Tim Keller Reviews Matthew Vines' & Ken Wilson's Pro-Homosexual/Same-Sex Marriage Books

If I knew of Tim Keller before the last couple of weeks, my knowledge of him and his excellent ministry was brief and had escaped me. Since the death of my father-in-law, who was also our pastor, Michelle and I and our four children are looking for a new church to call home. The first church we've visited, Westminster Presbyterian, houses the home-school academy that our children attend.

We've never been a part of a Presbyterian congregation before. (I don't think either of us has ever even attended a Presbyterian church before two weeks ago.) The first Sunday we attended Westminster, the Sunday school class we visited was doing a study (on dvd) by Keller. I was impressed. Today, the study continued and the topic was suffering--very apropos given our recent tragic life experience. It seems that God wanted us to hear what Mr. Keller had to say.

After arriving home from church, as I was updating my headlines, on the Christian Post, I saw a headline referencing Keller's review of Matthew Vines' book, God and the Gay Christian, and Ken Wilson's book, A Letter to My Congregation. Again, for some reason it seems that God was wanting me to experience Mr. Keller's wisdom. (I figured that I had better link to this piece in my "Latest News/Commentary" section of my site!)

Both of these books make yet another attempt at explaining away biblical revelations, and centuries of church teaching, on homosexual behavior. Mr. Keller does another nice job of debunking Vines' and Wilson's heretical arguments. (Hear last year's debate between Vines and Dr. Michael Brown here. See a bit of my take on Ken Wilson here.) Here is Mr. Keller's full article (which the Christian Post does not provide).

Mr. Keller notes that there are six basic arguments that books like those by Vines and Wilson make. The first argument addressed by Mr. Keller is that many people have changed their mind on homosexuality due to getting to know people who are in homosexual relationships. This is also an issue that I've dealt with before myself.

Mr. Keller lovingly notes, "It is certainly important for Christians who are not gay to hear the hearts and stories of people who are attracted to the same sex." He also wisely notes, that, though some people whose minds were changed on homosexuality may have had bigoted views (i.e. giving more weight to homosexual sin than other sin) towards homosexuals, this does not change the Bible's clear message on homosexuality.

As I noted last year, Christians, and others who know better, should no more accept homosexuality based on getting to know a homosexual who seems a rather likable chap, than we are to accept abortion because we know a friendly Planned Parenthood worker. “Hate the sin and love the sinner” is much more than a well-worn platitude of Christianity. It is exactly how Christ taught us to win those who have turned from the truth.

Mr. Keller's complete review (self-described as "too brief") is well worth the read.

**As an additional note, my father-in-law David was a Vineyard pastor for the past 18 years. He made me aware of Ken Wilson's anti-biblical thinking around 2010. I engaged Ken online several times (including what was his personal blog at the time) on various topics and in various forums. Interestingly, Mr. Wilson's heresy seems to have begun, as has been the case for so many in the last 150 years, by compromising with Darwinian evolution. (See here.)

Despite his years-long slide into compromising biblical truths with secular lies, Ken remained a Vineyard pastor. This troubled me for years. It seems Ken's compromise with marriage and homosexuality was too much for the national Vineyard leadership. (There was an official response to his book last year.) As of January of this year, Ken is longer a part of the Vineyard church he founded in Ann Arbor Michigan. He is now co-pastor of Blue Ocean Faith in Ann Arbor. As the Blue Ocean website notes, "The church was founded by Emily Swan and Ken Wilson, who served as pastors at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor (Ken was the founding pastor of that congregation) until the Vineyard denomination adopted policies that forbade full welcome and inclusion of same-sex couples."**

Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Close Your Mind

Some things deserve no debate. The great C.S. Lewis alludes to this as he rather bluntly declares, “An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy.” More plainly put, one would have to be an idiot not to recognize that certain things are settled for all time.

Such a conclusion is in direct contradiction to what has become the supreme virtue with far too many in our culture: “tolerance.” As the United Nations’ Declaration of Principles on Tolerance instructs, “Tolerance … involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism.” Of course, such a declaration reveals how the definition of tolerance has changed. Today “tolerance” no longer simply means “to recognize and respect others’ beliefs and practices without sharing them.” Today’s “tolerance” is little more than a self-refuting system of thought that attempts to impose liberal values onto any culture unable or unwilling to recognize the fallacy.

The United Nations description of “tolerance” above illustrates well such fallacy, as “Tolerance … involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism” is itself a dogmatic and absolute statement. Today’s liberalism is full of such nonsense.

On “tolerance,” G.K. Chesterton, who greatly influenced the life and writings of C.S. Lewis, noted that “Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions.” What better describes a modern liberal than a “man without convictions?” When a person lacks convictions it becomes very easy to align himself with whatever worldview provides the most benefits in this world—or at least allows you to have the most “fun.”

A case in point is the debauchery on display at Dartmouth College. According to Linda Chavez, a few weeks ago, student protestors gathered at the office of the Dartmouth president “and demanded more ‘womyn or people of color’ faculty, coverage of sex-change operations on the student health plan, and ‘gender-neutral bathrooms,’ among other things.”

Sounding like Dean Vernon Wormer, Dartmouth’s president, Philip Hanlon, harshly addressed the student body culture that, in the 1970’s was the inspiration for the film Animal House. Hanlon declared, “Dartmouth’s promise is being hijacked by extreme behavior, masked by its perpetrators as acceptable fun.” He addressed sexual assaults, dangerous drinking, partying, hazing, and “a general disregard for human dignity.”

Hanlon also noted “a grave disconnect between our culture in the classroom and the behaviors outside of it — behaviors which too often seek not to elevate the human spirit, but debase it.” Hanlon, evidently, has not been visiting Dartmouth’s classrooms very often, because the debasing behaviors occurring outside the classrooms directly reflect the culture of “tolerance” that exists inside them.

In other words, Dartmouth is only reaping what it has sown. Hanlon and his cohorts should not be surprised that young people who have been taught that it is okay to kill their unborn children, that they can have sex with whomever they wish without any consequences, and that they can “marry” whomever they desire, will also eagerly embrace “sexual assaults, dangerous drinking, partying, hazing” and the like.

Dartmouth, he added, cannot “be held back by the few who wrongly hide harmful behaviors behind the illusion of youthful exuberance. Routinized excessive drinking, sexual misconduct and blatant disregard of social norms have no place at Dartmouth. Enough is enough.”

To what “social norms” is Hanlon referring? It sounds like he is appealing to some “absolute” moral standard. How “intolerant” of him! For decades now, our colleges and universities have led the way in preaching “tolerance,” in place of moral absolutes, as the supreme virtue in our culture. Impressionable young minds have taken this message to heart and today the U.S. contains tens-of-millions of Americans who have abandoned any notion of sound (biblical) morality. They have eagerly adopted the pagan philosophy of “Do as Thou Wilt.”

More tragically, the scourge of “tolerance” has also invaded our churches. My own church’s association, Vineyard USA, like many other American churches, has recently experienced dissension on the issue of homosexuality and marriage. Ken Wilson, senior pastor of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, has recently made headlines over his decision to “come out” in support of homosexuality.  

According to USA Today, “Experts say it might be the first time the pastor of a large evangelical Christian congregation in Michigan, and maybe the U.S., has come out so openly in favor of gay people and same-sex marriage.”

Wilson said his decision was “about welcoming previously excluded groups.” On the issues of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, Wilson has also said “we should all ‘agree to disagree’ [which is certainly not the attitude of those leading the homosexual agenda]: Maintain our different convictions, but not judge each other over them, not insist on excluding each other over such matters, and continue to work together in the name of Jesus to do things like alleviate suffering for orphans in abject poverty.”

“Agree to disagree” is simply another way of framing today’s “tolerance.” Of course, Wilson’s position would ignore the suffering that results from homosexual behavior. As is typical with so many who preach “tolerance,” his argument is rooted in multiple straw men (evangelicals generally are “judgmental” and “excluding” when it comes to homosexuals) that make his position seem more “loving.”

What we are really dealing with here is competing views of truth. Those peddling “tolerance” generally reject the notion of absolute truth. As noted apologist William Lane Craig puts it when writing about the Christian perspective on homosexuality, “Today so many people think of right and wrong, not as matters of fact, but as matters of taste.” And if taste determines truth, then we’re all at the mercy of whoever’s in charge, because, ultimately we’re all intolerant. It’s simply a matter of who’s right.

(See this column on American Thinker.)

Copyright 2014, Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com