick social gospel' . . . Buck said he found it disturbing that a professor at SEBTS publicly is promoting a sermon given by 'an openly homosexual man,' but said what was more 'troubling' is the fact James calls the promoted sermon 'faithful to the gospel and coming of Jesus.' Buck then called out the SBC seminary saying, 'If this is the gospel at @sebts, we’re in trouble!'. . . 'It’s a train wreck, whether preached by a homosexual or heterosexual,' Buck said. 'The saddest thing is what he thinks the gospel is. He can never be saved by that ‘gospel.’”
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I would agree with Pastor Buck’s opinion of said sermon. I would also disagree with the promotion or the praise of the sermon by Merritt Sr.
 
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