A few months back, a Christian school in Kansas City announced it was closing its doors due to a severe reduction in financial support. The reason: Urban Christian Academy had placed on its website a statement that it is an LGBTQ-affirming institution. When donors discovered this, many stopped writing checks.
A story about the school’s demise appeared in the Kansas City Star, which, in turn, attracted interest from ABC News.
I received a call from a Chicago-based ABC reporter, who confessed he was in a quandary. He couldn’t seem to find a Christian organization in Missouri willing to go on record that Scripture is not LGBTQ-affirming.
After making it clear that Urban Christian Academy is not affiliated with the MBC, I agreed to share a biblical perspective on the issue. We spoke for several minutes, and I emailed the reporter a book the MBC produced in 2015, What Every Christian Should Know About Same-Sex Attraction.
When the story appeared on the ABC News website a few days later, it carried a brief quote from me near the end. That single sentence, stating a biblically faithful summary of God’s creative intent for people, sexuality, and marriage, spurred a number of sharply worded emails to me, accusing me of everything from bigotry to closeted homosexuality.
But what lingered the longest in my mind was the reporter’s sincere question: How can two Christian organizations – a Christian school and the MBC – read the same Bible and come to different conclusions in matters of sexual behavior and sexual identity? “You can’t both be right,” he said.
True. So, how do we answer the reporter’s question?
Here are three observations.
First, as a matter of identity, a Christian is a follower of Jesus, and Jesus alone defines true Christianity. He was clear that false Messiahs and false teachers would emerge, leading may people astray (Matt. 24:4-5). Today, there are many counterfeit forms of Christianity – the Watchtower and the LDS Church to name two – and many individuals who claim Christianity as their faith while rejecting the real Jesus. In the end, Jesus tells false teachers who call him “Lord” that he never knew them (Matt. 7:21-23).
So, calling yourself a Christian, or your organization a Christian ministry, doesn’t make you one. Identifying with Christ in his finished work on the cross, his uniqueness as the divine Son of Man, and his teaching on everything from salvation to God’s design for human sexuality, are non-negotiable for true Christians.
Second, as a matter of doctrine, those who claim to follow Jesus must necessarily embrace his teachings – even those that make us uncomfortable. Jesus affirmed the authority of the Old Testament, quoting from it nearly 80 times. In a particularly telling instance, the religious leaders challenged Jesus about the lawfulness of certain kinds of divorce. Rather than wander into the weeds of Jewish tradition, Jesus takes them back to the Garden of Eden, where God’s creative intent is clear.
“Haven’t you read,” Jesus tells them, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female … For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matt. 19:4-6).
To say Jesus never addressed the issue of homosexuality or gender identity isn’t exactly true. Jesus reaffirmed the limits of gender, sexuality, and marriage quite clearly – thousands of years after God created Adam and Eve, and 20 centuries before the modern sexual revolution.
Third, as a matter of discipleship, Christians don’t get to choose which Scriptures they obey. Nor do we have the right to read our sinful biases back into the Word. It’s true that followers of Jesus may come to different understandings about secondary and tertiary doctrines.
For example, we may have different views on church polity, the exercise of spiritual gifts, the end times, and other beliefs. While these are important doctrines that distinguish us as denominations, they do not divide us in the body of Christ.
But where the Bible speaks clearly, we must listen and obey. And Scripture is crystal clear in its consistent teaching of gender (male and female), sexuality (heterosexual), and marriage (monogamous, lifelong, between a man and a woman).
The love of Jesus for fallen human beings is powerful and compelling. It’s also rooted in divine justice. The God who loves sinners also hates the sin that ruins us. Jesus didn’t come to affirm us in our sin, but to save us from it by taking our sins upon himself (2 Cor. 5:21).
The situation at Urban Christian School is tragic. The school, no doubt, helped feed and educate poor kids in a disadvantaged neighborhood. But by embracing an LGBTQ agenda, its leaders not only violated the clear teaching of Scripture; they committed themselves to indoctrinating children in beliefs and practices that grieve the heart of Jesus, who calls all children to come to him.
Starting next issue: Excerpts from The Return of Jesus