June 2015

Full disclosure, Robert Gagnon was a friend of my cousin, John DeWalt, and I have an autographed copy of his masterpiece, The Bible and Homosexual Practice. I've recommended it before. If you want the best work on Scripture's teaching on homosexuality, there's nothing close.

That said, I also have spoken at a conference with Russ Moore and David and I have expressed our appreciation for his efforts to defend the Biblical doctrine of sexuality. This time, though, Russ has come up for a well-deserved drubbing by Gagnon and it's ironic given the fact that Dr. Moore is a member of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and runs their Ethics and Religious Life Commission in Washington D.C. while Dr. Gagnon is a member of the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) and a professor at the PC(USA)'s Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Dr. Moore put together a statement opposing the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision. The statement is called Here We Stand and people like Al Mohler, Danny Akin, Paige Patterson, Paul Tripp, Denny Burke, Karen Swallow Prior, James MacDonald, Alistair Begg, Owen Strachan, Bryan Chapell, and Rosaria Butterfield signed on. You too can sign on if you get them your name and position by this Friday.

Trouble is, the statement is less than wise.

Dr. Gagnon explains...

One venerable reader has criticized the alarm of quiet Christians in the face of this past week's rulings by the Supreme Court—particularly Obergefell v. Hodges. As he sees it, this particular decision is not nearly as destructive as the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade which legalized, not simply sodomitic marriage, but the murder of unborn children. He points out Roe v. Wade was a much more evil ruling in its intent and fruit, resulting in more than fifty million slaughtered babies over the past thirty-two years in these United States alone.

Of course he's right about the wickedness of Roe v. Wade and the riot of bloodshed it has unleashed across our nation and copied around the world. Billions of men made in the image of God have been slaughtered in the past few decades, and in much of the world the local justification has born the mark of the obscene ideology of North American feminism. It's true Evangelicals have never had much of a heart to oppose this slaughter, although for what it's worth, we do label ourselves "pro-life."

As I said to Mary Lee several days ago, Evangelicals quoting Francis Schaeffer on civil disobedience this past week should keep in mind that...

Yesterday was the last day of public service for Chris Atkins (Chris is at the mic) who served in the administrations of both Governors Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence, ending his service yesterday as Director of Indiana's Office of Management and Budget. Chris and his wife, Shallen, were at Clearnote during their years in Bloomington. Chris got his law degree at IU, and following work for a couple policy groups in D.C., Gov. Daniels brought him back to Indiana where Chris has faithfully served as one of our civil magistrates, presiding under two governors over conservative fiscal policies that have made our Hoosier state the envy of other states in our Union in terms of financial health, particularly long-run solvency.

As you know, yesterday was a brutal day for confessing Christians called to be civil magistrates and I thought it would be good for some of us to express our personal gratitude to Chris for his faithful service...

By the way, although many of the evils of Obergefell v. Hodges are obvious, some are less so and one is almost entirely hidden...

He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders. (Job 12:20)

In a post put up a couple weeks ago, I recounted how, in the late sixties, Dad Bayly publicly criticised Bob Jones University. He did so in his monthly column in ETERNITY Magazine. It was also in his ETERNITY column that Dad issued public criticisms of Bill Gothard.

Back in 1975.

Forty years ago.

Now, Bill Gothard is eighty years old and others are seeing their way clear to say a few things themselves...