"New Testament Teaching on Homosexuality Not True" -Obama Christian Appointee to Faith-Based Pro...

CNS News ^ | Wednesday, April 08, 2009 | Fred Lucas

[presidio9]

President Obama has named to his faith-based advisory council a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament's teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong--which is found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans--“is not true."

The appointee, Harry Knox, has also said that Obama's decision to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inauguration "tainted" the ceremony and that Pope Benedict XVI is a "discredited leader."

Harry Knox, a professed gay Christian who is director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights group, was named to President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Monday. The advisory council gives federal grants to faith-based organizations.

The appointment came after Knox criticized Obama prior to the Inauguration for selecting Warren, a California megachurch pastor and best-selling author, to deliver the invocation. Writing in The Huffington Post blog, Knox said to Obama, “We don’t feel hopeful anticipation of a new day in our country, and we don’t feel optimism. We feel betrayed.”

Knox said in the December article that Warren’s invocation would make the Jan. 20 Inauguration a “tainted” event because Warren supported the ballot initiative in California to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

On the PBS News Hour in December, Knox said that Warren “has in fact leveraged homophobia to get ahead in his career. … This is the worst possible choice the president could have made. This is a divisive choice. … We said to the president-elect today in very strong language, the strongest we can think of and be respectful of the office, you have really slapped us. And we want you to think about that and think very hard what your actions will be going forward because this very symbolic, early decision has sent the exact wrong message.”

Knox could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Knox is one of 25 members of the advisory board of the White House Office Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Obama announced the formation of the office in early February, a continuation of a similar office started by President George W. Bush to issue federal grants to faith-based, non-profit charitable organizations.

Other members include Bishop Charles Blake of the Church of God in Christ in Chicago; the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president-elect of the National Council of Churches USA; Dr. Frank Page, president emeritus of the Southern Baptist Convention; the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of the liberal Christian group Sojourners; and the Rev. Joel C. Hunter of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.

Knox has been a long-time gay activist focusing on the faith community. He previously worked for the New York-based Freedom to Marry group, for Georgia Equality and Equality Florida. He has won awards from liberal religious organizations.

In a debate with the Rev. Gino Jennings recorded Nov. 28, 2004 at the First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Philadelphia, the two men sparred over various biblical verses references homosexual behavior.

This included the Book of Romans, in which St. Paul wrote, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

After reading the scripture, Jennings asked, “Do you believe that? That if a man lie with a man or a woman with a woman it is against nature?”

“I do not believe it,” answered Knox, who at the time was the program director for the group Freedom to Marry.

Jennings responded, “So this is a lie?”

Knox affirmed, “That is not true.”

“Paul did not have any idea of the kind of love that I feel for a partner when I am partnered. He didn’t know what that was about,” Knox said. “The straight man, the heterosexual man who got the privilege of writing the book, the educated, rich, heterosexual man, Paul, who got to write the book, didn’t think it was natural because for him it must not have been.”

Jennings later responded that Paul was not the sole author of the writings. “So you are saying Paul was just closed-minded. I totally disagree because the book says this, the book tells us that all scripture, all of the scripture, not some of it, but all scripture are given by the inspiration of God,” said Jennings.

Before starting at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in 2005, Knox also worked as development director of Equality Florida and was the executive director of Georgia Equality. While in Georgia, his groups successfully lobbied corporations such as Coca-Cola, Bell South, Delta, and Cingular to extend same-sex benefits to employees.

At the HRC, Knox established a weekly preaching resource that provides scriptural commentary to pastors interested in homosexual perspectives on the Bible. He also helped create a network of 22 “progressive state clergy coalitions” around the country, according to the HRC Web site.

Knox has the potential to be a polarizing figure, said the Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the conservative Traditional Values Coalition.

“Everything he says will be front-page news,” Sheldon told CNSNews.com. “He will be a political liability to the president. All the good that the faith-based office does will get buried by a loose cannon that fires over the bow. But that’s what Obama wants.”

Last month, Knox was quoted in a gay newspaper criticizing the pope and the Catholic group Knights of Columbus, mainly because the Knights supported the traditional marriage amendment to the California constitution.

Knox told the San Francisco-based gay newspaper the Bay Area Reporter, “The Knights of Columbus do a great deal of good in the name of Jesus Christ, but in this particular case, they were foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression.” In the newspaper, he included among the “discredited leaders” Catholic bishops and Pope Benedict XVI, as “A pope who literally today said condoms don't help in control of AIDS."

In a brief interview Monday with CNSNews.com, Knox stood by his comments on the pope.

“The pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use,” Knox told CNSNews.com. “We are eager to help him do that. Until he is willing to do that and able, he’s doing a great deal more harm than good--not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people’s lives.”

The pope’s comments were mischaracterized by Knox, said Catholic League President Bill Donohue.

“When Pope Benedict XVI recently said that condoms are not the answer to HIV/AIDS, he was simply voicing common sense: the promiscuous distribution of condoms has coincided with a precipitous increase in HIV/AIDS,” Donohue said in a statement Tuesday. “But to gay activists like Knox, the pope is a liar. Indeed, he instructed the pope to ‘start telling the truth about condom use,’ holding the Holy Father accountable for ‘endangering people’s lives.’ He never explained how calls for abstinence could possibly jeopardize anyone’s life.”

In 2000, Knox won the Cordle Award for Promoting God’s Diversity, and the Lancaster Theological Seminary’s 2005 Robert V. Moss Medal for Excellence in Ministry.

[FatherofFive]

Knox is NOT a Christian. You cannot pick and choose what you want out of the Bible. You cannot 2,000 years later decide that what was written then is not what was meant.

That, sir, is the problem with the Reformation.

Anyone with a Bible can say they know exactly what it means. "Christians" cannot even agree on what the meaning of the word "is" is. Paul warned us this would happen, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Tim. 4:3–4).

Fortunately, we have Christ’s promise that heresies will never prevail against the Church. They will arise, endure sometimes for centuries, like Protestantism, but we can be confident in Christ’s promise that the Church will always teach the Truth.

[presidio9]

"gay christian", the ultimate oxymoron!

Not necessarily. These things change more often than the weather, but the current liberal definition of the word gay seems to be "same sex attracted." If a dude is attracted to other men, but not actively having buttsex it is quite possible for him to practice Christianity.

[presidio9]

These are the criteria one must meet to consider himself a Christian: You must believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. You must believe that we executed him, and he died for our sins. You must believe that he rose from the dead, and will return for a Last Judgement. All other doctrine is important, but not essential, if you are going to call yourself a Christian. Knox has disqualified himself from my denomination, and probably yours, but not from his own understanding of Christ (even if it is a false one). One of the 12 disciples got it all wrong, but I'd still call him a sort of Christian.

Plus there a plenty of off-brand forms of Christianity that I completely disagree with (like CLDS), but that doesn't make them any less Christian.

[Wuli]

To begin with, I never was a cheer leader for GWB’s “faith based initiative” and the office he created for it.

It, the office and the process around it, can never NOT be political and politically compromising of ANY true faith.

Reduce the taxes on the people and there will be no need for “faith based” organizations to come to Caesar looking for a handout; and there will be no place for a politico like Obama to give a presidential thumbs up or thumbs down to any “faith based” group.

[presidio9]

The Nazis “officially tolerated” Christianity, but they tried to play down the books by the man they referred to as “the Jew Paul.”

The Nazis of course were not Christians themselves. They understood that direct attacks would not be tolerated in a primarily Christian culture. That being said, they were ruthless with all competition. Had Britian capitulated they would have effectively won on the Contintent. Then they would have set their sights on Christianity. The Communists did effectively outlaw Christianity for 70 years, but the reaction to John Paul IIs appearance behind the Curtain was the major blow that sent it reeling.

[Raycpa]

It always kills me when they say we are all going to hell for eating shellfish.

Two points. The OT Leviticus explains that God holds all nations (read -non Jews) accountable to a morality standard that excludes homosexual acts. God claims he removed these prior nations from the land because of homosexuality and other sexual immorality. He did not remove them because they ate shellfish.

Further, in Acts 15, a council met and declared that the requirements of the OT law was no longer an obligation for Christians EXCEPT for sexual immorality among other things which also did not include shellfish.

The argument that shellfish and homosexuality are treated the same by the OT and the NT is false. Shellfish did not cause nations to be removed from the land and was not specified by the early Christians in Acts 15.

[presidio9]

The Nazis did more than that. They took over the Protestant churches (except for a persecuted remnant that did not bow to the anti-Christ). The Nazis tried to make the churches become little more than outlets for Nazi propaganda. A lot of real Christians who resisted this were sent to prison or concentration camps. For decades the authority of the Bible had been downgraded, so a lot of church leaders were well-prepared to let the Nazi pagans destroy what was left of Christianity.

Your last line bothers me, because Christianity is of course not something that can be destroyed. It can be abandoned, but it will still always be there.

It is impossible to generalize the effect that Nazism had on German Protestants. Differnet denominations fared differently. The Catholic had historically been so much more unified that they had their own effective political party until 1933. When the Nazis suggested that the protestants elect their own "national biship" to represent them, they were enthusiastic. Many of them had already participated in a movement called the German Christians before Hitler became chancellor. The German Christains became increasingly sympathetic to the Reich as time when on. This being Germany, most were Lutherans. Througout the course of the war, the Nazi Party had ever growing influence on the Lutheran Church. The much smaller Methodist and Episcopalian Churches were completely subverted by Hitler. Of course, many good Christians resisted, actively or quietly. Not telling you anything I think you don't already know, just adding to it. Ever HS history book you pick up today will discuss the Catholic Church under Nazi rule. People forget that Germany was a Protestant country, and most Nazis were Protestant.

[tflabo]

We said to the president-elect today in very strong language, the strongest we can think of and be respectful of the office, you have really 'slapped us'.

Uhhhh.. I thought they enjoyed that sort of treatment?

[ichabod1]

It was because of the church witnessing what was happening to religion in the soviet union that she initially supported a right wing authoritarian regime in Germany. This was during the reign of Pius XI, through his papal nuncio in Germany called Eugenio Pacelli, better known as Pope Pius XII.

[ichabod1]

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that they were not fascist b@stards to the church. My point was that they discounted all of the books of the Epistles by referring to their author as “the Jew”. It’s nonsensical since they were all Jews, but being schtoopid doesn’t seem to have kept them from being very, very mean, a lesson that should not be lost on us as “that man” continues to have his way with us.

[Wilhelm Tell]

People forget that Germany was a Protestant country, and most Nazis were Protestant.

There were plenty of Nazi leaders from a Catholic background and Germany is part Catholic, part Protestant. There were people of each background that fell for the Nazi cult. Of course the situation of the Nazis vs. the Catholic Church is rather complicated and I was writing mostly about the Protestant situation. My point was that Christianity had been so watered-down in the Protestant churches that the Nazis had little trouble deceiving people and taking over their churches. Christ was already an unwelcome guest so it was easy for the devil to move in. Not that the Nazis could completely destroy the church. There is always a Remnant, but it is just that - a remnant. This is a warning for our times - once Christ is no longer welcome in so-called churches, the devil will move in under many guises.

[rhema]

Harry Knox, a professed gay Christian . . .

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." --MARTIN LUTHER

[NYer]

Early Teachings on Homosexuality

Some argue that neither the Bible nor apostolic tradition condemns the practice of homosexuality. Passages such as Leviticus 18:22–30, Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Jude 7 serve as ample proof that Scripture indeed condemns homosexuality. Below is ample proof from tradition. The Fathers are especially harsh against the practice of pederasty, the homosexual corruption of boys by men.

 

The Didache

"You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one that has been born" (Didache 2:2 [A.D. 70]). - Read More.

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[melsec]

Gee what theological insight!? What wisdom!? How could all of us be so wrong? It is not true because he says so! WOW! We must have that power too! Here goes - The sky is red - the sea is pink with raffia work on top - and flowers are really little pixies in disguise!

You have a go ! You 2 are smarter than Paul, The Pope and God.

Mel

[mgist]

What is interesting is that those that practice “magic” or Santeria as it is known in the Caribean community, are usually homosexual. That is according to my Pentacostal housekeeper. She is a great lady. I like the fact that she respects my Catholic beliefs. I respect hers.

[tob2]

I suppose the entire Bible is “wrong”.

[PeteePie]

"But Lord! Lord!"

"Eh, eh, eh. Depart from me for I know you not"

[markomalley]

IMHO, any private organization participating with this abomination need to not be supported with the dollars of any of any real Americans.

From a White House Press Release

The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will include a new President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, composed of religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds. There will be 25 members of the Council, appointed to 1-year terms.

Members of the Council include:

Judith N. Vredenburgh, President and Chief Executive Officer, Big Brothers / Big Sisters of America
Philadelphia, PA

Rabbi David N. Saperstein, Director & Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and noted church/state expert
Washington, DC

Dr. Frank S. Page, President emeritus, Southern Baptist Convention
Taylors, SC

Father Larry J. Snyder, President, Catholic Charities USA
Alexandria, VA

Rev. Otis Moss, Jr., Pastor emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
Cleveland, OH

Eboo S. Patel, Founder & Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Corps
Chicago, IL

Fred Davie, President, Public / Private Ventures, a secular non-profit intermediary
New York, NY

Dr. William J. Shaw, President, National Baptist Convention, USA
Philadelphia, PA

Melissa Rogers, Director, Wake Forest School of Divinity Center for Religion and Public Affairs and expert on church/state issues
Winston-Salem, NC

Pastor Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, a Church Distributed
Lakeland, FL

Dr. Arturo Chavez, Ph.D., President & CEO, Mexican American Cultural Center
San Antonio, TX

Rev. Jim Wallis, President & Executive Director, Sojourners
Washington, DC

Bishop Vashti M. McKenzie, Presiding Bishop, 13th Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church
Knoxville, TN

Diane Baillargeon, President & CEO, Seedco, a secular national operating intermediary
New York, NY

Richard Stearns, President, World Vision
Bellevue, WA

The above list is not an exhaustive list. It's a start. If these groups want to play with the devil, they should do so without our money.