A. Christians Drop the Crown Jewels

Two major events over the last four hundred years in the revelation of God to His people have been all but ignored, badly misunderstood, or outright rejected by the visible Church. That failure has left the Christian community sitting ducks for secular and pagan artillery.

The two events were

(1) the rise of science and

(2) the development of due process in civil law,

the best examples of the latter being the American constitutional democratic republic and the English parliamentary system. Science and due process in civil law are the two crown jewels of western culture, our unique offering to the rest of the world.

Sadly, the Church has not seen fit to more than dabble with due process in ecclesiastical law. But we believe a new birth is coming when Christians will show the world that political freedom is a function of spiritual freedom, and will model that reality in the Church.

Both science and due process were gifts of God to anyone who would listen, but specifically to His people. Both have been successfully coopted by the secular community -- to the almost total exclusion of the biblical community. We in the West think of civil government and science as essentially secular things. That gave secular interests an open field for capturing the imagination of the 20th century and leaving the Church in the dust, a matter directly related to sexuality issues.

Wise Christians have noted that God wrote two books, not just one, the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture. The two elucidate, not contradict, each other. Christians ought to be the best scientists available.

But the Christian community has failed to incorporate into its life what God was (and is) telling us in these major events of western Christendom about (1) truth gathering and (2) due process in the administration of truth and righteousness in public affairs. We believe that the Bible, as interpreted by the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, is the standard for Christian faith and practice, but we see much of current Christianity as artificially and arbitrarily narrow -- precisely because it has failed to come to grips with science and due process.

Christians, of all people, should understand that science is the Way of the Cross for the intellect. We give up our right to be right and just let the evidence speak for itself. And due process in public debate (such as legislation or court trial) is the Way of the Cross for public discussion. Again, we give up our right to be right, and let truth and righteousness win their own battles in the minds and hearts of the listeners.

As a result of this disastrous failure, the Christian community has been unable to answer the great question asked in every age: "How do you know you have the truth?" -- such as, whether homosexuality is good and right in the eyes of God. And the Christian community has a faulty understanding of the due process necessary for administering truth in its various social and civil aspects -- notably in sexuality dialogues.
 

B. Liberal "vs." Conservative

Liberalism and conservatism are complementary in a healthy society. But a culture which has lost its biblical foundations, or never had them, will find such complementarities fracturing and pitting themselves against each other. The above Christian failure led to the fracturing of conservatives against liberals because Christians lost their ability to deal with truth issues.

"There are two religions on the floor...!" it was proclaimed at a denominational convention in 1991. The truth is that biblical Christianity and secularism/paganism are the two ultimate religions that contend on any floor. The temptation is to assume that the two religions correspond to those two parties we see often contending, namely, liberal vs. conservative. That is not necessarily the case.

On most Christian floors today are a fractured, anemic, defensive, compromised, trying-to-preserve-what's-left biblical Christianity and a psychologically sophisticated, aggressive paganism advertising itself as Christianity with all the clothing of compassion, love, and inclusiveness.

The single most important issue behind the sexuality debates is the nature of compassion, and its relation to truth-telling. Conservatives concentrate on truth, liberals on compassion. And never, it seems, the twain shall meet.

We, your authors, believe that there is a legitimate biblical liberalism as well as conservatism, which we will discuss at length. But we do not believe that either of the parties contending in contemporary debates represent the biblical case accurately for either liberalism or conservatism any more than for compassion or truth.

Conservatives tend to see liberals as pagans, and themselves as the biblical Christians. Liberals tend to see conservatives as out of date, lacking compassion, and stuck in "the way we always did it". We believe that there is a "pseudo-" brand of each -- concerning which these counter-charges are indeed true.

Because we see the content of Christian faith in line with most conservatives, we think of ourselves most of the time as conservatives. But we believe that there is also a true and legitimate liberalism (which tends to concentrate on process rather than content) which is a complement, not an enemy, to true conservatism (which tends to concentrate on content).

The process of arriving at the content (how you know) is as important as the content itself (what you know). That is true because explaining how you know is what gives intellectual authority for believing what you know. Which is, of course, why we ask people the question: "How do you know???" Our book is as much about how we know as what we know, and about how the knowing process has, by open admission, been deliberately subverted. God does not take such subversion lightly.

We do not believe that either side of our present contentious debates, generally speaking, understands the constructive relation between honest conservatism and honest liberalism. Consequently, we are unable to make any easy identification between the "conservative" movement in the Church today and biblical Christianity.

On one hand, the so-called liberal wing, at almost every point of discussion, dialogue, and debate, has violated the rules of honest due process because they are operating on the assumption that truth is relative, or that some other value, e.g., love, inclusiveness, or tolerance, precedes truth. Or, as Bishop Allison points out in the foreword, there are arrogantly dishonest people in the discussion. The result is that due process in truth-seeking is routinely violated. So, as one leader expressed it, we are tired of dialogue that is no dialogue at all, and we are tired of being abused by people who have no interest in truth or honest discussion of the meaning of Christian faith and practice.

On the other hand, although we see conservatives as holding, for the most part, to the essential content of the Christian faith, nevertheless they are often either unaware of what due process and truth-seeking are, or are unwilling to submit themselves to those processes. We see a tragic and far-reaching failure in the intellectual life of the evangelical as well as the charismatic and catholic branches of the Church. Very few Christians of any stripe are willing to do what they are asking others to do, namely submit their faith and belief to an open discussion to see whose view is true. That, we think, is intellectually and spiritually inexcusable, and contrary to biblical revelation. When God invites us, "Come, let us reason together...," He means it.2

C. "Why Would I Want to Read Such a Book?"

Why, indeed, would anyone want to read a long book on such a distasteful and contentious subject? For the same reasons someone might want to write it:

to research how America got into such a mess;

to understand how our government through its school system has been a major player in the demise of our biblical moral foundations;

to understand how the biblical worldview stands uniquely among world philosophies and religions, especially in sex and gender issues;

to help reverse the systematic destruction of the biblical foundations of Western civilization;

to learn how to hold moral standards in a morally collapsing world;

to learn Christian apologetics, how to address volatile issues gracefully, factually, and logically, and how to show that God holds the spiritual, moral, and (yes) intellectual high ground;

to do some serious spiritual growing by putting myself at risk on the front lines of spiritual warfare;

to better understand homosexual persons, to reach out and help them;

you may have in your hand the only book available with a comprehensive, biblical, and scientifically sound strategy for winning the battle to restore sexual sanity;

and, just perhaps, you may want to share with us the tears and outrage that accompanied the writing of this book.

As for the length, don't worry, it is going to be a long war. You will have plenty of time to read it slowly. Pretend the three parts are three smaller books. The book is already a drastic foreshortening of the depth and breadth of the issues .

The deepest foundations of Western Civilization are being studiously chiseled out from under us. Those who do not like being overwhelmed by the size and scope of books such as this have the option of remaining overwhelmed instead by the pansexual/homosexual agenda. This is a winnable battle, but... there are no quick fixes.

Given the "paradigm shifts" you may encounter, read the chapters (or parts) maybe two or three times. We have paradigm-shifted ourselves into disaster. It is time we paradigm-shifted back to common sense. And God is the Original and Intelligent Designer of all common sense.

Because the Christian community, for over a century, has been unable to conduct its public affairs with spiritual, moral, or intellectual integrity, a hostile secular media has easily been able to parody the Church as a "fundamentalist" laughingstock. Fundamentals are essential. But the word `fundamentalism' has been given a nasty flavor by the tragically consistent failure of the Church to maintain its own moral, spiritual, and intellectual integrity -- along with the frightening ability of the forces of darkness to portray themselves as angels of light. And that has forced us to consider a third deep issue: the nature of evil.

When evil is called good and good evil, we are constrained once again to force the antithesis between the two, to state with clarity and logic the nature of the cosmic spiritual warfare, of which our present sexual disarray is, of course, only one small segment. Our title, Good and Right..., points to and includes issues far beyond sexuality alone. So we invite the reader to ponder with us the nature of evil -- which can be defined, seen, and exposed only by contrast to, and by the light of, the nature of goodness and righteousness.

If you still think we might be overstating our case, you might log onto www.massnews.com and search the archives under "fistgate". You will be informed of the outrageous promotion of pansexual/homosexual teaching given (and still being given) to Massachusetts students on subjects such as "fisting", the insertion of one's hand and arm into the vaginal or rectal openings of one's partner for sexual pleasure. Such criminal abuse of children is only part of the story. The sex-revolution can succeed only because of a prior criminal abuse of public discussion. But every school district and every home in America is targeted by those running the sex-revolution.

We conclude that the systematic subversion of truth is always and in every case evil. It is the fundamental of all evils, as Paul indicates in Romans 1:18 ff. It is always treason against truth, against the Lord of truth, and against the people of truth. And it is the enemy of compassion and love. Those who pursue it merit the epithet, "sons of Satan", as Jesus indicated in John 8:31 ff. So we all do well to begin by watching our own step.

Our book, then, is about three preparatory issues:

(1) how we both know and administer truth in the public arena,

(2) the nature of good and evil and our obligation to righteousness,

(3) the nature of honest, and therefore helpful, compassion, and then the practical issue:

(4) how these are to be applied to the more concrete issues such as

What is homosexual behavior?

Does God approve of homosexuality?

Is it healthy?

Is it an identity or a behavior?

What can I do about it?
 

D. Our Case

God has given us a winning weapon and a winning strategy as much for the public arena as the inner, private, and personal arena (we will discuss what "winning" means). Honest liberalism and honest conservatism stride shoulder to shoulder down the path of public life, wielding together the invincible two-edged Sword of the Spirit.

The human struggle with sexual sin and brokenness is only a segment of the much larger spiritual struggle which began in Genesis, chapter 3, the Fall of mankind from the sustaining hand of God into rebellion and self-destruction. Homosexuality is only one instance of the Fall, but it is an instance, so biblical principles of redemption are to be applied to resolve the homosexual problem.

Our contemporary struggle with the homosexuality issue did not arise out of nowhere. It likewise has a much wider history and background. Without an understanding of the cultural and intellectual roots and the spiritual forces at work during the last two centuries, it will be impossible to understand the homosexual rights movement or how to respond to it.

Some will ask: "Why don't you just get to the homosexual matter and fix that? Why spend so much time on peripheral issues?" One might as well ask: "Why don't you just fix up the third floor? Why spend so much time strengthening the first?" The first floor is not "peripheral" to the third. Homosexuality is a symptom of much larger sin and pathology which have become deeply embedded in our social and spiritual fabric.

So our book is structured in three Parts on the generic biblical pattern of Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

Part I, Creation, as for all biblical faith and practice, lays the foundation of our response, the ground upon which we can stand and get traction. It is a good introduction to Christian apologetics for almost any issue.

Chapter I, The Way, the Truth, and the Life... How Do We Know? prepares for dealing with the major stumbling block of all Christians for at least two centuries: we have not been able to explain whether there is any truth, and if so, how we can know it. Secular folks did not know either, but they made it look like they did, and therefore won the public imagination. But God knows and is telling us.

Paul in Romans 1:18 ff. mentions homosexuality as one of the many addictive and compulsive disasters into which we fall, and that these conditions are preceded by wider and deeper issues of subversion of truth and the consequent worship of the creation rather than the Creator, so we too want to "get at" homosexuality by first taking in the wider scope.

Our subtitle reads: the Wedding of Truth to Compassion. We put truth first because we believe God is more concerned about truth than with sexual issues. We put compassion (or love) second because we believe that truth must precede love, or love will never happen. The book is more about truth-seeking done with compassion than about homosexuality -- although it is about homosexuality. Jesus identifies Satan as the father of lies, not the father of sexual perversion. Truth wedded to love is the first floor.

Chapter II, Worldview Issues, takes us to the second floor. Next to truth, we need to understand the basic structure of the universe. The two basic worldviews contending in spiritual warfare are suggested by Bishop MacNaughton's remark: "There are two religions on the floor."3 Though Christians (of all people) have seldom treated it as such, biblical religion is a religion of substantial fact and logic.

Part II, The Fall, you might call our autopsy report on a moribund Western Church and Civilization. It includes Chapter III, The Church Has AIDS, and Chapter IV, The "Gay" Strategy. It describes secular and neo-pagan attempts to destroy our biblical grounding, a sordid tale of the West reenacting Genesis 3, and is a good survey of why Christians are failing in many areas.

Secularism/paganism, the biblical competitor, lives in a "virtual reality" of image, appearance, and of feelings dissociated from responsible personal relationship. It is forever trying to create substance out of virtual fluff. It is the world of the Fall and ultimately death. The logic and dynamic of these two worldviews is being played out before us in the homosexual tragedy. It is our purpose to help clarify some of those dynamics.

We will be describing "the politics of truth" (to borrow from the title of Jeffrey Satinover's excellent book). Part I looks at "the Way", and Part II looks at how we got lost from it, how the moral, intellectual, and spiritual foundations of the Church and the West generally, were maneuvered so that it was just a matter of time before the sex revolution, containing homosexuality, would inevitably become accepted aspects of a once Christian culture.

Cultural, social, and political backgrounds interweave through our discussion, laying bare the rat's nest of our contemporary participation in the Fall. Any answer to the wider issues will provide part of the answer to the narrower focus on homosexuality also. These are the issues on which Christian Civilization has stumbled. Either we get them straight, or we continue to stumble.

Part III - Redemption, is our resurrection report -- for the Church and civilization. It applies biblical principles to the evidence and to strategy. and then culminates in the victorious testimonies of overcomers. The chapters on evidence, strategy, and healing put cleats on our shoes so we can navigate the slippery ground of dialogue. Chapter VI, especially, outlines Christian strategy for perhaps all issues we face.

Chapter V, The Hard Evidence, presents the clear and unambiguous evidence on the nature of homosexuality, which has been hidden by a massively successful media campaign from a public which has all but lost the capacity to think for itself. To most readers, this will be new material because, with just a few exceptions, neither the media nor the clergy nor the politicians nor the educators nor the medical professionals are publishing the truth of the matter.

Not, at least, so one would notice. Lay people are almost universally ignorant of the depth of the disaster, and their clergy are not telling them. But getting the truth of the matter will always be the foundation of ultimate victory.

Chapter VI, Godly Winning, is the foundation behind the foundation, responding in practical terms to the question raised in Chapter I, "How do we know the truth?" How can we sustain our witness to biblical sexuality in public debate -- right out in front of God and everybody? What does biblical theology look like in the trenches?

Winning means the restoration of the sovereignty of God, not primarily because He is the Boss, which He is. And for which we can be devoutly grateful. But primarily because the Boss loves us. The Boss makes our love for one another just as we love ourselves the second highest command in the universe. Our actually doing that requires following Jesus back onto the sustaining Hand of God and to obedience under His Voice. Winning the sexuality debate means finding the will of God and implementing that into our public policy.

This is an advocacy book, but it is not "unabashed propaganda", as Kirk and Madsen candidly self-describe After the Ball, their masterpiece of homosexualist strategy.4 We hold ourselves correctable by anyone according to the commonly understood standards of fact and logic. And we wish to emphasize that our primary advocacy is not about sexuality, it is about allowing the truth and the Lord of truth to speak for themselves.

The strategy of God is to be used in all circumstances and in all issues. The King of kings and Lord of lords does not recognize boundaries between "religious" and "secular". It may not be "politically correct" to suggest that theology has anything to do with issues of public policy. But, as they say: "Tough." God and logical common sense both dictate otherwise. The solution to the problem of homosexuality requires the application of biblical theology to all aspects of the problem.

It has been precisely in the Christian loss of consensus on biblical theology that the Christian community, and consequently western civilization, have come to such a bad state. We have lost our ability to apply Godly wisdom to public affairs. We have lost our charts and compass, and therefore lost our way. Our book will thus be a thorough-going application of biblical principles to the case at hand -- as near as we can make it, manifesting intellectual, moral, and spiritual integrity.

Our book climaxes with Chapter VII, testimonies of healing from those who had been sexually broken by the sins of their circumstances or of themselves. Winning at the deepest level is indeed possible -- as testimonies of healing leave no doubt from those who have been set free from the bondage to which Paul refers in Romans 1.

For many readers, our case will involve at least two significant shifts in how we think about the issues before us: (1) how the issues of sexuality are rooted in the wider cultural destruction, and (2) how God connects reason and revelation in communicating with the fallen world. Unless we get these two issues straight, solutions to sexuality problems will always unravel. We need to rebuild not only the foundations of our doctrine, but of how we perceive and think and relate at all. You will be getting a crash course in materials every Christian should have been taught early on in Sunday School.

The gates of hell will not prevail -- but, in our time, only if we get on the offensive. And only if we learn the Godly way of doing that.
 

E. Conflict, Stridency, and Forgiveness

Public policy generally contains coercive sanctions, punishment for disobedience. The highest obligations of truth, righteousness, and human compassion therefore fall on participants of such discussions, and especially upon those who vote public policy into existence. Persons who are not truth-seekers are not qualified to participate in discussion of public policy.

We should no longer quietly tolerate pseudo-intellectualizing, neither from politically correct" liberals", nor from conservatives incapable or unwilling to prosecute the spiritual war in which we are engaged. We insist on what should be well-known rules of honest engagement, that dialogue and discussion are about objective truth-seeking in matters of fact and logic and in matters of the will of God, not merely about sharing emotional stories of hurt, pain, and victimhood, or "dialoguing to consensus" in the absence of objective standards. Stories, parables, and testimonies can be powerful ways of witnessing to truth. But if our stories, parables, and testimonies are not about truth, then they are empty and deceiving. Truth is not something with which to play games.

The Christian in the pew has been at sea over sexuality because of often deliberately confusing leadership on one side and uncertain and hesitating responses on the other. One of your authors is not ordained, the other is, so we can see the matter from both perspectives, and we are not impressed.

There have been occasional good examples of leadership. The Christian community is probably in better shape today than at any time during the last century -- if only because it is slowly becoming aware that it has been very effectively sidelined from public debate -- and in small pockets, is beginning to do something about it.

But the Christian community is confused and fractured because watchtowers have been infiltrated by suppressors of truth, as per Romans 1:18 ff., rendering others in the watchtowers incompetent to see the danger or signal the alarm. We shall describe that process in considerable detail.

Although sexuality issues are the present volatile point of contention, the greater sin on all sides has been our persistent pursuit of comfort and our unGodly cowardice in the matter of standing up for truth.

There is an increasing number of good books on the homosexual issues from an empirical point of view, describing homosexuality and its pathology very accurately (see bibliography), but there is little pointing to the deeper issue, the dishonesty and manipulation of the debate. Until we confront that issue head-on, no sanity will emerge.

We are thus writing this book as an indictment, bringing charges to the court of Christian public opinion and calling for a full scale public trial of the issues because we believe there is overwhelming evidence of systematic deceit and betrayal by persons who have gained control of the levers of public policy -- what Paul might refer to as "the world rulers of this present darkness" (Eph. 6:12). We bring an indictment against pseudo-liberals who do not liberate and against pseudo-conservatives who do not conserve, neither of whom show much compassion in the homosexual arena.

Where, for example, is the compassion for those many, many persons who would like to exit the homosexual lifestyle? Homosexualists berate them, and conservatives ignore them.

Several very competent books have been written documenting the empirical evidence from various directions, many of which we rely upon for our case. However, we believe that the case must be taken beyond mere evidence gathering to doing something about it. Doing something, after all, is the practical point of gathering evidence. The time is long overdue. We must use effective measures to counter a long history of abuse of public dialogue and discussion, and the commandeering of Church processes for illegitimate ends.

The best defense is still a good offense, in support of which ministries such as Exodus North America are good allies and leading the way.5 So this is a book of drawing conclusions, of making strategy, and of exhortation as well as of evidence, assessment, and commentary. We believe that God has given a clear goal which we are to pursue with all the obedience we can muster.

A major part of Godly strategy is old-fashioned repentance. None of us can say that we are guiltless, if not by commission, then by omission. Again, how many churches have rushed to the aid of persons seeking help out of homosexuality? America and western civilization will not be restored to sanity without a serious moral and spiritual inventory on the part of all.

The following will not always be pleasant reading. Whether liberal or conservative, readers who are position-defenders, not truth-seekers, may be offended. Nobody likes to be told that they are wrong.

But we have found truth-seekers on both sides of the liberal/conservative split who welcome openness and candor and who just want to know the facts. And, there are those on both sides of the split whose minds are made up to the exclusion of any fact or logic contrary to their view.

We are advocates. We are not undecided about the nature of homosexuality. Some will respond: "Well, how then can you claim to be objective? This is an advocacy book. You have already made up your minds!"

It is one of many specious, but widely held, beliefs today that one cannot be both decided and objective.  The truth is that one's objectivity does not depend on having come to no conclusion on an issue, it depends, rather, on whether one is willing to have his conclusions (or lack of them) challenged by fact and logic, that is, by the evidence. Scientific objectivity, after all, is not an end in itself. Its useful purpose is to inform and govern our passions. "All thought is for the sake of action, and all action is for the sake relationship," was a theme of John Macmurray, a Christian philosopher of the late 1800's. Objectivity in an ivory tower is of little use. Objectivity as the halter, bit, and bridle on passion channels that enormous energy into productive and reasonable goals.

It is the truth-seekers from all sides who will find a legitimate common ground and resolve the issues in a Godly manner. While the reading will not always be pleasant, we hope it will be gratifying, refreshing, and encouraging. The problems are monumental, but there is a way through to the victory of truth, compassion, and Godly sexuality.

We make no personal claim to inerrancy or infallibility, but rather hold ourselves accountable before all men to the rules of accurate observation and clear logical thinking, and to the Bible as the norm for Christian faith and practice. We expect the same from others entering the arena of Christian dialogue.

Some may think (and we have been told by both liberals and conservatives) that our book is strident, that we are mavericks, loose cannon on the deck of the ship, and that we will lose our reputations -- such as we have. We may be thought "partisan", to which we freely admit. So is God. We have a viewpoint which we wish to articulate as clearly as possible, giving anyone a clearly defined a target as possible at which to shoot. So does God. As we discuss in chapter six, there are no "neutral" positions in a debate over public policy any more than there are neutral teams on a football field.

But there are neutral rules by which positions are discussed and debated, just as there are neutral rules of football by which the teams contend. It is the violation of these rules by which stridency should be measured. Those who wish to neuter all discussion into the limbo of "relative truth" are the ones who most systematically violate the neutral rules of logical due process.

We care passionately about the issues, but we submit our whole case to those neutral rules of truth-testing in honest debate -- as did Elijah on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18).

When a very unneutral enemy has boarded the ship and (in the name of neutrality) commandeered the bridge, he does not like the cannon being turned around and aimed at the bridge. Neither do those who, like Neville Chamberlain, are still trying to dicker with the enemy without holding him accountable for his dishonest language. We strive, however, not to be loose cannon, and so we aim very carefully.

We are occasionally reminded of a certain college professor of the 1950's who was asked to comment in the college newspaper on a current issue. He noted: I fired a few shots into the bushes, hoping that the screams of pain elicited would sound like academic debate.

If we have misrepresented facts or have drawn fallacious conclusions, or if we have presented facts and conclusions ungracefully or unkindly, with inappropriate "vigor", we are willing to be corrected by biblical and common sense standards. We outline the various areas where evidence on the issue can be found, and thus offer clear grounds upon which our case can be disproved. And we quote the "other side" at length to let them state their own case.

So we expect the courtesy of intelligent rebuttal, not merely -- stridency.

There does not seem to be any way of saying some things that need to be said without appearing strident to someone. What is seen as righteous passion on one's own side is often seen as stridency on the other.

Soren Kierkegaard tells somewhere a parable of a fellow coming to a scholar to find an answer to great hurt and pain. The scholar begins to theorize on the fellow's pain with all of his scholarly detachment. He puts the hurting fellow in an endless intellectual parenthesis, considering this option and that option, "dialoguing", as it were, with all the possibilities. The parenthesis, Kierkegaard notices, never ends. No action can be taken, no decision made, the hurt cannot be assuaged because the scholar, lost in his abstract possibilities, is incapable of coming to a conclusion or compassionate action. One might understand an occasional strident outcry from the fellow.

Our culture and families are hurting and broken, and have come to the Church for wisdom and help. But we seem to be caught in an endless parenthetical "dialogue". How does one calmly tell a mindlessly "dialoguing" Church to make helpful and healing decisions when it appears to have no intention of doing so? It will be difficult. We thus ask for charity and forgiveness on all sides so that all sides may continue to be heard.

We are deeply concerned for compassion towards hurting persons and about the feelings of other people. That is precisely why we are writing. We are concerned about the brokenness and hurt for which there seems no cure in the eyes of many despairing persons. We believe compassionately in the healing power of Jesus Christ to make all things new.

But we are concerned because of, not at the expense of, truth. We will speak much about truth and truth-seeking. We trust that the reader will understand that we would never condone the use of truth to beat or abuse any person, and that when we encourage truth-speaking, we always mean in love.

We also want to make a clear distinction between homosexual persons and homosexualists. Many homosexual persons understand that homosexuality is neither approved by God nor healthy. We will return to these points often.

The term "gay" is preferred by many advocates of homosexual behavior who are homosexually oriented themselves, but the term is quite misleading, and does not include hetero-sexual persons who support the homosexual activists. We will therefore be using the terms "homosexualism" to indicate the philosophy promoting homosexuality, and "homosexualist" to indicate persons who are advocates of that philosophy, whether or not they themselves are sexually attracted to the same sex.

We believe also that there are no "homosexual" persons as such, and that a homosexual orientation is a disorientation of personality, not an expression of it. Homosexuality is, as Richard Cohen calls it, not gay, but SSAD, Same-Sex Attraction Disorder. So we will not normally refer to "homosexual persons" except to mean one who has a disorientation (which is pathological) or engages in a behavior (which is either ignorant or sinful). The evidence, as we shall show, cannot be honestly interpreted any other way.

Real people are being hurt, and real lives destroyed, because we supposedly sophisticated moderns have almost lost the capacity to think clearly. Feelings disengaged from truth and from morally responsible relationships quickly become a chartless black hole from which no light emits.

Our loyalty is to truth and to the Lord of all truth, come what may. We believe that God has a way (described in chapter VI) which encompasses the truth on all sides of any debate or controversy. Truth does not fight against itself, and is able to include all of itself, no matter how confused or fractured our conflicting perceptions may be. Whatever truth any one of us has will not be lost in the Final Summation by the Lord of truth. This is honest "inclusiveness". But the Lord of truth and the people of truth fight relentlessly against lies, deceit, and the father of lies. Falsehood and deceit are not "included" in the Final Summation -- nor are those who unrepentantly hold onto them.

We believe that we are in a spiritual war of ultimate values, winner take all, and that the ultimate contenders are the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, versus the unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are not in a polite debate.

Jesus has already defeated Satan, but the people of Jesus still need to defeat the lies of Satan incarnate in people under his bondage. The fundamental dividing line between the two armies (as per John 8:31-59 and Romans 1:18 ff.) is the commitment to (vs. subversion of) plain and simple truth. We believe that there are reasonable ways of discerning between the two sides. It is a primary purpose of this book to help explain how to discern those differences.

Concerning your authors, David Virtue gives a part of his testimony in our final chapter, living through the lingering experience of a dear friend dying of AIDS, providing what comfort he could. He understands first hand the need for wedding truth to love, that compassion apart from truth is a tragic lie.

Earle Fox likewise gives his testimony shortly below, describing his journey into sexual wholeness, some of it through the thirteen years he has been ministering to persons struggling with homosexuality.

Your authors are deeply aware of the need for compassion and love in the lives of sexual strugglers. It is precisely the need for compassion that drives us back to -- not away from --the need for truth.

We are sadly aware of our own participation in the present gender and sexuality tragedy and our own past incompetence and cowardice in raising the alarm wherever people have been abused. But we are determined that, so far as in us lies, that will not continue.

Every human being is under obligation to confess his sins with respect to those whom he has offended. Where any person has abused a homosexual person for any reason whatsoever, an apology and change of behavior are due.

But we are also aware that apologies are owed to those many other people who have been abused by distortion of truth in public discussion, and to the many individuals and families (including our own) whose lives have been severely disrupted and even destroyed by the absurdities and obscenities of the sex-revolution. An apology might be offered to the now 40,000,000+ little babies who have been cruelly sacrificed to our alleged right to "sexual fulfillment". And, it must be said, an apology is due the hundreds of thousands of homosexual persons who have died of gay bowel syndrome or AIDS because they were given advice by terribly ill-informed or very cynical friends, or by a manipulated and cowardly medical profession and school system.

Homosexual persons have indeed been abused, and that must be confronted. But homosexual persons, contrary to the image generated by a very skillful public relations program, have also done a considerable amount of abusing. Persons active homosexually lead a self-abusive and self-destructive lifestyle, and often promote it in ways abusive and destructive for others.

Measured alongside of Jesus Christ, no one among us in our fallen world is a shining example. Confession and forgiveness necessarily run both ways in any successful relationship.
 

F. Marketing the Invitation of God

It may be said that one must choose his market and tailor his remarks to capture that audience. That, after all, is the proven way to sell books and thus to have an impact.

It does not appear, however, that God speaks that way, not, at least, if Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, -- or Jesus -- are the examples to be followed. Biblical figures do not typically hold their fingers to the wind. They just tell the truth, comforting or hard, with little concern for market forces as the world sees them. They pay the price. And the people reap the benefits.

God has His own marketing strategy, (see chapter VI). The target audience of biblical leaders appears to be all those of any stripe who are interested in the truth of the matter. They do not aim at the conservatives or the liberals, they aim at the truth-seekers. Those who tailor their writing to fit the contemporary market have a contemporary success, but then the market changes with the next generation. Those who target their writing to truth-seekers have a continually renewed, if small, market in every generation.

Some will think we are aiming at a "fundamentalist" or "biblical literalist" audience because we believe that God speaks clearly and definitively. Some will think we are aiming at a "mainline" audience because many of our examples come from the Episcopal Church. But neither of those assumptions is the case. We are aiming at anyone who wants to have an honest discussion (based on fact and logic) about how to redeem the spiritual, and therefore also sexual, chaos which we are creating for ourselves.

We believe that marketing is important, just not very important, not important enough to stop honest people from saying things that need to be said in order to gain this or that audience, or to sell books. Or to keep some bishop, or some "hate-crime" law, off our backs.

While we are yet sinners, God issues a startling invitation to all of us in the midst of our absurdities and obscenities: "Come, let us reason together...." He does not take much note of the marketing forces. And so, indeed, not many show up for the discussion.

The best way to market God's invitation is to accept it - and practice it. So we are accepting His invitation, and we encourage others to do the same, on God's terms, not because the market forces make it profitable, or because some special group is most likely to listen to one's message. We are entering an arena (that of honest discussion) designed and administered by no less than God Himself, so that as we submit our selves to Him and submit our cases to open public discussion, truth will indeed emerge.

Not only compassion and love, but accurate perception of reality and clear thinking are gifts of the Holy Spirit. We reject the alleged split between love and truth. In God, they are eternally wedded. And God means to wed them in us as well. We want our opponents to know that we love them, that our fight is not with their flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, false ideologies, deceit, and ignorance. The enemies which keep us all in bondage.

The invitation of God to a relationship of love came through the law and the prophets. It came through the Incarnation.

We understand the bridging of our present chasm in that same manner, that we must enter the lives of one another with truth and compassion securely bonded. God has rarely, if ever (in our world, at least), had a majority of us on His side, but He has always been able to raise up a remnant of truth-seekers who are willing to risk their lives to share their truth. That small Gideon band of the faithful has passed the torch from generation to generation, and are, in the long run, the only significant "movers and shakers".

We are therefore committed to honoring every human being with the offer to hear what he has to say, as well as speaking our piece as compassionately as possible. Those who disagree with us may, on occasion, be our best teachers. Shared truth-seeking and truth-speaking are the foundations of all true compassion. Without truth, compassion dissolves into sentimentality and manipulation, spins out of reality-control, and becomes terribly destructive.

We are committed also to inviting homosexual persons into fellowship in our churches on the same conditions that all persons are invited into Godly fellowship -- that we be seekers after truth, righteousness, and love, and open to correction for our sins, and willing to forgive others who repent of theirs.

This book is intended to educate, to reform the way Christians think about sexuality and about our place in the public arena. It is intended to equip Christians to fight the spiritual battle all around us -- a counter-revolutionary textbook. We hope that it will be read and studied by those who wish to serve the King on the front lines. Anyone who digests the enclosed materials will know (we believe) more about biblical sexuality than most pastors, more about homosexuality than most psychiatrists or psychologists, and more about biblical theology than most contemporary (at least Episcopal) bishops. And by quite a margin.

The book is meant for small group and classroom discussion, so we have included a study guide for each chapter. Persons who dig in to study the text and to answer the questions in the study guide will find themselves rewarded with an understanding not only of sexuality, but of a broad range of issues which perennially confront Christians.

Some readers like footnotes, others do not. We have put them at the bottom of the page to avoid having to look somewhere to find them. To those who think footnotes a bore, we grant the right of ignoring them.

Most of our material on the sexuality issues is taken, not from hidden archives, but from the public press and other easily available sources, sources which have to be deliberately ignored to not be seen. America is living in denial. We well understand the ugly nature of some of what we will have to discuss, and we encourage the reader, when respite from sordid research is needed, to take time out for prayer and pizza. There are ugly stories, but there are stories also of courage, bravery, and holiness. We hope you will see the struggle through with us, because, by the grace of God:

When truth wins, everybody wins.

G. Turning the Tables on Lust
Click here for short version of Earle Fox's testimony

It seemed a good idea to move the personal testimony below from the last chapter of testimonies to the introduction. Stories are good in any age, but especially in today's anti-intellectual climate, when stories are the primary, and sometimes, only, effective means of communication.  Earle Fox has written most of this book, David Virtue supplying the testimonies of the last chapter -- the living proof of the pudding.  His own story brings our book to a close.  This one opens it.

Truth, Homosexuality, & Pansexuality

Truth is often deliberately subverted to maintain the terribly destructive illusion that sexual license is a reasonable and rational way of life. That is the case with homosexuality.

Discussion of homosexuality has proven unproductive, not because there is any great mystery to the matter, but because, both sides, pro and con, have failed to state clearly the point at issue, to subordinate other issues as they logically fit under that primary issue, and to force the discussion onto the facts. It is difficult to find the answer to a question that is poorly stated and long lost in the noise of confused debate. There is no issue at all, let alone sex, which can be reasonably and compassionately resolved when those in the debate slip and slide, dodge and weave, rather than anchor themselves in a common commitment to truth-seeking, that is, to the compassionate and person-honoring discipline of fact and logic -- at any cost to themselves.

Our attempt, therefore, first is to establish the ground upon which any solution must rest, no matter who is right about homosexuality.

The larger sexuality issue is not homosexuality, but pansexuality, the view of the so-called sex revolution that all expressions of sexual activity, all sexual orientations, have equal moral standing, and that the only relevant question is whether one finds that orientation and activity "fulfilling", i.e. whether it makes one feel good.

The sex revolution never had even a teaspoon of empirical or logical backing. It rode in on the coattails of negative perceptions of biblical morality and on the coattails of rebellion against authority promoted by persons of high place in the media, education, and the Church -- never effectively countered by Christians.

The "good news" of sexual liberation is a major selling point of the anti-biblical, secular/pagan worldview, seeing the cosmos as an independent, self-sufficient entity, under no authority of God, and dependent on no power but its own for its existence.

The joy of the Lord has to be replaced with something, and, for many, uninhibited sexual pleasure has been elected. Being fully human can no longer be tied to real relationships, which might imply moral responsibility, and so being fully human is reduced to being sexually active. Lord Eros has replaced Lord Christ, and in place of a substantial Kingdom of God built for eternity, many now promote a "virtual" pleasure-kingdom of this world built for the evanescent but high-pitched moment.

The key issue is the will of God for His creation:

"Homosexuality is good and right
in the eyes of God."

That statement could be either true or false, and we need to know which. Does God, or does He not, approve of homosexual behavior? And does God, or does He not, intentionally create persons with a homosexual "orientation"?

If the answer to those questions is, "Yes, He does so approve and create...," then the debate is ended, and, like it or not, we are left with the task of adjusting ourselves to that fact of life. We are faced with integrating the homosexual lifestyle into the culture in which we live.

But, if God does not approve of homosexual behavior, and has not created a homosexual orientation, then likewise, the primary issue is settled, and we are left with the task of dealing morally, pastorally, and legally with the fact that there are persons who do live that lifestyle and who, for whatever reasons, feel either trapped in it or very accommodated to it.

Many on both sides have appealed to the growing heaps of allegedly scientific evidence to support their positions. However, the task and competence of empirical science is not to decide the moral or spiritual realities (whether homosexual behavior is right or wrong), it is rather to tell us the biological, psychological, sociological, etc., possibilities and realities. Empirical sciences, independently of revelation, cannot tell us what God has said on an issue, because God speaks for Himself. God alone can tell us what His purpose for creation, or any part of it, might be.

One cannot prove, for example, that homosexuality is either approved or not approved by God on genetic evidence. Genetic causality, if it were so, might "suggest" that God had created such persons, but proof would still be lacking because clearly, not all genetically caused conditions are good or from God. Genetic processes can be just as fallen as anything else.

On the other hand, the empirical evidence in a given area might help us understand why God might say "yes" or "no" to homosexuality. In a world created by God, common sense would tell us to expect revelation and empirical science to agree. Empirical science may also help us understand how to proceed with a given situation in the light of what we see to be His will. But the empirical sciences cannot, of themselves, speak for God.

So the challenge of the authors to both the Christian community and to others is this:

If homosexual advocates can show that homosexuality is indeed approved by God, that homosexual behavior is a physically healthy behavior in which to engage, and that as an "orientation", homosexuality is psychologically healthy, then we will stand with homosexual advocates and publicly support their cause.

But on the other hand, if the evidence shows that God does not approve of homosexuality, that homosexual behavior produces disease and death, and that homosexuality as an orientation is not "natural" but compulsive and addictive, then we would ask homosexual advocates if they would be willing to reconsider their position also.

We are urging that the issue be decided on the merits of the evidence. 

(the chapter continues .............)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Study Guide for Chapter I

These study guides follow the headings of the Table of Contents, and so provide a good summary of the issues in the book.  The study guides can be used for individual or group study to help the reader focus on key issues. The reader who follows through with each question will build a solid understanding of the issues, chapter by chapter.

A. Truth, Homosexuality, & Pansexuality

1. What is pansexuality, and how is it related to homosexuality?

2. Why has discussion of homosexuality been unfruitful?

3. What are the key issues?

4. What is the relation between empirical science and revelation?

5. How would you state the challenge to the homosexual community?

B. Compassion & Truth

1. What is the primary cause of the subversion of truth?

2. What two challenges have forced a retreat on almost all cultural and moral issues?

3. Give examples from your own experience of the language which has replaced moral language.

4. Discuss the proper relation between truth and love.

C. What is truth?

1. According to what biblical principle might we have no obligation to worship God?

2. What is truth?

3. How are the two different levels of truth related?

4. What commandment is implied behind all other commandments?

D. Western Civ... & the New Dark Age

1. What are the two crown jewels of Western Civ? Do you see any other possibilities of equal rank?

2. Does it seem realistic to claim that the two jewels are biblical rooted?

3. What is the difference between a good and a bad Enlightenment?

4. Why pick the French Revolution as the end of Western Civ. on the Continent?

5. Why call the secular Enlightenment a new Dark Age?

E. Reason Wedded to Revelation

E-1. The Wedding

1. Why should Christians be concerned about facts?

2. Is revelation contrary to either fact or logic?

3. Why is revelation "reasonable?

4. Why is "reason for existence" always a matter of revelation?

5. Could you explain to someone why the intention of God for sexuality is the key issue?

6. What are the two senses of "reason", and how are they related?

7. Can you think of anything you know that does not come by some form of either experience or reasoning about your experience?

E-2. Our Sword

1. What is the difference between reason and revelation?

2. What difference would it make in your Christian walk if you felt you could join revelation and reason back to back?

3. If Christianity were shown to be false, would you want to know?

4. Why do truth and love need each other? What would happen if either one were lacking the other?

5. How do you think Western history might have been different if Christians had heard God about the unity of reason and revelation?

F. The Common Ground of a 4-Fold Faith

F-1. A Four-Fold Process

1. What are the four types of "faith"? Can you think of other ways the word `faith' is used?

2. What is a biblical phrase for "openness to the truth"?

F-2. Living in the Light

1. "Faith" is a leap into the light, not the dark. How would you explain that to someone?

2. What is an "operational" definition of `truth'?

2. Why is there no unbridgeable chasm between faith and science?

3. How are faith, objective reality, the invitation to "come, let us reason together...", and the common ground of discussion all linked together?

4. What disqualifies anyone for spiritual (or any other) leadership?

G. So, Who is to Blame for Secularization?

1. What was the fatal error of Christians during the 1800's?

2. How did that error aid the secularization of the West?

3. How is the Incarnation relevant to discussion of homosexuality?

4. What would be a legitimate reason for excluding any particular religion from public debate?

 

- Chapter II -
 Worldview Issues

Religio: "Bind us together, Lord..."

Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome is caused by HIV, a virus which attacks the immune system. HIV does not itself cause illness and death. It rather erodes the immune system which is then unable to wage war against the opportunistic bacteria and viruses which are all about us, and which are normally kept in check by the healthy immune system.

Human bodies have a primary boundary, the skin, which is the first line of defense and identity.

Is there a communal immune system, and if so, against what does it keep the community immune? Communities also have boundaries -- geographical and legal -- which protect them from invasion and subversion.

The word `religion' comes from the Latin `religio', which means `to bind together, as in `ligament', which binds muscles and bones together, making them a working whole. A "religio" is that which binds a community together into a working whole.

Every community has a "religio", beliefs and practices which give it an identity, which bind it together as a community. One becomes a member, moves inside the boundaries, is "included", by subscribing to those beliefs and practices.

The "religio" is the worldview, which provides understandings of:

• where the world comes from;

• reason for existence (moral order);

• personhood;

• how we know what we know.

These four give the foundation for two more:

• social and political order; and

• masculine and feminine.

Any erosion of those beliefs and practices will erode the boundaries of the community. A religio can change in a healthy and life-enhancing way, but only if it is succeeded by an at least equally strong and life-giving religio which is a natural outgrowth of the prior religio.

Our "religio" is, of course, our religion. Everyone has one. So it is impossible to isolate religion from the public square, including the political part if it. The "wall" we hear about between government and religion is really a sneaky way for one religion (secularism) to get another one (biblical) to step aside under the illusion of the neutrality of secularism. (We will discuss real neutrality in chapter VI, Godly Winning.)

Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem to repair the damage done seventy years earlier by the Babylonians. He understood, as did local enemies, that the broken walls betrayed a weak Jewish people. When the boundaries of identity are broken, infection rushes in, and the immune system, the religio, is overwhelmed.

A gunshot wound is not a healthy change in boundaries. A loss of communal identity is also not a healthy change in boundaries. The destruction of city walls was the way a victorious enemy drove home the point that a conquered city no longer had an independent identity.

In our analogy, an opportunistic community infection, a virus, might be a heresy or a moral violation which has crept into the fabric of the Church, undermining its very identity in a way much more damaging than even the Assyrian destruction of Jerusalem.

A religio is essential for the education of children. Without a consistent and reasonable worldview, there is nothing to pass on to succeeding generations which can give identity over time. The sense in which I can look back on my forefathers begins to diminish if I do not have a worldview in common with them. A worldview is essential to our identity, both personal and corporate.

Despite what we hear from our multiculturalists, what we believe makes a big difference -- because not all worldviews are created equal. Those societies are the most stable which have traditions embodying their worldview which can be passed on to their children through stories, songs, hymns, celebrations, and most importantly, worship.

The health of a community rests on the stability of its religio. As we shall explore in chapter III, when that religio is undermined, the community can get AIDS.

So, let us look at that which gives the Christian community its identity. What is the Christian "religio"?
 

What is a "Christian"?