Andy Stanley Responds to Criticism of Conference for Parents of LGBTQ Kids
Stanley told his congregation the church is committed to the New Testament sexual ethic and biblical definition of marriage.
“They pray, they beg God to take it away,” Andy Stanley said about same-sex attracted persons in his message on Sunday, according to the Christian Post. “They are literally afraid they are going to Hell, not because of anything they’ve done, but because of who they are.”
Stanley spoke to his congregation about the Unconditional Conference hosted by North Point Church near Atlanta over the weekend “for Christian parents with LGBTQ+ children, ministry leaders, and health care professionals.” The church did not live stream the message as it usually does.
Before the conference, Stanley was criticized for his stance on homosexuality by evangelical leaders, including Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler, who described the conference’s message as “a departure from historic normative biblical Christianity.”
Stanley responded, saying Mohler’s “version of biblical Christianity is the problem.”
“His version, this version of biblical Christianity, is why people are leaving Christianity unnecessarily,” Stanley said. “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 globbed on to the message.”
Stanley reiterated a claim he made in a message in January, suggesting that God failed to answer the prayers of those with same-sex attractions when they asked Him to change their hearts. He has distinguished homosexual behavior from what he has called an “immutable” characteristic.
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“They find themselves in a battle not against a behavior. They find themselves in a battle against a defining attraction that they did not choose but somehow has chosen them,” Stanley said.
Regarding the two homosexual conference speakers — Brian Nietzel and Justin Lee, who are in same sex marriages — Stanley said they’ve spoken at North Point Church events in the past and were known to “connect with parents of gay kids” because of their testimony of growing up in church and “maintaining their faith.”
At the end of his sermon, Stanley reiterated that he is committed to teaching a “New Testament sexual ethic,” and that North Point is committed to the teaching that marriage is reserved for one man and one woman.
“Sex is for married people,” Stanley said. “[B]iblical marriage is between a man and a woman. We’ve never shied away from that.”
Denny Burk, president of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and a professor at Southern Seminary, criticized Stanley’s message.
“It’s an anti-Christian message because it tells sinners that they don’t need to repent of their sin in order to be a Christian,” Burk told The Christian Post. “It’s subversive because the message is cloaked in a veneer of Christian-ese. It’s designed to persuade the consciences of Christians of a message that is incompatible with basic Christian teaching.”
Because his message is a direct contradiction of verses like Ephesians 5:5-6, Burk views Stanley as a “false teacher” who is disqualified from pastoral ministry.
“I hope and pray that he repents and turns back from this unfaithful teaching. But even if he does, I think this teaching has already disqualified him from being a pastor,” Burk said.
Main photo: Andy Stanley / Photo via RNS
