Misled Campolo Misleading Church and Culture on Homosexuality
Religion and culture expert and Christian apologist Dr. Alex McFarland is responding today to controversial comments by former evangelical leader Tony Campolo about the full acceptance of gay couples in the church.
Campolo wrote in a blog post that it’s time for the church to fully accept Christian gay couples.
“Unfortunately, this former evangelical leader is misleading the culture because he is misled,” said McFarland, who is also Director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at the Christian Worldview Center of North Greenville University in Greenville, S.C. “Tony Campolo has influence even though he is not resting on conservative, orthodox biblical theology.”
McFarland added that many Christians struggle with the acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, especially as the culture increasingly accepts these as the norm. But the Bible, he says, clears up the confusion.
“When we are lost in the dark and are experiencing emotional turmoil about moral and biblical issues,” he added, “the comfort we need is in the Word of God, not in what the culture deems acceptable. In the murky, fuzzy waters of relativism, Jesus is the Rock on which we stand.”
Campolo wrote that his position has changed over the years, and he now realizes that, rather than solely for the purpose of procreation, perhaps God intended marriage for “married partners to help actualize in each other the ‘fruits of the spirit.'” Campolo added that, “as a social scientist, I have concluded that sexual orientation is almost never a choice and I have seen how damaging it can be to try to ‘cure’ someone from being gay.”
