New York City’s liberal Union Theological Seminary continues to display its loyalties toward heterodox views on human sexuality as Pride Month concludes.
Dr. Su Yon Pak, Union Vice President of Academic Affairs, spoke in a video posted June 17 to the seminary’s Facebook page about the need for Christians to recognize the validity of homosexual and transgender actions and to adapt their theologies to support such views.
In the video, Pak described Pride Month as creating a special opportunity for religious groups “to reflect, repent and redress the ways in which we have harmed the LGBTQIA+ community through our theology, practices, and biases.” She went on to accuse Christians of “weaponizing Scriptures” to induce harm against the LGBTQIA+ community.
Pak claimed that protections earned by gay rights groups are “being dismantled across the country”, and emphasizes how LGBT people who are racial minorities, transgender people, and non-white transgenders are particularly at risk during this time.
Christians “need new theologies, life affirming practices that invites the queer people and community to say ‘I see myself here, I belong here,’” Pak declared. The video ended with Pak reaffirming Union’s commitment to training its students and LGBT allies to help point out injustices wherever they may encounter them.
Union has made numerous social media posts over the course of June in support of Pride Month, homosexuality and transgenderism. In a Twitter thread posted on June 1, Union claimed that “God is queer” and featured a list of self professed Christians and LGBT people who were attempting to get their various church communities to change their teachings on the issue.
Pak herself is listed, where she says that “[her] erotic and [her] faith desires praying together in tongues with logic of its own”. Also featured was self-professed Roman Catholic Mary Walker, who believes “the future of the Church is queer” and wants the Church to amend its teachings on homosexuality.
Union President Serene Jones criticized the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade , blasting the U.S. Supreme Court decision as “based on a distorted, warped version of Christianity that has long been weaponized against women.” A longer statement released by Union decried the ruling as “appalling” and claimed it was a “heretical effort to distort Christianity’s core beliefs and use religion to divide rather than unite.”
Comment by Dan W on June 29, 2022 at 7:55 am
Christians don’t need new theologies, they just need The Gospel.
Abortion is weaponized against the powerless.
Comment by PFSchaffner on June 29, 2022 at 9:49 am
I’d like to know whether the phrase ‘weaponizing Scripture’ was an inadvertent or a deliberate, albeit ironic, reference to such passages as Heb.4.12 (“the word of God is .. sharper than any double-edged sword [penetrating] even to dividing soul and spirit”) and Ephesians 6:17 (“take..the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”). Or whether Pak is simply not aware that Scripture is, as it were, self-weaponizing.
Comment by Jeff on June 29, 2022 at 10:39 am
“…the need for Christians to recognize the validity of homosexual and transgender actions and to adapt their theologies to support such views.”
Oh really.
No thank you, Ms. Pak. I would no more listen to admonition to “adapt my theology” from a deluded satan follower like you at a non-Christian seminary like Union, than I would from an imam in a mosque, or a hindu satguru, or a transhuman globalist oligarch from Davos… ALL of whom similarly follow after the deceiver, the father of lies, the prince of the air.
You see, I am a follower of CHRIST. I hear CHRIST. I am a CHRISTIAN. His WORD is my Light and my Sword. HE Jesus CHRIST revealed to me the heart and nature of my Heavenly Father, and by grace through faith I am adopted into my Father’s Royal Priesthood. “I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day!”
Comment by David S. on June 29, 2022 at 1:27 pm
The false teachers and preachers consistently reveal themselves to be of their father…the devil, who was a liar from the beginning, and very readily and casually bear false witness against not just Christians, but even the non-Christian who does not agree with them as well. Specifically, any time these individuals decide to speak on a political issue, regardless of whether it touches on matters pertaining to faith and morality or not, they consistently lie, misrepresent, or leave out key facts. It does not matter whether it is voting rights, LGBT matters, abortion, or whatever. It’s as if they have never read the things they are criticizing, or if they have, they do not care. Having read the actual Dobbs decision, Alito does not reference Scripture as support, yet these people do this. In addition, they are screeching theocracy, yet in each of the three recent decisions potentially touching on matters of faith (Carson, Dobbs, Kennedy), either Scripture is not even mentioned (Dobbs) or the ruling appears to be consistent with prior rulings regarding individuals of other faiths, most notably Islam, where there is a need to balance faith and practice with the public square. In fact, in Dobbs, Alito goes to great lengths to state that regarding when life begins, it is not up to the Court to decide; therefore, the Court is not going to opine.
Concerning LGBT matters, particularly transgenderism. The false teacher currently leading the PC(USA) as well as the false Christian leading Presbyterian Women, decried back in March the volume of legislation on LGBT matters as has these wolves leading the other mainline denominations. At no point, do the servants of the devil masquerading as agents of righteousness seek to differentiate between the types of legislation – medical vs. sports vs. education, or acknowledge any legitimate and documented concerning women’s sports, the most appropriate age to introduce these topics to school age children outside the home, or the documented concerns regarding the medicalization of children (side effects, irreversible procedures, or that as much as 70 percent of children experiencing dysphoria later go on to say they are L, G, or B, once the hormones of puberty begin to settle down). For some reason, their only response on the transgender issue is that all these people – liberal, conservative, moderate, and so forth – are anti-trans for simply raising basic, reasonable, questions.
As much as their heretical ignorance angers me, I genuinely fear for these people’s eternity, because of the demands that God’s holiness and righteousness exhibit in Scriptures, especially where false prophets, preachers, and teachers are concerned.
Comment by Tom on June 29, 2022 at 5:28 pm
Just how marginalized and persecuted is L.etc.etc.etc. when every major city in the US sponsored parades in their honor and every major corporation endorses them and flies their flag?
Comment by Loren J Golden on June 29, 2022 at 11:32 pm
“Dr. Su Yon Pak…spoke in a video…about the need for Christians to recognize the validity of homosexual and transgender actions and to adapt their theologies to support such views. In the video, Pak…accuse(d) Christians of ‘weaponizing Scriptures’ to induce harm against the LGBTQIA+ community.”
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (II Tim. 3.14-17)
In searching through the Scriptures, I look in vain for any reference wherein the people of God are called “to adapt their theologies to (recognize and) support…the validity of homosexual and transgender actions.” In fact, where I read such things, the Scriptures identify such as sexual immorality.
The first place that it is mentioned is in Genesis 19, where “the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded (Lot’s) house. And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.’” (vv. 4-5) To contemporary ears, one might think, “What’s the harm in that? They just want to get to know the new visitors to their city just a bit better.” But the word “know” is here used in the same sense in Genesis 4.1: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.” And v. 17: “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch.” And again in v. 25: “And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son.” There’s no mistake: The men of Sodom wanted to have homosexual intercourse with Lot’s visitors; they wanted to, well, sodomize them (after all, that’s where the word came from).
And when Lot wouldn’t cooperate, they wanted to do the same thing to him! Even after he tried to appease the crowd, by offering them his two virgin daughters to molest (bad idea! men, don’t try this at home). “And they said, ‘This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.’ Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.” (v. 9)
But, you might argue, this was a clear-cut case of homosexual rape; it has nothing to do with the loving, caring, consensual homosexual relationships that we know and love today! Well, yes it was homosexual rape, but the second place homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible was not set in that context. And it is the one verse in all of Scripture that Ms. Pak and her alphabet soup community most love to hate: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Lev. 18.22) There you have it in black-and-white: Male homosexual intercourse is a hateful thing (that’s what the word “abomination” means) in the eyes of the Lord.
Hold on! you say. That was Leviticus, which is full of animal sacrifices and proscriptions against eating pork and shellfish that was abolished after Jesus was raised from the dead! All this stuff is just “purity laws” that are likewise abolished. Well, no, not really. If you were to turn to the next page, you would see this little gem: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19.18) And if I recall correctly, the Lord Jesus said something about this being the Second Greatest Commandment (Mt. 22.37-40, Mk. 12.28-34), and Leviticus is where He got it from.
But please indulge me a moment, while we take a bit broader look at the company that male homosexuality keeps in Leviticus 18. Well, it seems that the Lord through Moses is forbidding a dozen forms of incest (vv. 6-18), engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period (v. 19), adultery (v. 20), child sacrifice (v. 21), and engaging in sex with animals (v. 23). Oho! you say. I’ve got you there! Just a few chapters earlier, in Leviticus 15.24, it says if a man has sex with a woman, and her menstrual fluids get on him, then he is only ceremonially unclean. Actually, Leviticus 15.24 refers to a situation where a man is having intimate relations with his wife, when her menstrual period starts, whereas Leviticus 18.19 refers to a situation in which a man engages in sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows is in the midst of her menstrual period (compare Ezek. 18.6, 22.10). That male homosexuality and sex with a woman in her menstrual period keep the same company, listed above, should be reason to take the prohibition against sex with a woman in her menstrual period more seriously, rather than to regard the prohibition against male homosexuality as no longer taboo in the eyes of the Lord.
But we’re getting a little off-topic here. If we look at the context that the Lord through Moses sets here in Leviticus 18, He begins it by saying, “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God.” (vv. 3-4) And He concluded the chapter, saying, “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations…for the people of the land, who were before you, did all these abominations, so that the land became unclean, lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.” (vv. 24-28) It was because the Canaanites, the Amorites, etc., were committing adultery, homosexuality, child sacrifice, and a slew of other forms of sexual immorality, and not for eating pork or shellfish (Lev. 11) or wearing a garment woven from two different materials (Lev. 19.19), that the Lord judged them by exiling them from their land, giving it instead to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as He had promised them. But we must not miss this point: He solemnly warned the Israelites not to do the same things for which He thus judged the Canaanites and the Amorites. And when they did do them—repeatedly—He banished them to Assyria and Babylon, making good on His threat.
Comment by Loren J Golden on June 29, 2022 at 11:32 pm
Before we go on, there one more point to consider: Parallel to Leviticus 18 is Leviticus 20, in which the Lord specified the punishment for these and other sins to be death. “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (v. 13) Now I’ve got you! you say. You’re trapped by your own words! You cannot argue for the sinfulness of homosexuality without arguing at the same time for those who practice it to be put to death—for it’s all “breathed out by God,” remember? When you do, we’ll all see how crazy and insane your interpretation is; and if you don’t, then you’re obviously picking and choosing which Scriptures you’ll follow and which you won’t!
But this ignores the fact that there is a threefold division in the Old Testament Law, even though laws from each of the three divisions were sometimes set alongside one another in the Pentateuch. These divisions are: Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial. To quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, “Of the Law of God”:
Israel, as a sovereign nation-state under the rule of God had a need for a body of laws to govern them, and God, as their King, provided it for them. Laws stipulating punishments, including the death penalty, are classified under the Judicial Law, which is passed away with the sovereign nation-state of Ancient Israel, and are not binding on the Church of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christians in the United States are not obligated to advocate for their implementation in Federal or State law.
The Moral Law is different. It tells us what offends God. It tells us what is sin. In his Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul impresses on us that we are without excuse, because we already know the things in the Moral Law are offensive to Him, despite the fact that we commit them anyway, and despite the fact that we sometimes pretend that they aren’t offensive to Him. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them, on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (2.14-16) So then, while the judicial commandment that male homosexuals should be put to death is passed away, the moral commandment that men should not commit it is s not.
Now, let’s look at Leviticus 20.13 again: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” Notice what it says: “both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death.” (emphasis added) If one is the victim of a crime, one is not morally culpable for it. Since the penalty encompasses both men who commit the homosexual act, homosexual rape is not here in view; consensual male homosexuality is.
This is not a “weaponizing” of Scripture; it is a simple exposition of what Scripture says. Scripture warns us of grave consequences for sin: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Rev. 21.8) Scripture gives us warnings such as this, not to condemn us for what we have done, but to reveal to us the depth of our depravity, to warn us of the fate that awaits us if we do not repent, and to drive us to the foot of the Cross, there to lay our burden of sin down at the Crucified Savior’s feet, that we should turn to Him for forgiveness and the power and will we need to repent, for we do not have these on our own merit. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2.8-9)
Folks, we are all sinners, every last one of us. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I Jn. 1.8-9) Homosexuality and transgenderism are no more sins than viewing pornography or hating one’s neighbor. But they are sins, and those who commit them need to turn to Christ for forgiveness and repent of them. The consequences for not doing so are too horrible to imagine.
Comment by Star Tripper on June 30, 2022 at 10:56 am
The future of the Church is queer……could be. A lot of them are already fake and ghey.
Comment by Search4Truth on July 2, 2022 at 5:47 pm
“Pride Month” A declaration that I am publicly defying the revealed laws of God. And I am proud of myself for doing so!
So sad.
Comment by Loren J Golden on July 2, 2022 at 7:45 pm
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.” —Proverbs 16.18
Comment by George on July 6, 2022 at 10:31 am
The “tares” and the “wheat” are quite obvious now in our time. Those “with eyes to see and ears to hear” see more and more clearly what they are. This is likely just part of the “great falling away” (2Thes) and “increase of lawlessness” of what poses as The Church. I find it amusing that, for all our evangelical criticism of the Roman Catholic Church they remain faithful in “the fundamentals” as increasingly many find refuge there. My own Episcopal denomination has been a leader of the charge into apostasy! So powerless and without much spiritual substance, just this morning I had an email that today’s regular “healing service” was cancelled because the priest “wasn’t feeling well.” I expect the irony of that goes mostly unperceived. Sad on the one hand, but exciting on the other because the Lord’s return is nearing!