Posted on 12/08/2018 8:15:52 PM PST by SeekAndFind
More than any other matter, Christians who become famous or in any way visible public figures will one day be asked by media outlets what they think about homosexuality.
The question becomes: What and how is the best way to respond?
The touchy subject has resurfaced again in light of singer Lauren Daigle, whose popularity is surging, and her response when asked on "The Domenick Nati Show" if she thought homosexuality was a sin. She said she could not say because she isn't God.
Several prominent voices asked her to retract, some more stern than others, while others urged people not to come down too hard and help her.
"The temptations that come with fame and influence are great, far greater than most of us can imagine. And the temptation to 'not offend' is always great, lest we seem like stereotyped, unloving Bible-bashers," wrote Michael Brown earlier this week. "That’s why Lauren needs our help and support rather than our wrath."
With the legalization of same-sex marriage just over three years ago in the United States, the debate about same-sex relationships has shifted significantly and is fraught with complicated dynamics in the younger generation, some say.
Josh Daffern, pastor of Centreville Baptist Church in Centreville, Virginia, told The Christian Post in a phone interview Wednesday that for anyone who has anything close to a public voice or a platform like Daigle has, homosexuality is "the hot-button issue of the moment not because anyone is interested in having a genuine conversation, they just want to try to discredit the other side."
"Having a discussion about something as complex as human sexuality and God's plan for that, what the Old Testament and, more importantly, what the New Testament teach about that ... that is a really detailed, nuanced conversation and it is best done in the context of relationship, and it's an absolutely horrible place for it to be done in 30-second sound bites," he explained.
So when journalists ask Christian celebrities questions they quickly go to this touchy subject. Previously, the popular question to ask was whether they believed if Jesus was the only pathway to salvation, he noted.
"Now, there's more bang for your buck if they can get them to pick a camp regarding homosexuality," he said of the media's treatment of the subject.
While Daigle could have phrased it differently, he applauded her heart because he saw her as trying to not give the reporter what he seemingly wanted.
"We don't take credit for how many people we offend and push into Hell. The whole goal is to lead people to Jesus, so let's be wise about our message. I completely understand that we do have to stand for truth and we do have to speak the truth in love."
"But I'm tired of selective outrage," he added, "to judge from afar the biblical issues that we don't tend to struggle with. If this was saddled alongside Christians for hypocrisy, judgmentalism, racism, seeming inability to care about people in other parts of the world, that's fine."
"For those who have left that [gay] life and come out of it, I thank God that sometimes even harsh-sounding truth can sometimes speak to them, and that's just the sovereignty and grace of God," he added.
Daffern counsels his church to be very careful about what they publish on social media because it's so hard to have a meaningful, nuanced conversation through the anonymity of the internet. He reiterated how important it is for Christians to be shrewd, knowing that many are out there trying to trip them up and bait them into situations not dissimilar from the instances with what the religious leaders in the biblical era did with Jesus.
"He didn't give them what they wanted," Daffern said of how Jesus responded, "and he was judged for it. That, I think, at the end of the day, for better or for worse, is what Lauren Daigle was trying to attempt."
Kaeley Triller, co-founder of Hands Across The Aisle Coalition, an ideologically diverse group of women including conservative-leaning Christians, Catholics, radical feminists and progressive lesbians resisting transgender activism and legal efforts to replace sex with gender identity in the law, also thinks Christians need to reconsider how quick they are to criticize their own when they do not speak clearly.
Triller spoke with CP by phone Wednesday not representing HATAC, but in her personal capacity.
"I know what it's like to have to draw cold hard lines about truth," she said. "I say some aggressively clear things about transgenderism and I know it's important. Somebody has to draw that line and say this is what truth is because love requires it. Somebody has to do it."
"But there are other people who are called to love trans-identified people and maybe more gently guide them into the Kingdom. And while you don't want to compromise truth in any way to do that, you don't have to start with the one thing that is going to alienate them."
Triller, a big fan of Daigle who was thrilled to see her platform and influence grow before unlikely audiences like on the "Ellen" Show, finds the swirl surrounding the young Christian artist frustrating for several reasons.
"It's almost like a sabotage. [Christians] want every single play on that football field to be a touchdown pass. They aren't willing to allow that ball to advance a couple of yards at a time. Sometimes you have to build," she said.
"And let's be honest, when we consider 'Christian art' most of the time we think of how crummy it is. But when we have an artist that is kind of leading and shaping the culture and she is a Christian, we should be supporting her and setting her up for success, not requiring her to be a theological giant,' she said, echoing Brown.
"Let's help her and encourage the fostering of those relationships. I mean, let's get Ellen [DeGeneres] curious about her music and about God!"
Like Daffern, she believes that the effort to ask young and public Christians about whether or not homosexuality is a sin is kind of a trap.
"I don't know why he thought he had to ask her that question or what he thought he was going to gain by it," she said.
"Why did he have to lead with that question? What are we doing when we do that? What is the goal? To smoke her out and expose her as a less than perfect theologian and showcase her weak points?"
When she read about the interview, she was irritated because she saw Christians being relieved, saying among themselves that they knew it was not a good idea for Christians to go on Ellen DeGeneres' show.
"It's the old-school, Pharisaical 'don't touch the unclean' mentality," Triller said. "I don't think she answered it perfectly at all, and Romans 1 says what Romans 1 says. We can't really negotiate that," she added, referring to some of the Apostle Paul's most explicit words against homosexual practice. "But why is that what we're focusing on? Can't you ask a million other questions?
"If I have a gay person in front of me with whom I have a friendship, and they ask me point-blank: 'Kaeley, do you think homosexuality is a sin?' Then I'm going to talk to them about what I think and I have to tell them the truth, but I've been invited to have that opinion at that point is going to matter a lot more than if they never get to know me in the first place because I've drawn some wall that they can't get over."
Meanwhile, Nati, the radio host, is insisting he was not trying to trap Lauren with a touchy question.
"The backlash Lauren Daigle received from our interview has been very disappointing to witness. I was shocked by the amount of attack and assumption there was on someone simply saying ‘I don't know,’” Nati said in a statement shared with The Christian Post on Thursday.
“The truth is YOU don't know! You don't know if she was being honest, you don't know if she was dodging the question, and you don't know if she was lying ... and neither do I,” he explained.
Yet others believe the Church needs to speak the truth no matter what.
In a Dec. 3 Facebook live video, Jeffrey McCall, a former trans-identified man and male prostitute whom CP interviewed earlier this year, stressed that while he did not want to bash Daigle personally, he felt compelled nonetheless to address her comments.
In the church, the fear of coming across as unloving is pervasive, he explained, noting that "if Jesus came with grace and truth then we need to come with grace and truth. We can't just share grace and we can't just share truth."
"Peter denied Jesus three times yet the Lord restored him and used him mightily, very mightily," he continued.
"Don't count out Lauren Daigle. You don't have to come against her. But we do have to stand firm with the truth."
When McCall became a Christian and decided to leave his old way of life behind, he lost almost all of his friends.
"One of the biggest problems in my old life was that I was my own god. I was God. I decided what was right and wrong.
"Homosexuality is a sin. Lying is a sin. Stealing is sin. Heterosexual fornication is a sin. Adultery is a sin. And we don't want to play a role in deceiving people or leading other people astray. We need to be clear on God's Word and share what that says and what that means over everything [else]," he asserted.
But the whole point of the Bible is that no matter what sin has trapped or entangled you, you can be free through Jesus Christ, he said.
"I was a prostitute, transgender, homosexual, drug addict, alcoholic, pill-popping, selfish, slanderous, vindictive person. He had to take all of that on himself on the cross and He paid the price for me."
Tell them they bought the cheap seat tickets and they will get what they paid for.
Quote the above, then say, "No sin will enter the Kingdom of God; not one smidgen. No one enters the Kingdom of God without Faith in Christ and their sins washed clean by His blood. If one is practicing any of the sins just quoted from the Bible, they are not on the path to entering the Kingdom of God and face an eternity so ghastly that it is hard to speak of."
This is what the Bible says and teaches, do you doubt it?
‘No one can serve two masters’
I don’t know Lauren Daigle but I know her type.....
.....and if she has any ‘message’ to give, she should be very worried it will be diluted every single time she compromises
There are millions of Christians through the ages who refused to compromise......sometimes their boldness enhanced their message....
....sometimes they paid a martyrs price.....
....but their ultimate reward was and still is....awesome!
‘Choose ye this day whom you will serve
As for me and my house we will serve the Lord’
Exactly. “I believe the Bible, obviously.” If any follow up question is asked the next answer is read it for yourself.
The Old Testament is very clear and adamant on the issue of homosexuality being against God and not to do it.
Jesus is very clear and adamant in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to destroy the laws of the Prophets but to fulfill prophecy. He continues on to say what will happen to those that lead people astray on these issues.
Unfortunately prophecy of the end times seems to be taking place and hence the churches are watered down and preaching “feel good’ sermons instead of sermons that should save people’s souls. The following is a good quote on what we find in today’s churches.
“Grievous wolves, ravening wolves, wolves in sheep’s clothing, seducers, evil men, false prophets, false Christs, ungodly men, “men…speaking perverse things,” false teachers, “them which cause division and offences contrary to doctrine…by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple,” false apostles, deceitful workers, “ministers of Satan” who present themselves as “ministers of righteousness”: this is who the Bible warns will be in the churches.”
Paul might have had someone like Daigle in mind when he said that he would not allow women to speak and teach in church but to keep silence. Women might be great believers but theirs is a tendency to smooth over potential bad feelings and to soften the edges of what needs to be clear unvarnished truth so that what should be unmuddled becomes muddled!
“Twin studies say there is not.”
That’s a really good point when it comes to identical twins.
You could generally switch “men” and “women” in your post and that would be applicable as well.
Some men ... more and more men ... have become more unattractive. They insult women. They abuse women. They are untrustworthy. They are angry. They are lazy. They aren’t chivalrous any more. Who would want to live with that every day? You get my point.
You’re right; everything IS out of whack.
Bringing the Bible into a discussion with these people is pointless; they don’t put any stock in the Bible. You have to use non-religious points with them.
Yeah...they love to side track the argument don’t they? Yet, knowing the aforementioned before hand that what they are really trying to do is to receive some type of absolution for the wrongness they are committing from a Christian no less can be a help in talking to them without getting flustered. They are looking for the targeted Christian to soften or agree with their position so that they can somehow quiet their own consciences on the matter. They are looking for Christians not to be Moses coming down from the Mountain with the truth but to be Aaarons who will compromise and even help build their idols of worship and approve of their wicked behavior.
Now before I get comments about Christ and grace and the law and all that, I’ve chosen the Moses simile deliberately. Make no mistake about it, unless these people repent, it is the judgments of Sinai that await them!
I think I disagree but you have to use context. You might get a statement like...”at work they told us to treat everyone like you want to be treated when we went to tolerance class, not like some Christian nutball church”. At that point you might ask him if he knew where that concept came from, showing him the bible verse, and telling him that the people in “tolerance class” actually borrowed that from the Christian “nutballs” he is criticizing.
Ask the reporters why they are so preoccupied with discussing how and why people choose to have orgasms the way they do. And as a respectful person point out that you find those types of questions rude.
Rom 1:26 For this cause, God gave them up to dishonorable affections. For even their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature.
Rom 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another; males with males working out shamefulness, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was fitting for their error. (AIDS?)
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things not right,
RE: if everyone was homosexual, mankind would cease to exist.
Not with today’s science and technology
The answer should be stated thusly:
What is the upside for me in answering your question? To open my personal opinion (to which I am entitled) to your scrutiny does not benefit me in any way. Next question.
If the mediots follow up, continue with the line of “it does not benefit me to answer in the affirmative or negative”
Leave them with nowhere to go.
The answer is: Why are you asking me this question? You should direct your question to the gerbil.
The Bible says it is. Ask the author.
“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”
But Ellen Degenerate, America’s best loved lezzie, keeps pushing faggie agendas into our faces.
They won't be moved by non-religious points as these are hardened folks. Only the Word of God can get through if anything at all. This is Spiritual warfare and not just a pleasant debate.
You need to seize the high ground and stay on point completely.
They need to understand the reality of sin and the reality of an Eternity alone in a Burning Ashtray without Christ. Christ paid the escape from that for those who believe upon Him for this.
Simply respond: “Gosh, the Bible says not to rape children, so why do you support raping children?? That’s disgusting!”
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