Photo by Rick Wood/The Reformation Project

New LGBT “Gospel Truth” Appears at Washington, DC, Church Conference

on November 20, 2014

The “culture war is, finally, at long last, coming to a close,” declared the male-to-female transgender Baptist minister Allyson Robinson on November 6 in Washington, DC’s National City Christian Church (NCCC). West Point graduate Robinson’s declaration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) victory, surprising in more ways than one, introduced an astonishingly assertive conference rejecting millennia-old Christian sexual ethics.

Robinson, a former Patriot missile battery commander who made a 2006 “gender transition” to “health and…wholeness,” opened the November 6-8 conference with about 150 attendees of the “bible-based, Gospel-centered” pro-LGBT Reformation Project (RP). Allyson wanted to share “this historic moment when…that which seemed impossible just a few short years ago looks…inevitable” concerning same-sex “marriage” (SSM) and other LGBT agendas. Why remain in a church that “still refuses to acknowledge” LGBT “truths,” Robinson questioned, for such churches “are dying” and will “rot in their own graves,” as if LGBT affirmation had not led to past church decline.

“We each have a very visceral reaction” to “gender norms,” Robinson stated the next day while discussing “her” life in a plenary session with RP founder Matthew Vines and pro-LGBT theologian James Brownson. “Transgender people,” concurred on a later panel Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly homosexual bishop, “present all of us with an opportunity to go much deeper than we have ever gone before.” “All of us are going to be uncomfortable.”

The line from Galatians that “There is neither…male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” had suggested to Allyson Robinson that gender boundaries are not “impermeable.” “I could think about transgressing the boundary” and acknowledge “who God made me to be” with a “life in Christ.”

In an “incredible parallel” praised by Vines, Christian ethicist David Gushee closed the conference on November 8 with an address comparing LGBT individuals and Jews, thereby adding another moral analogy to the common “homophobia”/racism equation. Each “small minority group…was for almost 2000 years the object of a tragically destructive…unchristlike body of Christian tradition,” Gushee analyzed. LGBT individuals, he however conceded, had not faced genocide.

LGBT “sexual minorities” have faced a “teaching of contempt…grounded in…a relatively small number of biblical texts,” now “in the process of being discredited.” This teaching “ascribed particular vices to LGBT people, including sexual degeneracy, especially against children,” Gushee stated while ignoring documented homosexuality-child abuse links. Gushee, however, somewhat contradictorily noted that this teaching also comes from the “very center of Christianity: scripture, tradition, and the leaders of the church, generation after generation.”

“I truly apologize that it took me twenty years to figure out” the “very simple truth” concerning LGBT approval, Gushee stated. Gushee’s lesbian sister had recently prompted his abandonment of Christian orthodoxy concerning homosexuality. “Celibacy outside of lifetime covenantal marriage” should apply to all Christians, he now concluded, and “is…essential to the well-being of adults and children.” How homosexual couple parenting lacking a biological parent/gender role model or the transgenderism of Robinson, a still-married father of four, affected child “well-being,” Gushee did not say.

Between Robinson and Gushee, Vines held two plenary sessions with his mentor Brownson on ten arguments favoring Christian LGBT acceptance. Vines had introduced himself at the conference as the “first openly gay Christian” known by many in his Kansas “conservative church in the Bible belt.” Brownson noted in the opening plenary session, meanwhile, that a gay son had “sent him on a journey” on LGBT matters.

Examining the Biblical text, Vines described Romans 1 as applicable merely to Paul’s observation of “lust gone wild…desire gone amok.” The “modern concept of sexual orientation” as something fixed is “unique.” “Most gay and lesbian Christians” today, Brownson argued contrary to documented homosexual promiscuity, are “willing to sacrifice their lives for each other” in “loving, long term relationships.”

Brownson rejected a male-female “exclusively normative pattern” for sexuality because he saw no Biblical discussion of genital complementarity. Yet when discussing Leviticus 18:22, a text concerning “patriarchal gender roles” according to the conference booklet, Vines appeared to recognize natural human reservations towards anal sex. “Sorry if that makes some people uncomfortable,” Vines said in the church nave.

Vines rejected theories that Ruth and Naomi in the Bible were lesbian, for “that would have been incestuous. Maybe that’s not where we want to go.” “There is even less complementary otherness to a same-sex union,” however, “than in an adult incestuous union,” a leading Christian opponent of homosexual revisionism, theologian Robert Gagnon, has noted.

Gagnon’s “approach and tone…admittedly needs improvement,” Vines in a plenary session criticized this central opponent, whose appearance in conference materials and discussions made him conspicuous by absence. Brownson “thoroughly dismantled” Gagnon’s scriptural arguments, Vines said in an exchange with Gagnon on Christian writer Preston Sprinkle’s Facebook page. Brownson and Vines, Gagnon countered, “terrified at the prospect of folding like a house of cards,” have “repeatedly refused” and are “ducking” a “real-time public debate, filmed, and available for others.”

“Gushee, like Vines,” Gagnon has written, “is an intellectual coward” who “deliberately ignores the array of counterarguments.” The “‘gay Christian’ activists and theologians…consistently refuse public dialogue,” Michael Brown, Gagnon’s like-minded colleague, notes.   Vines and others have “studiously avoided” Gagnon.

Asked about debating Gagnon at the conference, Brownson suggested that Gagnon, once a fellow graduate school student, first write a response to Brownson’s book Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships. Vines in an interview likewise criticized Gagnon for having “not responded in a substantive way to Brownson’s book” while deferring to Brownson as a more knowledgeable debate partner for Gagnon. These arguments have left Gagnon, whose website contains copious materials refuting the contentions raised by Brownson, Vines, and others, unconvinced.

Vines’ was equally unpersuasive elsewhere in his interview. Vines on the conference opening night, for example, had given a “big shout out to our sponsors,” thanked as well in the conference booklet and various placards.  These included Daniel Negreanu, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Home Furnishings, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and the COIL, Gill, and Arcus Foundations.

As noted to Vines, Negreanu is a world championship poker player, divorced in 2007 after two years of marriage. Gold and Williams, meanwhile, have continued to run a successful furniture company after their 14 year homosexual relationship ended in 2002. Gold along with Williams founded Faith in America, an organization that works “to end the harm to LGBT youth and their families from misguided religious teaching.”

The George Soros-funded HRC is also easily recognizable as America’s premier LGBT advocacy organization. Described by Vines as a “gay evangelical Christian,” Peter Drake, meanwhile, founded the pro-LGBT COIL or Coming Out in the Light Foundation. Drake’s biography describes a “born-again Christian” with two children whose “faithful straight marriage ended amicably” after “fighting a slow, losing battle with my sexual orientation.” The LGBT-supporting Gill and Arcus Foundations are also the creations of two homosexual businessmen, Quark founder Tim Gill and Jon Stryker, respectively.

What interest do such organizations have in Christianity? Vines responded that “their interests are all different,” with some sponsors having “LGBT equality” as a main concern.” Asked about increasingly common legal repercussions for Christian opponents of LGBT behavior like SSM, in contrast, Vines declared them to be “not my focus.”

Vines’ Christian family values seemed unusual, to say the least. Vines’ own expressed desires for children included not just the possibility of a same-sex adoption, but also the morally troublesome use of a surrogate mother. Vines claimed to “know people who are perfectly well-adjusted” with their artificial reproductive origins. Also “pretty well adjusted” were supposedly Allyson Robinson’s children, whose father had adopted a female identity, and Robinson’s wife, who, after a “healing process,” has remained married for 20 years.

Vines conceded that RP is “primarily Protestant,” yet seeks to be ecumenical with all Christians, including Catholics, whose catechism declares that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” Vines declared, however, that “sexuality is not one of those things” covered by infallible Catholic teachings. “Sacred Scripture and the entirety of Sacred Tradition,” a Catholic priest has nonetheless written, are “definitive, irreformable and conclusive” concerning the “intrinsically evil nature of homosexual acts.”

Supported by groups with dubious Christian credentials, RP sounds no uncertain trumpet when proclaiming the righteousness of the LGBT cause. Bishop Robinson, for example, claimed he had “come to know God better” in his pro-LGBT “justice work,” receiving thereby through his sufferings a “tiny window” onto the sufferings of a handicapped or black person. Tribulations notwithstanding, “I’m going to Heaven,” Robinson asserted without concern for unrepentant homosexuality, “because God is just so damn good” to save sinners.

RP, though, could not conceal that LGBT agendas have theological feet of clay in Christianity. Robinson himself unwittingly indicated that the RP’s inspiration might not be divine. Sometimes he questions whether he is following “God’s voice or my own ego doing a magnificent impression of God’s voice.”

  1. Comment by Terri Kinney on November 20, 2014 at 11:08 am

    Regarding the man claiming he was “fighting a slow losing battle against my sexual orientation,” when you give up the fight against sexual temptation, please stop calling yourself a “Christian,” because God calls us all to “fight the good fight of faith.” Every married person in the world is tempted to commit adultery, but the Christian is called to resist that temptation. People who can’t handle the Christian standard – man and woman in a monogamous marriage – are free to leave the church and embrace another religion, or no religion.

  2. Comment by JBenning on November 20, 2014 at 1:35 pm

    Sadly, they embrace Satan therefore their fate is sealed….IF they don’t change before it too late. However, most will not see because like this fool, their opinion is fact when in reality fact is something they can’t handle.

  3. Comment by Chris Hong on November 25, 2014 at 10:13 am

    In light of all the sexual immorality in our LGBT communities (1 corinthians 6:19), I believe the benefits of same-sex marriage are clear-
    “But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.”
    (1 Corinthians 7:9)

  4. Comment by JBenning on November 20, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    I’m sorry but this is nothing more than thinking God will change His mind because they have forced others to do so. So sorry Charlie but this is one big EPIC FAIL! The day of judgement approaches and don’t look surprised when hell becomes your new home. You have been told repeatedly to change direction but oh no, can’t do that……no one would like you anymore. Looks like you will have plenty of company in hell.

  5. Comment by Perrin on November 24, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    When did the gospel become your sexual orientation? When did it cease being about Jesus?

  6. Comment by JBenning on November 25, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Gospel is about Jesus, judgement, hell and many other things that queers want to cherry pick. OOPS! Oh well, I said it, so be it. Oh, it not about me, I was referring to those who refuse to listen to reason. If you can’t comprehend what I said, then please go back to school.

  7. Comment by ray worsham on November 20, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    May God have mercy.

  8. Comment by Eric Lytle on November 20, 2014 at 5:06 pm

    A guy has his privates cut off and proclaims that as his path to “health and wholeness”??

    OK,….

  9. Comment by Perrin on November 21, 2014 at 10:10 am

    Do you know what is like to be transgendered? Because I do not, and now I’m trying very hard to learn. And until I know, I will choose to refrain from any conclusions about the experiences and decisions of transgendered people.

  10. Comment by Eric Lytle on November 22, 2014 at 10:52 am

    How do you suggest I “learn” what it is like to be transgendered? Should I use a knife or pruning shears? I don’t see it as my Christian duty to empathize with the “experiences and decisions of transgendered people.” People who have issues with reading their own birth certificates clearly have mental problems. Christians are called upon to bring people to reality, not play along with their insanity. Someone who has his/her sexual organs removed and commits to a life of hormone injections and other nonsense is, to use a traditional phrase, crazy as a loon.

  11. Comment by Perrin on November 25, 2014 at 6:35 am

    Well, listening to someone who is transgendered is a good place to start. If you don’t see empathizing with others as your Christian duty, I think we are getting some pretty different interpretations of how Jesus lived. The transgendered people I know are professional, successful, intelligent, and kind. I have had it explained to me as “imagine you were you, but in the body of a woman.” So Eric, what would it feel like if you had woman’s body? Think about that for a bit.

  12. Comment by eMatters2 on November 20, 2014 at 5:11 pm

    “The “culture war is, finally, at long last, coming to a close,”declared the male-to-female transgender Baptist ministerAllyson Robinson ”

    Please let me translate: “In your face, God!!!”

    These are Romans 1 poster children. The guilt lies on the Bible-believers who were too gutless to kick out the fakes the last few decades.

  13. Comment by Chris Hong on November 20, 2014 at 6:13 pm

    If these are the Romans 1 poster children, I wonder who are the Romans 2 poster children- where they (the judge) are doing the “very same things” of Romans 1?

  14. Comment by eMatters2 on November 20, 2014 at 6:19 pm

    Good point. The “Christian” Left covers Romans 2 as well.

    Because of course you didn’t mean that we should never make judgments, right? John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

    Because if that was your point then you shouldn’t have left your judgmental comment about me . . .

  15. Comment by Chris Hong on November 21, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    “Do not judge by appearances”- kind of like how Allyson may be judged by complete strangers she has never even met based on her “stats”?
    I agree- we (Christian “left”) should certainly be well aware that every time we point a finger at someone else, there may be four fingers pointing right back at us. (Matthew 7:5)

  16. Comment by eMatters2 on November 21, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    Allyson is a he, not a she. If you love your neighbor you won’t encourage such destructive myths and behavior.

  17. Comment by Chris Hong on November 21, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    One of my favorites and possibly in your household as well?
    ‘But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”’
    (Romans 9:20)

  18. Comment by eMatters2 on November 21, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    Great point! God made “Allyson” a male. He shouldn’t mock God by trying to surgically change himself. And real Christians who love their neighbor would never encourage him to do so. He will find that mutilating himself won’t solve his problems. See http://4simpsons.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/trans-regret/ for cases of trans regret.

    In the same way, the verse you cited confirms the sinfulness of homosexual and bisexual behavior. We shouldn’t encourage people to suppress the truth in unrighteousness and ignore their natural functions.

    Also note how Jesus defeats Darwinian evolution, oxymoronic “same-sex marriage” and same-sex parenting arguments in one simple passage. No true follower of him should disagree on any of those topics.

    Matthew 19:4–5 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

  19. Comment by Chris Hong on November 21, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    Another case of judging based on “appearances” versus what is right? (John 7:24)
    It may be tempting to judge Allyson based on what the eye can see from the outside, but I do believe God is the One who molded each of us so marvelously and uniquely on the inside as well. (Luke 12:7)
    I also find it “interesting” another reference to unnatural and “degrading” according to Paul- men with long hair:
    “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him,”
    (1 Corinthians 11:14)

    “Made them male and female”-
    Given that Matthew 19 (in my Bible) is titled “Teaching about Divorce”, is it possible that Jesus was interested in INCLUDING Eve into the Marriage equation in a highly patriarchal society, rather than EXCLUDING sexual minorities from Marriage- an earthly institution with wondrous benefits (Matthew 7:18), a foretaste of our ultimate destiny where in the end we the Church will (FINALLY!) be united and wed to Christ? (Matthew 22:29-30)

  20. Comment by eMatters2 on November 21, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    So God knowing details about us means that we can do whatever we desire, including mutilating our bodies to pretend we are a different gender? That’s quite a stretch from Luke 12! Using your logic, if we are greedy/lustful/angry/covetous/etc. then that’a s good thing because God made us that way. Can’t see any downsides there! 🙂

    I know Jesus’ statement came up in a discussion about divorce. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a completely accurate assessment of God’s design for marriage. Again, note how Jesus defeats Darwinian evolution, oxymoronic “same-sex marriage” and same-sex parenting arguments in one simple passage. No true follower of him should disagree on any of those topics.

    Matthew 19:4–5 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

    http://wp.me/p1wGU-3P7 The Bible couldn’t be more clear. Bible-believing Christians and even two out of the three types of pro-gay people* (religious or not) can see these truths:

    – 100% of the verses addressing homosexual behavior describe it as sin in the clearest and strongest possible terms.

    – 100% of the verses referring to God’s ideal for marriage involve one man and one woman.

    – 100% of the verses referencing parenting involve moms and dads with unique roles (or at least a set of male and female parents guiding the children).

    – 0% of 31,173 Bible verses refer to homosexual behavior in a positive or even benign way or even hint at the acceptability of homosexual unions of any kind. There are no exceptions for “committed” relationships.

    – 0% of 31,173 Bible verses refer to LGBT couples parenting children.

    * The three general types of pro-gay theology people:

    1. “The Bible says homosexuality is wrong but it isn’t the word of God.” (Obviously non-Christians)

    2. “The Bible says it is wrong but God changed his mind and is only telling the theological Left.” (Only about 10 things wrong with that.)

    3. “The Bible is the word of God but you are just misunderstanding it” (Uh, no, not really.)

  21. Comment by Chris Hong on November 21, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    Obviously God knows details about Allyson which we do not- how then does it affect our ability to judge her based on our limited understanding? (John 7:24, Luke 12:7) Perhaps the real question may be less about her anatomy and more about how her life situation affects her ability to love God and love others (Romans 13:9-10), where it is obvious what was considered unnatural and “degrading” 2000 years ago may not necessarily be so in today’s world? (1 Corinthians 11:14)

    Where even the devil may be versed at quoting scripture (Matthew 4:1-11) to promote racism, sexism, and homophobia in our world, let us rely on the Power of the Living Spirit to help us Read, Love, Realize and Claim God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:16) in our lives, homes, and churches. Although the Bible was canonized many years ago, I do believe we can for sure count on the Lord to complete us until the day of Christ, including our understanding of His Will and Word. (Philippians 1:6)

  22. Comment by eMatters2 on November 21, 2014 at 5:30 pm

    “Obviously God knows details about Allyson which we do not- how then does it affect our ability to judge her based on our limited understanding? (John 7:24, Luke 12:7)”

    That argument could be used to justify anything at anytime. In other words, it is meaningless.

    “Perhaps the real question may be less about her anatomy and more about how her life situation affects her ability to love God and love others (Romans 13:9-10), where it is obvious what was considered unnatural and “degrading” 2000 years ago may not necessarily be so in today’s world? (1 Corinthians 11:14)”

    Again, you could apply that to any behavior. “Gay-bashing used to be bad 2,00 years ago, but things have changed!”

    “Where even the devil may be versed at quoting scripture (Matthew 4:1-11) to promote racism, sexism, and homophobia in our world, let us rely on the Power of the Living Spirit to help us Read, Love, Realize and Claim God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:16) in our lives, homes, and churches. Although the Bible was canonized many years ago, I do believe we can for sure count on the Lord to complete us until the day of Christ, including our understanding of His Will and Word. (Philippians 1:6)”

    You really outed yourself there. Did it occur to you that the devil may be quoting scripture — just like you are!! — to justify LGBTQX behavior and for trans people to mutilate themselves? Thanks for the concession.

  23. Comment by Chris Hong on November 21, 2014 at 7:14 pm

    Apparently the Scriptures are important to both of us for good reason. (1 Timothy 3:16)
    So it follows- do you today believe it unnatural and “degrading” for men to wear their hair long? (1 Corinthians 11:14)

  24. Comment by eMatters2 on November 21, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    Cute. So you either don’t understand how to address difficult passages, or you think that gives you an out to support people mutilating their genitals, having gay sex, killing unwanted children in the womb, denying the divinity and exclusivity of Christ, mocking the word of God, etc.

    After all, if Chris can’t understand a challenging passage, it is all up for grabs!

  25. Comment by MarcoPolo on November 22, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Chris Hong, your quoting of scripture serves the traditionalist, but ignores the percentage of human beings who aren’t completely gender determined.

    Whether you recognize the nuance of human sexuality and it’s vagaries, is not evident in your responses, but there are millions of individuals who by nature, are somewhere in between purely male or female.
    We needn’t stigmatize these individuals, but rather accept our brethren for their pureness and sincerity of soul.

    Being Gay is not unusual in the History of humans. It was however, a trait that many felt free to denigrate and do harm to in the name of religion and fear of the unknown.

    Respectfully,
    MarcoPolo

  26. Comment by eMatters2 on November 20, 2014 at 5:46 pm

    Something is very wrong with transgender people. While some may think that is mean and politically incorrect to say, Captain Obvious says it couldn’t be more factual. If something wasn’t wrong, then why would they want to undergo a radical surgery to change themselves?

    The question is whether the body is wrong or whether the mind is wrong. I suggest working on the mind part, which would be much less expensive and destructive. It is sad to see people mutilate themselves in the hopes that it will make them happier. It is more sad to see their regret and how they are ostracized by the LGBTQX community in the same way that any ex-gay people are.

    If you really love people, you will never encourage their trans desires.

  27. Comment by David on November 24, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    Matthew Vines’ opinions carry about as much weight as the skateboarders who ride past our house. They might be nice kids, but you don’t go to the immature and juvenile regarding matters of importance. he cannot be taken seriously.

  28. Comment by Chris Hong on November 24, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    David,
    Are you implying Matthew Vines may not be the “Goliath” in this “fight”? (John 7:24)

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