I found this interesting story online. I will make responses throughout and after you finish reading it.
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Source: Denny Burke.
Over the weekend, I read the news of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s recent visit to Wheaton College. The reports I read focused on a demonstration led by Wheaton students who were concerned about Butterfield’s testimony. It’s no surprise when students on a secular university campus stage a public protest against Butterfield. But it is quite surprising when about a hundred students demonstrate at an evangelical bastion like Wheaton. The question is this: Why did these students feel the need to demonstrate?
It turns out that they did not like the message that Butterfield was bringing to the college. And the message they didn’t like was the story of her own conversion to Christ. As I have noted here before, Butterfield was formerly a tenured lesbian professor specializing in feminist studies at Syracuse University. But the Lord intersected her life and won her to Christ through the witness of a local minister and his wife. In her book, Butterfield is very clear that following Christ meant repenting of her lesbianism. And that’s the part that the Wheaton demonstrators didn’t like.
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If I could interrupt here for just a minute. This is an example of God changing someone who used to be a devoted homosexual into someone who is not. Contrary to popular opinion, It is indeed possible for someone to change out of homosexuality, not on their own, God gives him or her the strength to do that. You may ask, If God doesn’t like homosexuality, why would he allow it to happen in the first place? Might I suggest that He didn’t. All sin is a result of the original fall of human kind. Since Adam and Eve couldn’t keep it together, we are all stuck with it. Every one of us. Even me. Yes, I do things that make God angry. HOWEVER, God loves us in spite of our sins to the point where he gave up his only son Jesus (who did not sin) to die a painful death on a cross to cover our sins. Now we are free to have a relationship with God if we choose to let Him in. He can lead us into a whole new life if we repent of our sins (acknowledge that they are wrong) and ask for forgiveness. God may take away your desire to sin in a specific area, He may not. If he doesn’t, that does not mean that you get to keep doing whatever it is that you think shouldn’t be a sin (you’re not in charge of deciding what a sin is and isn’t…neither am I for that matter). He will give you the strength to say no to temptation and thus to sin. It’s your choice though. God didn’t make robots, He wants a genuine relationship with His people. Even those of us who He has saved and has a relationship with will continue to sin. We must repent, get up, and keep fighting….every single time it happens. It’s a battle. Jesus never said it would be easy, but our prize in the end doesn’t have anything to do with this world, and it’s worth it.
Let’s get back to Denny’s article.
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The students who demonstrated said that it was wrong for the university to give the impression that Butterfield’s “story” was the only valid story. According to the demonstrators, there are gay people who follow Christ and who see no need to repent of same-sex behavior. Their stories are just as valid as Butterfield’s, and Butterfield’d story of repentance from sin should not be held out as the norm on Wheaton’s campus. If you want to read about these student demonstrators you can do so here. You can read about Butterfield’s “talk back” session with the student demonstrators here.
Wheaton College’s “Community Covenant” reflects a very clear biblical understanding of sexuality. Every student on campus voluntarily agrees to this covenant as a condition for admission to the college. What does the covenant say? It requires students to “uphold chastity among the unmarried (1 Cor. 6:18) and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman (Heb. 13:4).” It also condemns “sexual immorality, such as the use of pornography (Matt. 5:27-28), pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman (Rom. 1:21-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31).”
As President Ryken pointed out in his recent statement, the college’s covenant is very clear. Students know up front that Wheaton has staked out a traditional biblical understanding of sexual norms and that they must volunteer to live within those norms in order to be students. The problem is not with the covenant. The problem is that these students are protesting the very terms of the covenant that they promised to uphold when they were admitted to the college.
I think there is a lesson here that goes beyond Wheaton College. We are witnessing a generational shift in attitudes about human sexuality—a shift that is touching the evangelical movement. The children of evangelicals are not nearly as committed to a biblical sexual ethic as their parents have been. If there are students at Wheaton who are confused about these things, you can be sure that there are students in evangelical youth groups across the country who are as well. This issue is a pressure-point in the culture, and many Christian students are standing strong. But other students are eager to see if they might relieve the pressure by combining their Christian faith with acceptance of homosexuality. What many of them fail to see is that such a compromise is a poison-pill for authentic Christian faith.
The challenge for Christian pastors, teachers, professors, and administrators will be to hold the line in the face of this challenge. Biblical clarity is a necessity in this context, and so are leaders who have the courage of their convictions to require real accountability to biblical teaching. Leaders must show the emerging generation that there is no need to be embarrassed by the truth of God. We must persuade them that holding firm to the biblical message is the only path to the good life—indeed the only path to eternal life—in spite of the culture’s message to the contrary.
This isn’t the last time we will hear stories like this one. I expect to hear more in coming days, and I suspect that they might also originate in unexpected places. They might even originate near you. Will you be ready when they do?
Source: Denny Burke
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This is the part where you’re probably expecting me to go on a huge tirade of how Homosexuality is wrong. I won’t, it’s well documented.
The power of God is also well documented, He created the world, He’s in charge. (We were just put here to take care of his creation…and look what happened to that) He makes the rules. He has the final say. In the Old Testament He would kill people for disobeying Him. It’s by his grace alone that any of us are still around. He has a wonderful purpose for all of our lives. He loves us so madly and desires to change us from our sinful nature…and He certainly can do that. He controls time, space, when you’re born, when you die. He can even bring people back who were dead.
And now to get to the actual point of this article. Since God is so powerful, why on earth would anyone form large groups and protest against Him, when he only wants what’s best for us? (even though our feeble minds may think differently)
Have you ever seen a father playing and having fun with his young children. That’s how God loves us and wants us to love him.
If you had a child, would you let him or her drink gasoline even if they got a bunch of their little friends together. No matter how many friends he or she gets it’s still not a good idea right?
It’s the same with this whole issue of homosexuality and every other crazy thing we want to do. I get the option is out there and people enjoy it, and I’ve never been afraid of a person who practices that lifestyle (That’s what Homophobia actually means) but it’s not going to do much good in the end.
God’s already got the win. He loves you. He has rules so that we all might grow instead of running around in circles over issues. Why bother standing against Him thinking you’re making progress when you’re really just digging a rut?
I also wonder how these folks at Wheaton (or any other Christ followers for that matter) can claim to be following Jesus and yet they keep wanting to change His rules. (Jesus and God are the same…yet different…I’ll try to explain that one in a future post)