Our decision is to decide how we respond to their decision. They chose to marry for the same reason many of us do, love, companionship and family.Īnd in the end, as was the case for all of us, and this is the important thing I want you to hear me say, it’s their decision. “ choose a same sex marriage, not because they’re convinced it’s biblical. Rather, they draw “circles” of inclusion so that they can remain at North Point as gay “married” couples. Stanley says that North Point doesn’t draw “lines” to keep those people out of the church. They don’t want to live without love and a family, so they marry a same-sex partner and then just add that to following Jesus. He says gay people at North Point know what the Bible says about marriage, but they choose to enter gay marriages anyway because they don’t want to spend their lives alone. Stanley immediately follows that affirmation by saying that some gay Christians find this teaching too hard to follow. He says that North Point continues to teach that biblical marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and that sex outside of marriage is not God’s best. He further contends that North Point has not changed its teaching on sexuality. Rather, it was a “pastoral” conference designed to restore the relationships of parents to their gay children. Stanley says that North Point didn’t host a bible or theology conference. Stanley frames the message as if this imbroglio is merely a misunderstanding and that critics like Mohler just don’t get it. He drew circles so large and included so many people in his circle that it consistently made religious leaders nervous.” It’s the version that causes people to resist the Christian faith because they can’t find Jesus in the midst of all the other stuff and all the other theology and all the other complexity that gets blobbed on to the message.īottom line, that version of Christianity draws lines. His version, this version of biblical Christianity is why people are leaving Christianity unnecessarily. In my opinion, just my opinion, his version of biblical Christianity is the problem. We can agree to disagree, but this is so extraordinarily misleading. And if he were here he would say, ‘Well, Andy, I’ve never subscribed to your version of biblical Christianity.’ And that’s okay. So I want to go on record and say, I have never subscribed to his version of biblical Christianity to begin with, so I’m not leaving anything. “ is actually accusing me of departing from his version of biblical Christianity. Indeed, the entire message is an apologia of sorts for North Point’s decision to host gay-affirming speakers and for North Point’s teaching on sexuality. The rest of Stanley’s message certainly bears that out. Stanley never explicitly names Mohler in his message, but he does say at the outset that he does not hold to the same version of Christianity that Mohler holds to. Stanley says at the outset that he is preaching the message as a response to Albert Mohler’s column in World magazine titled, “ The Train Is Leaving the Station.” In that article, Mohler criticizes a North Point-hosted conference that features gay-affirming speakers. I have to say that it is one of the most subversively anti-Christian messages that I have ever heard. I just finished listening to Pastor Andy Stanley’s Sunday morning sermon to North Point Community Church.
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