Pride month Adventist Today

 As we move into Pride month I want to point something from a recent ATSS program that is quite disturbing. The video is found at ATSS PRESENTS: Esther Loewen, The Beatitudes in Light of Transgenderism At about the 22 minute mark this former Adventist Pastor goes through some notable Christians and some of their statements on certain Beatitudes. I have transcribed and abridged some of the context and the main point I want to deal with is when the former pastor talks about Franklin Graham:

“At an earlier time in my life I would have enthusiastically absorbed the Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon's teaching about being pure in heart where he essentially equates it to being sanctified or fully before God impurity of the heart says the great, orator is the cause of spiritual blindness our inner nature, must be divinely, renewed, it must be purified.

John Piper's discussion about being a peacemaker. We're right up my alley. The most important peace according to Piper is the peace that made between you and God and secondarily. Once that happens, that we Christians, go out and make peace between other people.

And of course, I can't leave out evangelicalism in Franklin Graham on persecution who speaks a lot about persecution and now I'm tipping my hand to you. Just a bit you know  Franklin Graham who teaches us about persecution, and tweets and Sound bytes who teaches us that persecution is being forced to live in a world where LGBTQ people exist, where black live matter where the patriarchy is dismantled.  Now  As I think about all of these individuals today All of these different teachers, all of these different perspectives, you know, an aspirational lens on the Beatitudes isn't the only thing that they have in common.”**

The important point here is that as the LGBT activist has been speaking about what others have said on the beatitudes, when it comes to Franklin Graham all that goes out the window, admitting “I'm tipping my hand to you”. Pretty much admitting that due to political progressive influences, no truth is needed, no quotes are needed, no context is needed!

Of course there is no need for truth when lying has become a way of life. If one lies to themselves about themselves it is not that hard to lie about other people as well. Assuming that this former pastor is dealing with fellow Progressive Christians they will have no reason to question the fictional statement that Franklin Graham believes that he is having to live in the persecution of living in a world where LGBTQ exists, where Black Lives Matter, and Equity & Justice are words, Or as the statement that goes with the slide says that patriarchy is dismantled. As if Franklin Graham would make any of those statements, when talking about the Bible verse that says:  Matthew 5:8. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That would be a seriously limited view of persecution.

But why do the LGBT activists hate Franklin Graham so much?  One does not have to do much searching on the internet to see just how disgusted the left is with Franklin Graham and by extension Evangelicals as well.

The answer could be found in the attempt to redefine American life. At one time the website for BLM listed their desire to destroy the nuclear family. More recently the Progressive community has gone so far as to insist that they can’t even define a woman. A woman is someone that identifies as a woman. That is actually what some say when asked what is a woman. Can they define a woman without using the circular logic of using the word woman? A world where even a Supreme Court nominee herself a woman can’t define the word woman because she is not a biologist. In fact under the Adventist Today link to this Youtube video there are only five comments, Even the politically left population of commenters on Adventist Today are too afraid to make comments about a man claiming to be a trans woman reinterpreting the Beatitudes in the light of something that not one person hearing the Beatitudes would have thought of.

It is far more than just the LGBT segment of the political left that placed them against evangelical Christianity.

There has been an interesting study and book on this subject:

“Here are three surprises from Yancey and Quosigk’s research.

1. Progressive Christians are more likely to establish their identity through politics, while conservative Christians find their identity in theology.

Put simply, progressive Christians see the world through a political lens; conservative Christians, through a religious lens (155). This doesn’t mean that progressives are atheological and conservatives apolitical, but only that the emphasis is wildly disparate between the groups.

For example, progressive Christians

emphasize political values relating to social justice issues as they determine who is part of their in-group; they tend to be less concerned about theological agreement. Conservative Christians, however, do not put strong emphasis on political agreement in order to determine if you are one of them—their major concern is whether you agree with them on core theological points . . . . (4)

For this reason, progressive Christians

tend to be more accepting of groups that are traditionally politically progressive (such as Muslims and atheists) than they are of conservative Christians. . . . By contrast, conservative Christians tend to reject Muslims and atheists as part of an out-group, but they do not necessarily reject political liberals. . . . (14).

The authors aren’t saying progressives are naturally more political in a general sense. Their point is that progressives’ commitment to humanistic values of social justice leads them to political action as the area of causing social change. And prioritizing political alignment over theological agreement leads to the next surprise.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/research-progressive-conservative-christians/

 

Interestingly enough it is because Franklin Graham is outspoken in his Christianity that has made him the butt of derision of the leftwing. As he took Progressive Christianity head-on he explains:

I would say the exact same warning applies today to the advocates of progressive Christianity. They deceitfully promote and proclaim what I believe is clearly a “different gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.”

Let me say that again—progressive Christianity is not a Gospel at all. It has nothing to do with the Gospel of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. It results in nothing but spiritual confusion and chaos.

Here’s the problem.

Progressive Christianity denies the divinely inspired, authoritative truth of the Bible as it intersects every facet of living. For example, although Scripture clearly says that marriage is between one man and one woman, proponents of progressive Christianity twist and distort the truth of God’s Word on sexuality, focusing on such nonsensical trends as gender identity. They deny God’s distinction of the sexes, and instead invent their own misguided standards, unguided by the Word of God. The degrading cultural influences that embrace such movements as gay marriage have more sway on their beliefs than the Bible does.

When the topic of justice is discussed, progressive Christianity is primarily concerned with the issues of social and racial justice (which the Bible does address), but most often neglects the far more fundamental issue of God’s justice—how a holy and just God deals with sinful and wicked men. https://decisionmagazine.com/franklin-graham-the-eternal-peril-of-progressive-christianity/

 ** Transcription software was limited due to the affected speech pattern of the presenter. At 36:30 a prayer of redefined Beatitudes is given. A good example of why it is unwise to redefine what God blesses.