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Homosexuality vs. Christianity

Updated September 29, 2000

Homosexuality vs. Christianity...
Should we build bridges or storm the gates?

By Flip Benham

Building Bridges

Mel White, a strident advocate for homosexual rights, an ordained clergyman, and a member of the Metropolitan Community Church, led his band of "merry men and women" to Pastor Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church on Sunday morning, October 24, 1999. The ostensible purpose for his visit was to stop the violence being perpetrated upon the homosexual community by the Christian Church. For Mr. White this meant demanding that Pastor Falwell stop proclaiming homosexuality to be a sin that leads to spiritual and physical death. In White's mind, this kind of rhetoric is spiritual violence that leads to hate crimes. God's Word has become a hate crime?

Unfortunately, Pastor Falwell was lured into meeting with Mr. White and invited him and his Soul Force (200 men and women of the homosexual clergy and laity) to attend Sunday services at Thomas Road Baptist Church. With good intentions, Pastor Falwell attempted to build a Gospel bridge to White and the homosexual community. In attempting to "build a bridge," however, he inadvertently muddied the spring of the Gospel of Christ for many.

For the homosexual community, appearance is everything! With the help of the media, it appeared that Pastor Falwell was lending his approval to Mel White and his Soul Force. The homosexual lie again received national prominence. The media was a most willing dupe to make the façade appear real.

This is what inevitably happens when one attempts to "build bridges" into the enemy's camp. The purity of the Gospel message becomes muddied. Rather than allowing God's Word to stand on its own in the condemnation of sin, we attempt to soften the message to make it more palatable to those it is supposed to convict. In an effort to be nicer than Jesus, we strip the Word of God of its convicting power to turn men from sin, and we allow them to wallow in it, "loving" them all the way to eternal damnation. We call this love, but God calls it hate! Lev. 19:17; Pr 27:5-6

"…For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 Cor. 6:14. There is no "common ground" between light and darkness, and we should not be building bridges to find "common ground" with sin. Mel White did not come to Thomas Road Baptist Church seeking God. He came seeking approval of his own sinful lifestyle. Some bridges need to be blown up and this is certainly one of them! We are in a battle to crush the lies of Satan, not to negotiate peace with him.

Instead of building bridges to homosexuality in order to appear reasonable and kind in the eyes of the media, we need to be storming the gates of hell. That's right! This lie, like that of child killing, is being used by Satan to rob, kill, and destroy. It is our duty and privilege as Christians to demolish this stronghold, and demolish every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-6). We are not to build bridges to homosexuality; we are to totally destroy this lie by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony, not loving our own lives so much as to shrink from death. This is biblical love.

Storming the Gates

There were others that Sunday morning who approached the problem differently than Pastor Falwell. They were not "building bridges," they were storming the "gates of hell."

Following Jesus' admonition that "the gates of hell" will not prevail against His Church, several Christians brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the gates of the largest homosexual congregation in the nation on Sunday morning, October 24, 1999. The Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas, is a part of a larger heretical sect called the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). MCC was begun in Los Angeles in 1968 and has spawned groups all over the country. The underlying philosophy of this cult is that homosexuality is an inborn, unchangeable characteristic blessed by God.

We came to this "church" with our faces low to the ground, the truth of the Gospel of Christ in our hearts, and a love for those enslaved in homosexual sin. Our sole desire was to speak the truth in love. Any institution that claims to be the Church of Jesus Christ yet proclaims that one can practice homosexuality and Christianity at the same time must be confronted with that error.

We came to the Cathedral of Hope with large Scripture signs, Gospel tracts, and tracts depicting the violence, death, and despair wrought by homosexual sin. We held signs on the public sidewalks and Cathedral entryways. Many of us attended the early morning service. It was packed to overflowing. There was a reading from the Old and New Testaments. The choir was marvelous, and if one did not know, he would have thought he was in a contemporary evangelical church with a bit of a liturgical bent.

Pastor Mike Piazza welcomed those of us from Operation Rescue into the service. We were easily spotted because we carried Bibles with us - this is not the norm. He spoke well of Jesus, as if he really knew Him. Pastor Piazza and members of The Cathedral of Hope are preparing to build a new 2000 seat auditorium to handle the overflowing crowds eager to hear that Jesus blesses homosexuality.

At the end of the service, the Lord's Supper (in name only) was celebrated. Men and women, many of who had struggled long and hard with homosexual desire, moved from their pews and went forward to take communion. They were led to falsely believe that Jesus understood and even endorsed their sinful desires. Homosexuality and the Christian faith were now one.

I watched as hundreds came forward, believing the lie. Pastor Piazza met them there with a large smile. Often times he would kiss one on the cheek - the kiss of death. I could not help but think that the very same spirit that inhabited the shell of Pharaoh and the shell of Adolf Hitler now inhabited the shell of Michael Piazza - a murderous, bloodthirsty spirit that had come to rob, kill and destroy. Hundreds were being led to their spiritual and physical deaths, being deceived by a pastor who called evil "good."

I thought of the over 500 funerals Mr. Piazza has officiated in the past five years - many involving young homosexual males who have died from AIDS. I thought of the healthy young men and women coming to this idolatrous table with the false hope that everything would now be right between them and Jesus. They were being deceived by a lie - a monstrous lie! I have no doubt they sincerely believed Mr. Piazza that Jesus loves and then blesses homosexuality, but they are sincerely wrong! The people on board the Titanic sincerely believed the ship would not sink but their sincere belief did not save them from the objective truth. The ship sank!

Is God's love for the homosexual unconditional? Yes! Is God's mercy and forgiveness given unconditionally to those continuing in homosexual sin? No! "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." Pr 28:13. Mr. Piazza is concealing the sin of homosexuality to the fatal hurt of his congregation by calling it inborn and good. In the name of "love" and appearing "loving," Mr. Piazza is participating in the ultimate cruelty. "…the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." Pr 12:10. He is keeping precious human beings, for whom Christ died, from experiencing the mercy of God. It is only as one confesses and renounces his sin that he finds mercy. Homosexuality must be called sin, or it will never be confessed and renounced.

The Greek etymology of the English word "confess" is revealing. There are two Greek words that make up this one word: homo (the same as) and logeo (to speak). The word "confession" means, "to speak the same as." In Scripture it means to come into agreement with a God and speak the same thing He does. It is then based upon my confession, "God's way is right and my way is wrong," that I meet the condition necessary to receive God's mercy.

Godly confession, in Mr. Piazza's world, cannot be tolerated. If it were, it would mean that Scripture is true and that he is false. It would mean that homosexuality is a sin that must be confessed and repented of. Though everything else is tolerated in this church of inclusion, true biblical confession is not! Biblical confession cannot and will not be tolerated in the Cathedral of Hope, and therefore it is impossible for God's salvation mercy to be dispensed - The Cathedral of Hope would more appropriately be named the Cathedral of Despair.