WHILE PREACHING CREATING SAFE SPACES FOR LGBTQ+- THIS TGC CHURCH IS ATTACKING CHRISTIAN WOMEN, THEIR MINISTRY SERVICE AND FAMILIES. 

Rev Thomas Littleton                                                                                                     7/26/2019

This article contains more of  the LONG history of efforts by the pastoral staff a major TGC church in Birmingham Alabama to oppose ministry informing its people (and the church at large) of the deep infiltration of the LGBTQ+ movement into conservative churches.

TARGETING MY WIFE AND OTHER WOMEN IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

The first revelation that a major TGC church is targeting this writer’s wife can be read in the link below. The additional- long history of attacks on this writer, mostly covert /ongoing / and behind his back – continued even when confronted and made FULLY known to this TGC Pastor and  senior staff. Four years and counting of appeals to Matt 18 and to disciplinary /pastoral responses have been COMPLETELY IGNORED as the ongoing efforts continue and now have resorted to efforts to entrap Littleton’s wife

THE NEW EVANGELICAL TONE POLICE: HOW THE GOSPEL COALITION IS CONTAMINATING (PERSECUTING ) CHRISTIAN CONVICTION

More details of the history with this church seeking to undermine this writer’s work are detailed below. Due to ongoing efforts to PRESS for a pastoral response and for the Session and the Board of the ministry involved in it’s directors coordination of attacks on Littleton and his wife – the names of the the church and the leaders of it and not being provided until those efforts are exhausted .

THESE warnings of corruption after the targeting of women in ministry service including Littleton’s wife are to prevent any  further families being successfully targeted as their prey . The Gospel Coalition is destroying churches at an alarming rate .

Take heed to yourselves and your family.

This article is not an attack on THAT CHURCH involved ,  it’s pastor WHO HAS IGNORED these concerns for almost three weeks (an previous concerns for years) nor on it’s Session of Elders. It is however a sad accounting of The Gospel Coalitions impact on a once solid church and an accounting of years of history of “behind the scenes” struggle against the current oppressive and often unethical efforts of some this TGC churches leaders to hinder informing the Body of Christ.

These  revelations have not been spoken about by this writer until now.

These efforts include:

*Expulsion (mid conference ) from Apologetics ministries for an article published in Barbwire.com warning of Tim Keller errors and LGBTQ compromise impacting the churches.(Since this time Keller has becoming far more obvious in he and his ministries  promotion of the Living Out LGBTQ church inclusion audit and other disturbing compromises.

*The Leader of one of the Apologetics ministries who hosted Littletons meetings was summons to the TGC church offices and examined and his ministry support threatened by the TGC Pastor . The TGC pastor has NEVER met or talked to Littleton then or now.

*Littleton presented over 3 years of apologetics on LGBTQ+ in the TGC Church which were posted on the TGC Church website archives. The TGC removed all of Littleton’s presentations from it’s website after his article exposing Tim Keller compromise on LGBTQ+

*Ongoing efforts by this TGC church to prevent open doors of ministry in other churches/ministries .

*Partnering efforts continued by the TGC church and a ministry to students whose lead staffer ( this is a Board run ministry on the church campus ) AFTER he ignored warnings of corruption. The staffer continues to seek to entangle the student ministry  with another ministry and it’s leader who Littleton had exposed years before for compromise grant funding, and shady financial dealings on that churches building project. That  church (also a TGC church) had launched a now-failed “community development” effort with government funding and a massively overpriced ($430.per square foot vs $150 normal cost) building project. Current efforts to partner with this problematic ministry surfaced again just weeks before Littleton’s wife began to be targeted .

*Pastoral staff  ignoring -proven and admitted deception in curriculum materials for students of these ministries .

*Response to warnings of deception by the TGC church ministry leader was “If they (the students) do not know the deception is there then they will not be harmed by it”.

(yes you read that right and the foolish statement was repeated without shame )

*****This ministry leader at the TGC church is the same person who has been  leading the most recent attack on and targeting of this writer’s wife.

*Warnings were ignored and rebuffed concerning  “Community Development”  models which include partnerships with the County Indigent Health Care Initiative and place the mission of The church and it’s ministries AND the students who are solicited and encouraged to participate in them -at risk . These warnings also included proof that Community Development models in Healthcare are designed to force LGBTQ+ policy compliance, endanger religious freedoms and compete with private practice  in Health Care . Such models also legally prohibit Gospel ministry in these “partnership”  programs.

*Backlash  for 3 1/2 years over The TGC church ongoing efforts to introduce and maintain extremely compromised messaging to teens on LGBTQ+ through the  Biola University affiliated Apologetics Conferences in the church -and also hosted for other regional churches. Biola’s affiliated Apologetics on LGBTQ+ are  built on Mark Yarhouse “Gay Christianity ” and APA ideas of homsexual orietation and inclusion . the ROOTS are the VERY SAME as the Revoice LGBTQ+ Thriving Conference in a PCA church in 2018 . The TGC church has currently hosted  this Biola Apologetics conference  against all warnings  for three years and counting . In Spring of 2019 the TGC Pastor interviewed Biola affiliated  ministries – resident LGBTQ+ “expert” Alan Shlemon and affirmed that his theology was very problematic (  exact quote “Horrible” ) and the Conference ( a lighter version of the radical Revoice LGBTQ+ movement in the PCA and SBC) approach was not Biblical. Still the Pastor remained committed to the third year of hosting the event for his and other area churches  teens. It is not known if a fourth year is planned for 2020.

NOTE :The men who have been solicited to participate in the targeting of Littletons wife who have teenage children – have no clue that this compromise Biola Apologetics movement with the same roots at Revoice or that their own pastoral staff have allowed their children to be targeted IN their own church by this false message.This is even after the TGC church pastor identified and pronounced the problems with the Biola affiliated Apologetics.

Instead much of his and his staff’s efforts have been invested in targeting Littleton instead of protecting the teens in their own church.

*The TGC church and staff sought to prevent and detract from God’s Voice Conference , a Biblical response to Revoice and retaliated against it, Littleton and others in the conference including Radio Host Janet Mefferd.

ALERT :THIS PORTION IS VERY DISTURBING. 

*The latest and subject of this article is- the TGC church staff and ministry organization targeting of Littleton’s wife for his continued coverage of Revoice concerns at thirtypiecesofsilver.org .The Revoice movement is a broad public concern and threatens to split several denominations. The story exposing Revoice was first reported by Littleton and its deep infiltration in the SBC/ PCA and others -is not secret yet these leaders are determined to silence further exposure of it through whatever means possible .Why?

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE TGC CHURCH OVER GOD’S VOICE CONFERENCE

Gods Voice Conference in February 2019 was a very successful national conference promoting the Biblical message and opposing Revoice “LGBTQ+ Thriving” in conservative churches. That success was in spite of months of effort by the TGC senior pastor and staff coordinated to discredit this writer (Thomas Littleton) and prevent any other area leaders from participation .

* The TGC church associate pastor compiled a 10 plus page “dossier” /file of writings from his uninformed searches on the internet. This dossier was passed on to the TGC senior pastor for distribution claiming they were authored by Littleton.

PROBLEM  :

The cut and pasted writings  in fact were NOT from Littleton or the  website thirtypiecesofsilver.org but were from links followed by the associate  pastor on one third party website to yet another  website -where he then cut and pasted  writings of another author and passed them off as (this writer ) Littleton’s . The SENIOR Pastor then distributed the “dossier” while calling associates of Littleton in God’s Voice Conference  into meetings concerning Littleton- distributing the false  dossier -and attempting to debunk -God Voice Conference. The TGC  Pastor has NEVER discussed these concerns or anything WITH Littleton – has never been willing to meet with Littleton but took the files and discussed the writings in detail to discredit Littleton .

*Again The writings were not by Littleton . But put forth to discredit him.

*Once exposed no effort was made to correct the matter – no meetings with Littleton were made- and the only attempt at Apology was by the associate pastor who compiled them which was framed as”I am sorry I was wrong about the website but it still reflects your views so I was right in what I did”.

*  Once exposed -the TGC church associate pastor refused to repent or offer any assurance that he would cease and desist from such libelous efforts . He also refused to offer a simple unqualified apology- even though his and the TGC Church staffs collusion in this effort was to discredit Littleton and negatively impact God’s Voice Conference.

*The church associate Pastor has admitted to compiling the false dossier in the church office and on church time . So he was actually being paid by the TGC church to undertake the effort to discredit Littleton .

*The current efforts to attack Littleton’s wife are being carried out by the brother of this TGC Church staffer . The brother had also assisted on the effort with the false dossier before God’s Voice Conference and has used the office time of the ministry which employs him to target Littletons wife while she is on that ministry- his employers- Board.

*The senior Pastor never made any attempt to  contact Littleton or to apologize for the false accusations or his distribution of the false dossier .

NATIONAL RADIO PROGRAM REMOVED BY THE TGC CHURCH AFTER GOD’S VOICE CONFERENCE COUNTERING AND  EXPOSING REVOICE 

This author broke the national story of Revoice “LGBTQ + Thriving  in historic Christian Churches ” in May of 2018 . Littleton’s story was covered by dozens of programs after being first exposed on Brannon Howse Worldview Weekend and then in expanded coverage on Janet Mefferd of Dallas TX programs on Bott Radio and American Family Radio. Mefferd helped promote and participated in the God’s Voice Conference which offers the message of transformation through the Gospel and the Blood of Christ . God’s Voice Conference refutes The Gospel Coalition , Revoice and Rethink messages of  sexual orientation and Christian “gay” identity in LGBTQ+.

You can view the speakers and see/hear testimonies of people whose lives were totally transformed by the power of the Gospel and the blood of Jesus  here:

https://www.godsvoice.us/gvc-pro-videos

LITTLETON’S PRESENTATION EXPOSING THE ROOTS OF REVOICE CAN BE SEEN HERE

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/he27gf382fe/GVC+Pro+Videos+Compressed/Thomas+Littleton+-++Revoice+Agenda+-+Session+1+compressed.mp4?fbclid=IwAR2VxILCWD-WJ-UuN_OcHLh-cY6kCUkoXA8BHv8Yl5kl3h6g7RWcFVJzhK0

WHY DID THE TGC CHURCH  OPPOSE THIS CONFERENCE AND THEN RETALIATE AGAINST IT ?

The God’s Voice Conference was held in Oklahoma City at Fairview Baptist Church on February 22nd and 23rd . It was a joyful celebration of testimonies. The word was proclaimed and Gospel hope offered to hurting people and families. Vimeo /Livestream retaliated by taking down the host church livestream channel and much of the church own sermons were lost along with the livestream of God’s Voice Conference. The videos linked above were from the videographer hired by the Conference .

But Vimeo were not the only powers that sought to censor God’s Voice Conference. This leading TGC Church in Alabama was determined to do the same.

SBC CONCERNS OVER REVOICE .

Many SBC and ERLC ties exist to Revoice which this author has detailed in research articles at this site dating back to early May 2018 and on radio and Christian television interviews and podcast regionally, nationally and internationally . These concerns which are shared by many thousands of believers  – were not a secret and yet SBC and TGC efforts to “contain ” these issues have continued. Littleton is SBC and has twice taken these Revoice concerns to the annual SBC Convention where they have been ignored and buried . The movement is still allowed to operate in the SBC with no meaningful effort to stop it from leadership. Most- if not all -of THOSE leaders are also affiliated with the TGC. The TGC church in Alabama fighting Littleton is NOT an SBC church. Most of the SBC resistance to Littland others exposing Revoice has come from Russell Moore/ The ERLC .

PCA AND REVOICE CONCERNS 

Revoice  LGBTQ+ concerns first made their way into PCA circles when PCA teaching elder evangelist and church planter Al Baker heard an interview with this writer and Janet Mefferd on the TGC church radio station which carried  Mefferds AFR program Janet Mefferd Live .

PCA’s Covenant Theological Seminary students, graduates and professors promoted /participated in Revoice . Baker  investigated Revoice and wrote an article  published by Aquila Report which went viral among as yet  uninformed PCA circles .Those concerns carried through  from May 2018 to the PCA General Assembly of 2019 in June and continue as the  front page issue in the PCA ,as it threatens to split the denomination .

Baker’s Revoice concerns article :

Queer Culture in the PCA?

News spread quickly of the upcoming  LGBTQ+ Identity / Gay Christian Revoice Conference to be held in July 2018 hosted by a PCA church. Al Baker had appeared on the Mefferd program and then spoke at God’s Voice Conference.

THE TGC CHURCH REMOVES JANET MEFFERD’S PROGRAM FROM ITS  PROGRAMMING 

Gods Voice Conference (GVC) was  held on the weekend of February 22nd -23 and then speakers traveled home on the Sunday the 24th 2019  .Following the  GVC on Monday four members of the TGC church contacted this author after Mefferd’s program did not air in its normal noon time slot . They had hoped to hear some follow up, reports and excerpts from the conference. Mefferd’s program was no longer aired –  In fact a pdf already posted in February linked on the TGC church radio page of  it’s website titled “March Programing Schedule ” already had Mefferd’s program aired from American Family Radio  removed and a short program of the TGC Church pastor in it’s time slot. The remaining time was filled by other programing.

The TGC church programing manager responded to inquires when the Mefferd program was not restored . Those who made inquiry were told Mefferd’s program was removed “because of a complaint “. Mefferd’s popular program has not been restored to the schedule as of this writing .

From the TGC Church Website –

“**** is affiliated with the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio”

The March  programing update posted in mid February link is now dead

Click to access ****-Brochure_Mar19_web.pdf

WHY DOES THIS TGC CHURCH TARGET WOMEN AND WHO IS NEXT?

Word has come to this writer from several sources that another AFR  female Christian talk host has been told to stay away from Littleton and his  associates who are also exposing these same TGC /LGBTQ+ / Justice compromise and concerns .

Still the “word is out ” about the Revoice /LGBTQ+ infiltration and people are not stupid . Most Christians still think for themselves – but TGC affiliated Churches like this leading church in Birmingham Alabama seem to be unable to grasp this concept…  and show a willingness to resort to intimidation and backstabbing while threatening women and attempting to divide husbands and wives . It is fair to say they appear to be willing to stop at nothing to silence opposition . BUT opposition to what? God’s VOICE  vs the message of Revoice that is coming out of CTS and SBTS ?

WHATS YOUR PROBLEM ?

Exactly what is the problem here if NOT that some deep complicity with Revoice LGBTQ+ movement DOES exist .As far as the origins of both Revoice and TGCs position on LGBTQ+ – they are exactly the same :Mark Yarhouse and the APA.

Littleton’s wife was targeted again this past Monday as recorded in the previous article. The pastor of this TGC church is fully aware and totally ignoring these actions and the behavior of his staff and a ministry leader on his campus . The TGC pastor has never responded to the revelations about his pastoral staffers plots against Littleton or the TGC Elder who first targeted his wife BY asking for a private meeting in which he would not agree to her husband being present . The TGC pastor has NEVER responded to that same Elders bizarre behavior  IN PUBLIC at a funeral / memorial service at The Church Brook Hills an SBC congregation . In short the TGC Leadership Council member pastor from this TGC church  in Birmingham Alabama has done NOTHING TO STOP ANY of these efforts and has in fact participated in many of them HIMSELF .

THOU ART THE MAN!

Who is he ? Very soon his opportunity to provide leadership and redemption in these situations and the long 4 year history will expire .

Excerpt on this past Monday’s meeting further targeting Littleton’s wife :

“This writer – agreed with his wife – who was up to the  task – to allow them ( the Board of the ministry whose director was targeting her at the TGC church ) to force this effort to play out AND allow her to be in the room with TEN MEN who had been informed AGAINST her husband while he was “required” to sit outside the room. This writer left the room/meeting only after expressing support for his wife and the understanding that she was NOT to be subjected to any of the kind of abusive actions of the previous week . The elder of the TGC church who had first targeted her was NOT in the meeting nor have his bizarre and inappropriate actions been confronted or addressed to date. The current TGC church elder taking charge of the Monday meeting agreed NOT to act inappropriately but allowed his own anger to manifest on multiple occasions as he demanded answers about her husband’s ministry and did not like the response . Her general response was ” He is right out there (pointing to  both the IRONY  and the door) why don’t you ask him ?He and those others responsible for targeting this writer’s wife need not expect a chance at a repeat performance with such unbiblical efforts.”

TGC PROPAGANDA MACHINE -THE ONLY GAME ALLOWED IN TOWN?

Does the Body of Christ have a right to access information outside the approved TGC loop?

Depends on who you ask.

THIS TGC Church says NO you do not!!!

The current Thirty Pieces of Silver (TPoS) article causing the latest “TGC Church retaliation” is  from June 30th 2019. It  reviews the story of the Revoice movement and the PCA annual General Assembly .

Hundreds of thousands share the concerns expressed in the TPoS piece yet The TGC Church appears to be willing to go to extreme measures to “contain” it -even though the concerns are very broad among many conservative Christians. The  sad reality of what happened next and what is yet to unfold  is still sinking in on this writer and his wife as TGC “Containment ” efforts include the SERPENTS BUSINESS  to attempt to come between a woman and her husband. This God ordained covering is central to the family and the priesthood of the home . NO Biblical authority  exist for a pastor , an elder , or a body of elders or board of ANY KIND  to  attempt to extended  their authority around a husband   to TARGET the WIFE .

This demonic activity is NOT to be tolerated by anyone .

Genesis 3 :1

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

WRONG IS CALLED RIGHT AND RIGHT – WRONG

Isaiah 5:

¹³ Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

¹⁴ Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

¹⁵ And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

¹⁶ But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

¹⁷ Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

¹⁸ Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

¹⁹ That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

²⁰ Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹ Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

²² Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

²³ Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

²⁴ Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵ Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

²⁶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

By Thomas Littleton                                                                                                      7/24/2019

In the last 12 days the writer at Thirty Pieces of Silver has been engaged in defending an open assault on his family at the hands of a TGC affiliated and influential church . For four years  this group in behind the scenes efforts have targeted Littleton but on July 12th  TGC church leaders began to target his wife in retribution for his writings.

The one constant of this group has been defending and attempting to cover their own compromise and the  sin of TGC and it’s  compromised leaders  like Tim Keller , Russell Moore, Albert Mohler and the influence of TGC in general on their church .

Some have advised  “just walk away”- But this is the response tweeted out this morning . It is a sober reminder  of the kind of obsessive paranoia that drives their opposition .

TWEET TODAY

“If in the heat of battle for the heart and soul of the faith remember -If you have considered surrender and walking away – think it through- The guys who will go BEHIND your back when you are facing them will go FOR your back the moment you turn to walk away.”

For years now this writer has been warning of the compromise over many issues related to TGC’s progressive politics and emergent theology . The area indicating the greatest compromise has been the LGBTQ+ movement coming against the faith and the churches.This writer is acknowledged- even by those who have opposed the work – to be  privy to insight on this movement unique to the background in ministry of over the last four plus decades. Still the fight has been against their efforts to bebuff – ignore and even discredit this messenger .That battle has been relentless and carried out locally through TGC leadership and a respected congregation whose pastor has affiliated it with TGC .

The link below provides just ONE example of the kinds of warnings this writer has tried to bring to bear on the churches and ministries of Central Alabama in the heart of the Bible Belt . These warnings  have been helpful and  received by some while they have prompted  severe reaction and “search and destroy “efforts by the local TGC loop.

Click to access Living-LGBTQ-in-Central-Alabama.pdf

On Friday the 12th of July 2019 an elder and ministry leader from this leading  local TGC church began the organized targeting of this writers wife. Because of their decade plus involvement in a local ministry to the community  and her role in that ministry leadership Board – the TGC church elder called insisting she meet him , potentially alone to discuss a matter about which he was concerned related to that ministry. This was 8:15 p.m. on a Friday evening . Insisting to know what the meeting was about -she was told it “is about your husbands article” ( from June 29th  on TPoS) . This TGC church elder refused to agree to have her husband in the meeting which he was insisting she agree to.

This inappropriate behavior by a TGC church elder is just the beginning of a 12 day (and counting ) launch sequence  into the “TGC Twilight  Zone”. IT GETS FAR WORSE AND BIZARRE .More details and specifics are forthcoming as this set of events and coordinated attacks by a TGC church- on a woman- in retribution for her husband’s speaking the truth -play out. Prayers appreciated. Its far from over. All efforts to address this issue with the TGC pastor were and are ignored and the targeting continues as  ever more bizarre behavior and events unfold.

These churches under TGC influence are quickly becoming unsafe for you and your family – proven by the very fact that anyone in church leadership  assumes they have any Biblical basis or authority to attempt to- plot and scheme to not only target Women but to come between husbands and their wives . Itn this case it is even admitted to be in retribution for the husbands ministry.

“TIS’ YOUR TONE THAT IS THE PROBLEM”

This  new style  “Evangelical Brown Shirt  Brigade” insist that they agree with the warnings against such dangers as this ministry engages -but their  determined and paranoid actions betray something else entirely. Fear of their own compromise being exposed or of fragile egos being criticised or something in between – must be at the root of the obsessive effort to search and destroy perceived opposition .

The one constant  complaint from people in this TGC leadership locally is “It’s your tone – your tone ‘ that is the “problem” . In most cases – as is true in this past Monday nights continuation to target this writer’s- wife – the leaders driving the effort have NEVER spoken to the “accused “and would not “allow” him in the room as they drilled her about his writings for two hours .  Yet they judge his TONE  to be the problem .

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT 

This writer – agreed with his wife – who was up to the  task – to allow them to force this effort to play out AND allow her to be in the room with ten men who had been informed against her husband while he was “required” to sit outside the room. This writer left the room/meeting only after expressing support for his wife and the understanding that she was NOT to be subjected to any of the kind of abusive actions of the previous week . The elder of the TGC church who had first targeted her was NOT in the meeting nor have his bizarre and inappropriate actions been confronted or addressed to date. The current TGC church elder taking charge of the Monday meeting agreed but allowed his own anger to manifest on multiple occasions as he demanded answers about her husband’s ministry and did not like the response . Her general response was ” He is right out there (pointing to  both the IRONY  and the door) why don’t you ask him ?He and those others responsible for targeting this writers wife need not expect a chance at a repeat performance with such unbiblical efforts.

So with TGC inspired leadership and compromise this is the kind of new reality of what some of our best churches have become- paranoid centers of inquisition willing to divide couples and target women -and in  the greater reality of the dangers they ignore and allow in – even target your children.

Below is a link to one of this writers presentations in the 2019 God’s Voice Conference.

NOTE :A significant effort to undermine God’s Voice Conference was carried on for months leading up to the February event by THIS VERY CHURCH .

Who coordinated that effort? THESE very same TGC church leaders!!!

Judge the tone for yourself if you care to invest some time to understand what is really going on.And consider that the “TGC Tone Police ” actually NEVER talk to the accused whose “tone is so bad ”  that they must “reject the message” . No they just go behind your back and will even go after your wife.

If the tables were turned it is highly unlikely the “Paranoid Brothers of TGC Frat House ” would maintain the “tone” they assert is needful for a hearing . More on this and the “Serpents Business” that a TGC church would engage in attempting to come between a husband and wife and the covering God calls all husbands to provide for their beloved.

“To my wife- you are amazing – and it is a joy to watch Christ in You as you allow this to play out for the sake of the Kingdom.

As you watch the “Tone “- listen to the Gospel HOPE –  humor – honesty – and REALITY – that:

“The church in our generation has only one chance to get issues like LGBTQ+ and the church RIGHT and ( because of influences like TGC on even our best churches) we are getting it WRONG”.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/he27gf382fe/GVC+Pro+Videos+Compressed/Thomas+Littleton+-++Revoice+Agenda+-+Session+1+compressed.mp4?fbclid=IwAR2VxILCWD-WJ-UuN_OcHLh-cY6kCUkoXA8BHv8Yl5kl3h6g7RWcFVJzhK0

Thomas Littleton

Video from April 2017 shows how far movement has  advanced in just 2 1/2 years. The sad reality is some are still asleep or thinking this movement can be contained or appeased . The church has one chance in our generation to get this issue right and we are getting it wrong. Revoice /Rethink/ LGBTQ+  inclusion church audits – and deeply infiltrated seminaries and campus ministries have all surfaced since this video was recorded . If you don’t know the background or how we arrived in this sad state listen and research for yourself -Watch and Pray and stand up if your church /pastor are compromising .

By Thomas Littleton                                                                                         7/10/2019

con·trived

/kənˈtrīvd/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

deliberately created rather than arising naturally or spontaneously.

created or arranged in a way that seems artificial and unrealistic

Synonyms- assumed , bogus , factitious ,fake, false, feigned ,forced,mechanical .mock ,phony,plastic ,pretended ,pseudo ,put on ,sham,simulated,spurious, strained ,unnatural .

Many of today’s evangelical “conversations ” on cultural engagement, politics, race, women in ministry, LGBTQ+, immigration reform, President Donald J. Trump and how  the conservative evangelical church should approach the Gospel and the Great Commission- fit neatly and sadly into the category of contrived talking points.

The circles which put forth, polish and maintain these talking points is very small,have very close kinship and originate in the same institutions . They are repeated, backup and enhanced by Christian media outlets and at endless conferences ,by publishers, podcast, and youtube videos. Those who live and thrive in the echo chamber of modern evangelicalism are allowed little access to voices outside these carefully crafted and controlled and contrived “conversations. No issue has exposed the existence of this controlled opposition and feigned conversation more than the LGBTQ+ topic and the church and among the conservative denominations no event has received more attention and effort to moderate and keep alive than the Revoice LGBTQ+ thriving events of the last two years. No player in this dance is more key to its choreographed efforts than The Gospel Coalition. This is the 3rd of 5 articles showing the depths of collusion and the evangelical deep state style influences keeping the LGBTQ+ conversation ( a conversation that never needed to happen in the first place) going in conservative Christian circles.

PCA/GRN “A TIME TO STAND ” CONFERENCE 

“A Time To Stand ” is a prime example of one movements efforts to address Revoice within the Presbyterian Church in America . The event was sponsored by the Gospel Reformation Network. The mistake was to invite two key members of The Gospel Coalition to speak. Albert Mohler who is head of SBTS where Revoice founder was educated for almost 15 years and was teaching New Testament at the time Revoice was planned and organized was a keynote .

Mohler’s people also control the Council for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood . Guys like Denny Burk CBM&W leader and a TGC writer helped develop and promote the Nashville Statement . Revoice was said to be a response to and expression of disagreement with the Nashville Statement . Mohler nor Burk never mentions that Revoice originated at SBTS with one of Burks own classmates Nate Collins. Collins along with his father, worked on Faculty at SBTS and Boyce College which Denny Burk heads for Mohler as an undergraduate feeder for SBTS.

In the GRN meetings Mohler makes much about language “He began by proving the backdrop of the current cultural understandingand vocabulary of sexuality, identity, and autonomy, and how this relates to our theology. “The vocabulary we adopt becomes determinative of what will follow theologically.” Yet he never reveals his institutions role in both sides of the Revoice conversation.

A Time to Stand – Conference Recap

TGC leader and Reformed Theological Seminary head Ligon Duncan also spoke at “A Time To Stand ” event for GRN. His 7 point speech denies over and over any official PCA involvement in Revoice while ignoring or hiding the facts related to Covenant Theological Seminaries DEEP ties to Revoice of that a PCA church hosted the 2018 event . Duncan never reveals that the leader of the team to carry out  the investigation  which The Missouri Presbytery appointed is a former CTS leader and founder the organization which incubated Revoice , employs several of Revoice leaders and that same organizations offices are  housed in the PCA church which hosted the event . This is how contrived conversations and controlled oppositions work and how people like Ligon Duncan and Albert Mohler -either willingly or through extreme ignorance ( allowing for some benefit of doubt ) give cover to the charade .

cha·rade

/SHəˈrād/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.

   “talk of unity was nothing more than a charade”

Ligon Duncan of RTS also does not speak of the fact that his RTS institution provided the research and development of the “Seeking The Welfare of The City ” (STWTC) program for “Community Development ” as a ministry template  now being used throughout the PCA and other TGC affiliated churches, church planting strategies and missions organizations. STWTC program is a toxic stew of faith based partnerships, big tent inclusion, collaborating with civic and municipal organizations focused on issues from urban redevelopment to economic justice .

The Orlando campus of RTS built the platform for STWTC which is the basis of Tim Keller’s global City to City program . Keller played a key role in the Orlando project with RTS and CRU. (Both Keller and CRU have shown growing LGBTQ+ compromise and CRU leadership are involved in the Revoice movement ) A major piece of the development ideology was the work of pro LGBTQ+ “Urbanologist” Richard Florida whose “Gay Index ” and “Diversity and Bohemian  Index” are used to measure and determine if  such projects are LGBTQ+ inclusive enough. Richard Florida is a major player in the work of the Human Rights Campaign push to apply such inclusion “standards ” to cities and counties around the globe with its Municipal Equality Index . To oversee this ongoing project and secure Ligon Duncan RTS leadership role in it- RTS created the POLIS Institute headed by RTS Phil Hissom to oversee STWTC.  Ligon Duncan fails to mention this or his Seminaries role in it.

https://polisinstitute.org/about/

What Mohler and Duncan and their underlings don’t say , as we shall see n far more detail, says more than their public statements, articles and in speeches at events like “A Time to Stand” for GRN.

REVOICE  MOVEMENT: IT’S BACKGROUND AND CONFLICTED, CHOREOGRAPHED CONCERT AND DANCE MOVES.

WHO KNEW WHAT -WHEN -HOW -AND WHO WROTE THE TALKING POINTS ?

 

These are fair questions to ask after the last 18 months of insanity in conservative Christian circles .The Democratic party members are as good an example as is needed to watch how each member of the leadership acts- holding days of press conferences separately but all using the same presumed to be clever and hard hitting talking points. These ensure continuity of message but also confirm the existence of a memo somewhere in everyone’s inbox. So too the evangelical inner circles of TGC/ ERLC/ ACTS29/ 9MARKS and even denominational entities of the SBC and PCA  Rely upon someone up the food chain to develop the memo and ensure all spokesmen obtain a copy. Evangelical organizations like missions departments , universities and seminaries clearly operate on these same contrived -top down words and phrases and list of speakers and book promotions which are pre approved and vetted to contain the proper message . The methodology and end goals are promoting social change in the church .

Russell Moore , the  TGC affiliated SBTS educator ,leader of the ERLC declared an end to the “Culture Wars” in 2013 . He also pronounced the war lost and “Christians should just love our gay and lesbian neighbors . His SBTS educated ERLC hire from the Heritage Foundation ,Andrew Walker continues this assertion with Revoice leader/ close friend Matthew Lee Anderson. ( more on that later )

No issue has shown the depth of and willingness to compromise and force change in the church more than the LGBTQ+ topic and no one moment has so rocked the boat of the evangelical world to date as the revelations of TGC/ERLC and two major seminaries ties to the Revoice “LGBT+ Thriving in historic Christianity” conference. This 3rd part of a series on TGC and affiliates  involvement with Revoice will pull back the curtain and see the little men animating conversation.

Just  one layer in we can see the hand that is rocking the cradle of evangelical change .

THE LITTERMATES OF REVOICE -PUPPIES PLAYING IN A PUDDLE OF CHANGE 

For those who looked honestly and beyond the organized response to the Revoice controversy – the main concern that lingered was the hard reality of it’s founders long history at Albert Mohler’s  conservative SBTS seminary . But Revoice Collins is far from the only one in the “Conversation” from the Mohler breeding grounds aka puppy mill.

Denny Burk of SBTS undergraduate school Boyce College ,also heads the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and is spokesperson for the Nashville Statement (NS) The N.S. document is put forth  and claimed to represent a compassionate and pastoral but biblical and historic view of and approach to homosexuality and the cultural shifts concerning it.

Disapproval  of the Statement and criticism of its shortcomings  is claimed to be the inspiration of Revoice . In fact it is likely neither is true . The Nashville Statement does not condemn “gay or homosexual Christianity ” ,supports the “homosexual orientation “/SSA narrative  most common in the TGC talking points and makes no clear case that people can escape homosexual desire. It does not stand with ministries that proclaim such a  message of true Gospel effected change. Nashville Statement is in the mushy middle -left of center but asserted to represent the historic conservative stance.This is true of TGC /ERLC favorite Sam Allberrys SSA /Celibate  still gay narrative as well. If the new “historic view is left of center – then the conversation is never allowed to go back across that line to the true historic / biblical  context or standard. Very subtle and very effective .

EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, DENNY BURK, REVOICE :THE BACKSTORY 

Denny was the first in the TGC loop to respond to the growing controversy over Revoice in May 2018. However his response was measured and called for the church to “wait and see since the conference had not happened yet.”

What about the Revoice conference?

Burk was a bit more critical after it was clear in the aftermath of the conference that the idea of LGBTQ+ Christian/ Queer Christian / sexual minority Christian was “not ready for prime time ” in the evangelical sea change once it had  launched. Then again recall where it was launched from- Burks own circles at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary .

Revoice is over. Now what?

(Note in points 4 and 5 Burk talks about Nate Collins and critiques his talking points but does not place a hyperlink in his name as he does Wesley Hill and others . Burk also makes no mention of Collins SBTS almost 15 history -two degrees -and teaching NT at SBTS when forming the Revoice movement . Nor does  Burk mention work off campus he and Collins have done – (Mohler also mentions Collins in his Revoice after math article the day prior to Burk’s article. Like Burk Mohler also works carefully not connect Collins to SBTS even though me names him 9 times)

 

Lets look at what Burk says and inadvertently admits in his original Revoice piece on May 30th 2018

” I make a similar case in an article I wrote for The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society titled “Is Homosexual Orientation Sinful ?”  More recently, I wrote a review of Gregory Coles book that takes a critical look at his version of celibate gay identity.”

Denny has just told us he presented a paper for the Evangelical Theological Society . This also means he was present at and presented that paper at the annual meetings of ETS.

The members of Revoice also have spent years presenting their papers at ETS along side and often in panels WITH Burk and others from TGC / denominational circles . This has been going on for YEARS. Revoice was sprung on the evangelical  public seemingly from out of nowhere . Burk nor Mohler nor SBTS/ TGC leaders have been in these behind the scenes conversations for years- at ETS and other organizations meetings AND on their own campuses .

WHAT DENNY BURK AND MOHLER DO NOT SAY ABOUT REVOICE FOUNDER 

Both Albert Mohler and Denny Burk skirt the real history on Revoice origins

*They do not mention his decade and a half at SBTS nor that he and his father taught at SBTS/ Boyce.

*The do not mention that THESE VERY same messages developing the Revoice ideology were studied and presented at SBTS and in SBTS chosen representatives to ETS- The evangelical Theological Society since at least 2013

*They do not mention Collins and his Fathers work with Exodus International as it collapsed in 2013

*They do not mention Collins work with and leadership role on the board of LOVEboldy  as “side A (fully LGBTQ+ affirming ) and side B  (SSA/ Gay Christian but celibate )and everything in between  between ” ministry with primary focus on taking a beyond Revoice message to youth and youth leaders in our churches .

*They do not mention the Revoice founders book was written while Collins was teaching NT at SBTS and was presented among his academic papers.

Collins book :

“All But Invisible: Exploring Identity Questions at the Intersection of Faith, Gender, and Sexuality ” Nate Collins

*They do not mention that Revoice was developed and it’s founder traveled to St Louis MO  to organize its launch conference with Tim Keller Protege’ and TGC leader Scott Sauls

*They do not mention that Collins close work with Mark Yarhouse is rooted in TGC and SBTS adoption of Yarhouse interfaith/ APA based ideology .

*They do not mention that SBTS /SEBTS CTS and other institutions affiliated with TGC for years have hosted  Revoice leader, speaker and brain trust member Mark Yarhouse speaking on campus and in Chapel services .

*They do not mention that the entire conversation from SSA to LGBTQ+ Christianity is all firmly rooted in the APA /  Yarhouse argument on “Homosexual Orientation” which it is asserted that the Gospel does not change. Nor do they mention their own collaboration with the same ideology and public embrace in 2014 of the mythical orientation argument which is admitted to have removed the entire issue and conversations outside the realm of biblical context or authority.

The TGC related evangelical institutions are totally compliant with the liberal /pro-LGBTQ+  American Psychological Association. TGC/ Mohler/ SBTS and other organizations,  individuals and institutions have played a pivotal role in this compliance and transition . These ongoing -contrived “conversations” sealed the deal with bringing about enough social change in the evangelical  community to prevent serious /organized opposition to the broader LGBTQ+  agenda .

 

SBTS PROFESSOR WHO APPROVED REVOICE FOUNDER COLLINS DISSERTATION IS SECRETARY OF ETS AND A TGC WRITER 

http://www.sbts.edu/academics/faculty/gregg-r-allison/

GREGG R. ALLISON

PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY (2003)

“Allison came to Southern in 2003 from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, where he taught theology and church history for nine years. He has 18 years of ministry experience as a staff member of Campus Crusade (Cru), where he worked in campus ministry, as well as serving as a missionary in Italy and Switzerland. He also co-pastored a church in Lugano, Switzerland.”

“He is the secretary of the Evangelical Theological Society and current serves as the book review editor for theological, historical, and philosophical studies, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.”

Revoice and these “articles in response to it ” are NOT “in the moment responses” at all . These very same men and women – many with ties to SBTS like Burk and Collins – have been having these VERY conversations for years – in private and in the hallowed halls of evangelical academia . The “Responses to Revoice ” are measured because they are addressing their FRIENDS  movement and because they know these talking points having made them and collaborated with them for over half a decade with these very same classmates of SBTS and other institutions like RTS and CTS and a host of TGC and related conferences  .

PRESTON SPRINKLE OF REVOICE -REVEALS THE DEPTH OF COLLABORATION 

A key leader in the LGBTQ+ Christian movement including Revoice is Preston Sprinkle. He has spoken at the 2018 event and is on the Revoice leadership Council

Who is Sprinkle ?According to his facebook bio information:

• Worked at Eternity Bible College

•  

  Studied at University of Aberdeen

•  

  Studied Biblical exegesis at The Master’s Seminary

•  

  Studied at The Master’s College

•  

  Went to Bullard High

•  

  Lives in Boise, Idaho

•  

  From Fresno, California

Master’s College and  Seminary are John MacArthur’s institutions in California . John MacArthur is himself a TGC Council member and would not break company of “Fight with (his) friends ” after a panel discussion at Shepherds Conference erupted over the Social Justice false gospel . Leading up to and after the Dallas Statement was put forth condemning the Social Justice leaven in evangelicalism MANY looked to MacArthur to provide leadership against such manifestations of the  “justice gospel” as Revoice -yet he has said nothing about one of his more celebrated graduates, Sprinkle involved in Revoice leadership and another famed Master’s Graduate , Francis Chan, promoting Sprinkles Faith and Sexuality organization and employing Sprinkle at his Eternity Bible College .

Sprinkle heads “The Center for Faith Sexaulity and Gender”and his podcast is “Theology in the Raw”. He isa  Revoice leader and long time advocate for  LGBTQ+ Christian .

Here is an example of his writings

https://centerforfaith.com/blog/is-a-traditional-theology-of-marriage-intrinsically-harmful-toward-lgbtq-people-part-2?fbclid=IwAR1AN4OfSWLKZpD8vewEeAI0uIE8cwoNmVUKl0sG_Ia2Lbd5oM0wkrrdh1Y

His centers mission is to-

“The Center equips leaders with theologically sound and accessible resources, and helps leaders shape the people entrusted to them. To do this, The Center provides resources in the form of adult and student small-group learning experiences, leaders forums, pastoral and academic papers, private theological and pastoral consultation, and other avenues such as blogs, videos, podcasts, speaking, and webinars.”

There are at least 8 Revoice leaders on Sprinkles board including REvoice founder Collins and LGBTQ+ Christianity  “thought leader” Mark Yarhouse .

https://centerforfaith.com/about/our-leadership

SPRINKLE AND BURK HISTORY 

See what Sprinkle has to say about his work at ETS and with others like Denny Burk.

https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/blog/2014/12/is-same-sex-attraction-sinful

“A couple weeks ago I gave a paper at the Evangelical Theological Society’s Annual meeting. The paper was part of a seminar on sexual orientation and the topic was: “Is Same-Sex Attraction Sinful?” Two other participants also gave papers: Denny Burk and Wesley Hill. Denny concluded that same-sex attraction (not just behavior) is sinful, while Wes Hill argued that it is not.”

According to SBTS archives this panel discussion was in 2014 almost 5 years ahead of Revoice . Nate Collins of SBTS was also presenting at ETS meetings. Did Burk not notice?

Burk: Experience of same-sex attraction ‘occasion for repentance’

Burk and Sprinkle also collaborated on a book about Hell of which Sprinkle served as General editor and Burk as a contributor .

“Today, Zondervan releases a new “Four Views on Hell” book, of which I served as the general editor. The four contributors are Denny Burk, John Stackhouse, Robin Parry, and Jerry Walls. All of the authors believe in hell; they are all committed Christians who cherish the authority of Scripture. And yet they disagree on the nature (not the existence) of hell. As the editor, I wrote the introduction and conclusion to the book. Here’s the first part of the introduction:”

“The doctrine of hell has always been part of Christian theology. Unfortunately, hell has had a bit of a checkered past. From the Apocalypse of Peter’s gruesome depictions of women hanging over boiling mire, to skin curling images of hell in Dante’s Inferno, to Jonathan Edwards’s blistering sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, to twentieth-century Bible-belt preachers barking with anger about the wrath to come, hell has been used—and some would say abused—to scare people into obedience or increase their tithe.”

https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/blog/2016/03/what-do-you-believe-about-hell

Sprinkle talks about ETS meetings with Denny Burk and REvoice leader Wesley Hill

https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/blog/2014/11/on-papers-and-poverty?rq=denny%20burk

Sprinkle -“I just arrived in San Diego for the Evangelical Theological Society’s annual meeting. I’ll be presenting a paper this afternoon on sexual orientation along with Denny Burk and Wesley Hill, and I’m participating on a panel discussion on Paul and the Law on Friday afternoon. I’m mostly excited about connecting with old friends and making some new ones. The last time the ETS meeting was in California, it was in San Francisco. That was probably my most memorable conference, though it had little to do with the actual conference.”

BURK MIGHT NOT AFFIRM THAT SSA DESIRE IS NOT SINFUL -BUT…

Burks talking points are varied from those of Sprinkle and Revoice leaders but they fully affirm SSA language and orientation which is what leads the church to the tipping point birthing a Revoice style movement .

“Christians experiencing same-sex attraction should repent of those desires, but God can transform a person’s sexual identity, said panelists at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting, Nov. 19 2014 .”

“Burk presented a paper titled “Is Same-Sex Orientation Sinful?” and participated in a panel discussion on the issue with fellow lecturers Preston M. Sprinkle, vice president of Boise extension at Eternity Bible College, and Wesley Hill, assistant professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry and self-described celibate gay Christian”

So THESE very conversations leading up to and incubating – distilling the talking points for Revoice and the “response ” to it have been going on for at least 5 years prior to the launch of the “LGBT+ Thriving”  in our churches movement . Burk and others wish to appear to be “stepping up ” and answering the issues and concerns of conservative Christians while having known well in advance what was coming and that much of it was emerging from our own institutions for who both sides of the issue are working .

MORE SPRINKLE INSIGHT 

Why Homosexuality Is not just an Issue

Sprinkle

“Since this book is the fruit of communal discussion, I have many people to thank. Several people read through all, or portions of, this book: Joey Dodson, Roy Ciampa, Sam Roberto, Mark Yarhouse, Jeff Cook, and I am especially thankful for the many gay and lesbian readers who have offered incisive feedback, especially on my language, tone, and ignorant assumptions: Matt Jones, Nathan Collins, Julie Rodgers, Bill Henson, Brian Gee, Wesley Hill, Bill Henson, and Nick Roen. Several others, who didn’t read the manuscript but whose stories had a significant impact on my thinking, include Lesli Hudson-Reynolds, Justin Lee, Eve Tushnet, and many others whose testimonies have forever shaped my life.”

” Thanks are also due to Denny Burk, Wesley Hill (again), and Owen Strachan for your stimulating interaction in our seminar on sexual orientation at the Evangelical Theological Society’s Annual Meeting in San Diego (November 2014).”

 

REVOICE LEADER GREGORY COLES BOOK WAS ENDORSED BY TGC CO-FOUNDER D.A. CARSON AND OTHER TGC LEADERS

Single, Gay, Christian: A Personal Journey of Faith and Sexual Identity 

“To say this book is important is a painful understatement. It is the candid, moving, intensely personal story of a gay young man who wants to live his life under the authority of King Jesus and who refuses to accept the comforting answers proffered by different parts of the culture. Superbly written, this book stands athwart the shibboleths of our day and reminds us what submission to King Jesus looks like, what it feels like. This book needs to be thoughtfully read by straight people and by gay people, by unbelievers and by Christians. It is not to be read with a condescending smirk, but with humility.” (D. A. Carson, president, The Gospel Coalition, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)”

Of course TGC writer and Sam Allberry /Living Out associate Ed Shaw endored Coles book as well

“”Greg has written a book that is a delight to read both because of the beauty of his writing and his main message: that our good God made no mistakes in either making him the way that he is or asking him to live life the way that he is.” (Ed Shaw, author of Same-Sex Attraction and the Church)”

 

 

BURK SUPPORTS ALLBERRY/BUTTERFIELD AND OTHERS IN THE LGBT+ LOOP

Burk also lauded his endorsements of Allberry as counter to Revoice message yet Sam Allberry- a TGC editor ENDORSED Revoice “for our US audience” in early May 2018 as his Living Out ministry in the UK hosted Tim Keller – co-founder of TGC -at Living Outs London conference .

“The point of view I’ve argued for is the one you’ll find in The Nashville Statement  and in the work of Sam Allberry , Rosaria Butterfield , and Kevin DeYoung among other

TGC PROMOTING REVOICE /COLLINS BOOK WITH WARNING TO “START WITH ALLBERRY “

TGC writers Ed Shaw and Revoice Speaker Rachel Gilson reviewed Nate Collins book All But Invisible and conclude it may not be a good starting point for some .

Figuring Out Faithfulness with Same-Sex Attraction

“But both avalanches have left us with a new landscape where some differences of opinion have emerged among those who espouse a traditional view on same-sex attraction. There has been friendly fire on issues like:

• Origins: What causes same-sex attraction—is it nature or nurture?
• Identity: What contemporary labels can—or should—a Christian use or avoid?
• Orientation: Is it just sexual acts and fantasy that are sinful, or is it every aspect of someone’s same-sex attraction?
• Change: What expectation of change is possible or necessary for the same-sex-attracted Christian?

“These complex and subtle differences require deep thought, and Collins’s book is an important entry in this category. He provides new vistas in this conversation which deserve our attention. Though he lands in some different places than we do (for instance, in how we choose to label our sexual orientation), we both benefited from reading his book”

Shaw and Gilson /TGC On Collins and Burk

“Notably, Collins acknowledges that “one of [his] main arguments in this book is that being gay (understood as an aesthetic orientation) is not sinful in itself” (303). This is also why he engages extensively with Denny Burk and Heath Lambert’s counterclaims in their recent volume Transforming Homosexuality. Pastors, theologians, and strugglers throughout the church are making good-faith efforts to parse this question.”

But these TGC reviewers warn:

“Though the structure of the book is clear, and Collins constantly references where he’s going, he often muddies the waters through digression and wordiness. A longer conclusion that drew together the different strands the book explored would’ve been much appreciated and would’ve help alleviate confusion. Because of these deficiencies, this work wouldn’t be our first recommendation for someone just beginning to explore these issues—they should start with Allberry ,Butterfield or Hill”

Yet is was Nate Collins in 2014 while working at SBTS and TGC and presenting at ETS with Burk and SBTS/ other future REvoice leaders who reviewed Allberrys new book for TGC

Is God Anti-Gay?

Is God Anti-Gay?

JULY 15, 2013  |  Nate Collins

So in the TGC article review of Collins book by Allberry associate Ed Shaw and Revoice leader Gilson – Collins book is said to be perhaps not a good starting point in these “explorations ” and conversations and recommends starting with Allberry….(think about it )  whose book Nate Collins reviewed for TGC in 2014 , and Butterfield (whose academic speciality is Gender and Queer Theory like that of Nate Collins and Gregory Coles whose book Shaw and TGC co-founder D A Carson endorse ). They also recommend Revoice leader Wesley Hill as a starting point .

Confused? Don’t be- It is simply the TGC LGBTQ+  vortex

In other words- “Start with our second and third base hitters and don’t try to make it to home base with Collins and Revoice if your not ready for it “.

ENOUGH TO CAUSE LGBT VERTIGO 

If these “conversations ” and tail chasing LITTERMATES  have made you dizzy – you are not the only one suffering from LGBTQ+ vertigo

Consider SBTS/ TGC/ CBM&W leader  Denny Burk is also close associates with Revoice Leader and TGC writer Matthew Lee Anderson

Just prior to Revoice 2018 Anderson speaks to the “controversy ” and some of the background with Burk and others in the SBTS/ CBM&W /TGC loop

https://mereorthodoxy.com/sex-temptation-gay-christian-chastity-demands/

Remember that Anderson is a TGC writer as well with very long time professional ties to TGC  senior editor Joe Carter and good friends with TGC/ERLC leader Andrew Walker

See Part 1 of this report of Revoice TGC ties and background

 

UNEARTHING THE GOSPEL COALITION ROOTS OF REVOICE -PART 1

Part 2

REVOICE FOUNDER’S SBTS CRITICAL THEORY DISSERTATION:TGC TIES PART 2

SBTS DENNY BURK AND MATTHEW LEE ANDERSON

In 2012 – Burk wrote “Matt Anderson has some good thoughts on the dust-up between Rachel Held Evans  and the Wilsons. He argues that the larger point Jared Wilson was making about 50 Shades of Grey has been lost in arguments about authorial intent and trigger words.”

Matthew Lee Anderson on the Dust-Up

More ETS background of these long time “conversations”

November 23 2015

Burk -“Last week the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) met in Atlanta, Georgia for its 67th annual meeting. It is the first meeting of the ETS since the Supreme Court declared gay marriage to be a Constitutional right in its landmark decision Obergefell v. Hodges. How does ETS look now that we are inhabiting a post-Obergefell culture? Here are three snapshots that I observed and now pass on to you:”

The Evangelical Theological Society after Obergefell

“(Incidentally, Matthew Lee Anderson presented a paper arguing against my writings on same-sex attraction. Somehow I overlooked his paper in the program, so I missed his session. I greatly regret that. I hope to get a copy of his paper.)”

 

Also In 2016 Burk and Anderson were presented in an RNS article as “Never Trumpers” evangelicals

14 conservative Christians who are not supporting Trump

 

TGC  Burk Matthew Lee Anderson

 

In case you missed it in part 2 of this series – at min 50 is Revoice leader Matthew Lee Anderson- also part of the backroom conversations with Burk and others in TGC related to the Revoice approach as Anderson “pinch hits” for TGC/ ERLC leader Andrew Walker – also an SBTS graduate and Teacher – in a Mormon Interfaith conference on “loving God and our LGBTQ+ neighbor .

https://byu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b371983d-3089-4fea-8fc8-aa6c00ecc67d

 

TRUE BIBLICAL CONSIDERATION OF DOCTRINAL ISSUE 

Council held in Jerusalem recorded in ACTS 15 discuss influence legalist and those pushing mandatory circumcision for gentile believers . Would the first century church elders have ever called together a council to discuss homosexuality and cultural shifts  toward it? Would the Jerusalem Council ever need to incorporate the latest findings of the great thinkers of Rome and its sleazy sexualized culture into the churches approach or consider its standing with the perverted Nero administration as SBC and PCA leaders did with the Obama administration’s pro LGBTQ+ policies? Would first century leaders consider giving homosexuality some special nuanced status among other sexual sins ? Would they have employed critical theory /gender/ feminine and queer theory to effect social change in the churches attitudes toward homosexuality and its varient manifestations  in public or in private ?

Not for a moment .

Sleazy

1 contemptibly low, mean, or disreputable:sleazy politics.

2 squalid; sordid; filthy; dilapidated:a sleazy hotel.

3 thin or poor in texture, as a fabric; cheap; flimsy:a sleazy dress; a sleazy excuse.

Acts 15  (NKJV)

Conflict over Circumcision

15 And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.

³ So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren. ⁴ And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them. ⁵ But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

The Jerusalem Council

⁶ Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. ⁷ And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ So God, who knows the heart, ^[a]acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, ⁹ and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? ¹¹ But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus ^[b]Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

¹² Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. ¹³ And after they had ^[c]become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: ¹⁴ Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. ¹⁵ And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:

¹⁶ ‘After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
¹⁷ So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the ^[d]Lord who does all these things.’

^18 [e]“Known to God from eternity are all His works. ¹⁹ Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, ²⁰ but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from ^[f]sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. ²¹ For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

The Jerusalem Decree

²² Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas,^[g] and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

²³ They wrote this letter by them:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

²⁴ Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, ^[h]saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment— ²⁵ it seemed good to us, being assembled with one ^[i]accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: ²⁹ that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual^[j] immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Farewell.

 

 

REVOICE SBTS DEVELOPMENT -AND ERLC ANDREW WALKER COLLABORATIONS

The movement behind the controversial pro LGBTQ+ Flourishing  Revoice Conference continues to reveal its roots within The Gospel Coalitions collaborations and youthful “brain trust” educated in both Southern Baptist and conservative PCA seminaries. The SBC just affirmed  the usefulness  of Critical Race Theory and intersectionality at it’s 2019 annual meeting weeks ago in Birmingham . Now the hard reality that these two vices of progressive social sciences have been in high gear and were used to launch the Revoice “LGBT+ Christian ” movement at TGC affiliated institutions is opened to public view.

NATE COLLINS DISSERTATION FROM SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF TGC/SBC  LEADER ALBERT MOHLER 

TGC and SBTS leader Albert Mohler has tried desperately to hide the obvious – that his Seminary educated Nate Collins . Now the hard facts : Collins dissertation tells the story of the SBTS use and engagement  of Critical Theory and Intersectionality in educating activist like the Revoice founder and even allowing them to teach at the Southern Baptist flagship seminary -long celebrated as an anchor of conservatism and the trophy of the SBC Resurgence . Nate Collins birthed the Revoice movement via social sciences, critical theory and intersectionality developed at SBTS. Using both his skills and topic of study at SBTS Collins is seeking to establish room for a “Secondary Gender Identity” in New Testament context .

https://repository.sbts.edu/bitstream/handle/10392/5716/Collins_sbts_0207D_10474.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

“Copyright © 2017 Nathan Charles Collins
All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to
reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction.”

“Virgin” as Secondary Gender Identity in 1 Corinthians 7 and Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Background”

SBTS description of Collins Dissertation

https://repository.sbts.edu/handle/10392/5716

SBTS APPROVAL 

Three SBTS professors mentored Collins work on his dissertation .

Thomas R. Schreiner (Chair)
__________________________________________
Jarvis J. Williams
__________________________________________
Gregg R. Allison

Chapters

1. GENDER AND NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES: A BRIEF
HISTORICAL SURVEY..

2. FEMINISM AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

3. SECONDARY GENDER IDENTITIES

4. ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΣ IN THE JEWISH AND GRECO-ROMAN
BACKGROUND LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

5. SECONDARY GENDER IDENTITIES AND THE PROBLEM AT CORINTH

6. CONCLUSION

Critical Theory looks to be a shared area of expertise with at least on of Collins SBTS faculty mentors Jarvis Williams a SBTS 4 time Alumnus who joined the faculty in 2013

Jarvis Williams, four-time alumnus, joins seminary faculty

Critical Race Theory, RTS, and SBTS

Quotes from William H. Smith | Thursday, March 30, 2017

“It is not inference or implication that “Critical Race Theory” strongly influences the thinking of Dr. Willams and Mr. Tisby. One can draw a straight line from “Critical Race Theory” to the way these men look at race, culture, politics, society, and the particular form of society that is the church. It is impossible to miss the reality that when they speak about racial reconciliation within the church they are borrowing the language of “Critical Race Theory.”

“So, if you are still reading, after all that introductory material, here is the concern I want to raise. Mr. Jemar Tisby is a Special Assistant to the Chancellor at Reformed Theological Seminary. Dr. Jarvis Williams is an Associate Professor of New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Both are greatly influenced by “Critical Race Theory,” are applying it to their understanding of the dynamics evangelical churches, and are using it to tell the evangelical churches what is required for “racial reconciliation.”

EXCERPTS FROM REVOICE FOUNDERS SBTS DISSERTATION 

We will only look at  few but the entire document is archived at SBTS and other websites  for  public view if a reader needs further convincing that SBTS and TGC are at the epicenter of this movement .

Excerpts

Preface

” Drs. Schreiner, Williams, and Allison, have
all been selfless with their time, particularly in the past few years as this project gained
steam. All three have encouraged me at various points when I needed extra motivation to finish, but Dr. Schreiner in particular has been the best doctoral supervisor I could ever  imagine.”

Chapter One -Speaking of Oprah Winfrey “opted in favor of her racial identity and decided to endorse Obama over Clinton.”

“Scholars in the fields of feminism, womanism, and contemporary gender
theory refer to this crisscross-identity phenomenon as “intersectionality,” a term coined
by critical race theorist and legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw.
1 According to Crenshaw, intersectionality refers to the compounded marginalization that black women experience due to intersecting forms of discrimination against them as a result of their gender and racial identities. Intersectional feminism and womanism both draw attention to structural inequalities in society that perpetuate the continuation of these compounded axes of discrimination.”

Collins – more on the growing focus on Social Identity and Gender , Sexual Orientation and Theology :

“Five years later, a different event illustrates another intersection of social
identity and gender. On October 11, 2013, the Gender Relations Center at the University
of Notre Dame celebrated the 25th annual National Coming Out Day in a manner both
novel and straightforward. After constructing makeshift wooden doorways in various
places around the campus, they invited students to publicly embrace whatever particular identity was important to them as they stepped through the threshold of the doorway.”
“The Gender Relations Center website said “individuals [could] ‘come out’ as anything –
a business major, a country music fan, a lover of bad horror movies,” and urged students
to “join us… as we celebrate the endless variety of identities that make each and every
one of us unique.”2
“Debates concerning the morality of same-gender sexual behavior aside, what
sense are we to make of celebrations like National Coming Out Day? When individuals
participate in this event, what is the meaning of the identity statements that they are
making? Do they regard their sexual orientation as a constituent part of their gender
identity in particular, or is it simply one piece of the pie that represents the entirety of
their self-identity? Or does sexual orientation constitute a ‘given’ (perhaps similar to
race?) that can index an intersectional identity (of sorts?) within individual gender
identities? Although scholars in the fields of theology and biblical studies have explored
gender-related topics for several decades now, not many of these studies reflect on questions about the ontology of gender or its theological meaning.”

The Thesis : For the “approach ” to Gender “a broadly applicable etic framework that can be flexibly applied in a variety of communities of practice..”

” …This dissertation will argue the thesis that the Greek
word παρθένος functions as a label that indexes a secondary gender identity in Paul’s
discussion of virgins in 1 Corinthians 7. The meaning of most of the elements in this
thesis is transparent enough, but the phrase secondary gender identity requires an initial
definition. In this dissertation, I will distinguish between primary gender identity and
secondary gender identity. ‘Primary gender identity’ is binary, and reflects the original
divine intent to create male persons (“men”) and female persons (“women”). ‘Secondary
gender identity,’ on the other hand, is non-binary and is the result of the pluriform effects of the enculturation of gender within human society. For now, we will operate with the following working definition in mind: a secondary gender identity is a gendered sub-identity that forms around a socially meaningful category (1) that is itself gendered in
some way by the surrounding culture and (2) that is indexed by a linguistic label.
Demonstrating this thesis will provide a degree of clarity about issues related
to the ontology of gender itself, while sidestepping the related topic of gender roles and
the cultural landmines clustered around it. It will also illustrate the significance of the
sex/gender distinction within Christian theology in ways that are less than apparent to
secular forms of gender theory. And finally, it will yield a broadly applicable etic
framework that can be flexibly applied in a variety of communities of practice and the
texts they produce, including ancient texts like 1 Corinthians 7.”

COLLINS FEMINIST SOURCES 

One example of sources sited for this historical background for Collins SBTS dissertation is “Elizabeth Ann Clark is Professor Emeritus of the John Carlisle Kilgo Professorship of Religion at Duke University She is notable for her work in the field of Patristics  Clark expanded the study of early Christianity, pioneering the application of modern theories such as feminist theory ,social network theory , and literary criticism  to ancient sources.”  https://gendersexualityfeminist.duke.edu/people/elizabeth-clark

QUEER THEORIST 

“Judith Butler is by many accounts regarded as a pioneering post-structural
feminist and queer theorist, although other French philosophers had already begun
applying the principles of post-structuralist philosophy to the question of gender by the
time she published her groundbreaking work Gender Trouble. The two most important
ideas most often associated with her are her attempt to destabilize the category of ‘sex’
and her definition of ‘gender’ according to the rubric of performativity. According to
Butler, the popular distinction between ‘sex’ (a biological classification) and ‘gender’ (a
sociocultural category) is meaningless because we have no recourse to the meaning of
sexed bodies apart from the social significance of gender differences. Our social
understanding of gender predetermines the shape of our understanding of sexual
difference.1”

https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/judith-butler

From Butlers Berkeley bio

“Sexology and the New Medical Science
The first essentialist explanations of gender in the modern era accompanied the
emergence of sexology as an established scientific discipline. And among these first
essentialists, the work of Havelock Ellis, a physician who had been strongly influenced
by anthropology, looms large. In 1913, Ellis published his seven-volume Studies in the
Psychology of Sex, which cemented his position as a trailblazer within the new field and
fueled a conceptual revolution in popular opinion on gender and sexuality.5
Of all the intellectual contributions Ellis made to the field of sexology, perhaps
the most significant among them for our purposes here was his practice of interpreting
human sexuality through the lens of then-common anthropological conclusions regarding courtship in the animal world. In essence, Ellis believed that animal courtship rituals could play a central role in organizing beliefs and practices regarding human gender and sexuality.6 According to this theory, man is a hunter by nature who pursues and conquers woman, his ‘prey.’ Masculinity is therefore defined with reference to demonstrations of power, while femininity is associated with modesty, or an “instinctive fear.”7 According to Ellis,”
“Force is the foundation of virility, and its psychic manifestation is courage. In the
struggle for life, violence is the first virtue. The modesty of women – in its
primordial form consisting of physical resistance, active or passive, to the assaults
of the male – aided selection by putting to the test man’s most important quality,
force.8”

MARXIST FEMINIST

Collins touches on some history of differing  types of feminism and on Marxist Feminist and their anti family and anti capitalist ideologies and efforts at “social change”

“Anti-capitalist movements. In some ways, the anti-capitalist impulse in some
forms of feminism is a development of the liberal agenda.29 Patriarchy is still the
problem, but Marxist and socialist feminists examine the relationship of patriarchy
specifically with respect to class systems. This expansion of patriarchy into the realm of a
society’s economy is a form of symbolic patriarchy, or “a social structure or community
within which power is dispersed among the male subjects.”30 Indeed, feminists initially
found in anti-capitalist theories a conceptual framework that simultaneously explained
both how patriarchy oppressed women, as well as what they could do to bring about
social change.”

“The early Marxist feminist Margaret Benston was among the first to point out
that families in capitalist economies were primarily “production units” for housework and child-rearing, and not merely passive consumption units.31 By restricting the labor of women to the domestic realm, the capitalist class of men—together with patriarchal
socialist men!—are able to benefit both from the supply of free labor they represent, as
well as from the production of new workers to fuel the capitalist economic vision. ”

JUMPING TO THE CONCLUSION

The entire 234 page document is available at the links provided. This writer made efforts to engage Nate Collins about his SBTS writings and to discuss his “conclusions” about Biblical gender given his research in the area of gender and feminine theory. Collins refused to discuss these topics or any others related to Revoice and SBTS and the controversies surrounding the LGBT+ “Thriving ” movement .

Here are Collins  hopes for the movement in his own words in the conclusion of the dissertation .

“CONCLUSION”

“Overview
We began with a survey of feminist and contemporary gender theory in order
to discern the kinds of answers that theorists have provided to the question, “What is
gender identity?” We observed that responses to this question followed several
discernable patterns, and that each of them might inform a Christian doctrine of gender
that began from a supernatural framework.”
“We then turned our attention to gender theories that tackled the thorny problem
of secondary particularity among members of the same gender. We discovered that the
problem that secondary gender particularity posed to a theological anthropology of
gender might be mitigated by incorporating insights from social identity and self-categorization theory. The resulting theoretical framework is capable of supporting both a firm commitment to a gender binary that reflects the divine creative intent, but that is sufficiently responsive to a wide variety of contextual factors that further categorize men and women along myriad types of culturally salient axes of gender difference.”

REVOICING “POSSIBILITY MODELS “

“Possibilities for Further Development”
“If this project succeeds, it would seem to open up a wide vista of possibilities
for further development and expansion. The marriage of contemporary gender theory and the social identity approach seems ripe for additional development. Accounts of gender that begin from a critical realist epistemology would, in particular, benefit from the incorporation of social scientific frameworks that have been the subject of empirical
research for literally decades.”
“Accounts of gender identity and gender difference within theological
anthropology can also benefit from the primary/secondary gender identity framework
proposed in this project. These accounts might find this framework to be a useful
184 heuristic in conceptualizing the relationship between first- and second-order gender
differences and their theological implications. This might provide fresh avenues for the
development of the Christian doctrine of gender, particularly because it signals a retreat
(if only temporarily) from divisive debates about the regulative function of biblical
teaching about gender roles.”

REMEMBER -THREE SBTS PROFESSORS MENTORED AND SIGNED OFF ON OPENING THESE DOORS TO REVOICING LGBT IN THE CHURCH.

“The tentative conclusions of this study can be further tested and perhaps
expanded in the field of biblical studies. This study focused on texts written in Greek, but
scholars might engage in similar studies of texts written in other languages, such as
Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin. Furthermore, scholars might explore other axes of difference
in addition to marriageability in order to uncover other kinds of secondary gender
identities that were in use in antiquity.”

“Finally, we can discern within our own twenty-first-century context examples
of second-order gender particularity that are both culturally meaningful theologically
significant. In some cases, these examples of second-order particularity function as axes
of difference along which modern-day secondary gender identities can be indexed by
linguistic labels currently in use in communities of practice.”

TGC AND COLLINS DIRECT TIES 

Nate Collins was writing for The Gospel Coalition in 2014 while at SBTS

Nate Collins

“If I Tell You I’m Gay Will You Still Love Me”

Nate Collins is the executive director of Aligned Grace Resources  a ministry he founded with his father to equip churches to minister the grace and truth of the gospel to people affected by same-sex attraction. Nate and his wife, Sara, live with their two sons in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is pursuing a PhD in New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

TGC’S SAM ALLBERRY AND NATE COLLINS 

In 2013  Collins reviewed TGC editor/ Gay Anglican Priest Sam Allberry ( whose Living Out ministry endorsed Revoice )

Collins own book was written while he was teaching at Albert Mohler’s SBTS

https://www.christianbook.com/invisible-exploring-identity-questions-intersection-sexuality/nate-collins/9780310526025/pd/526020#CBD-PD-Description

ERLC’s Andrew Walker and Revoice leader Matthew Lee Anderson collaborate with TGC as recently as April 2019

Matthew Lee Anderson

Matthew Lee Anderson is a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and the founder of Mere Orthodoxy 

Andrew Walker is a regular contributor to Anderson’s “Mere Orthodoxy” blog

https://mereorthodoxy.com/author/atwclw/

SEEKING COMMON GROUND IN “CONVERSATIONS WORTH HAVING “

The church is being told by these young activist writing for TGC/ ERLC / Mere Christianity/ Christianity Today and a host of other outlets that we should be seeking common ground for the common good as we pursue what Collins/ Walker / Anderson and others insist are “conversations worth having “. As far as finding the common ground that exist with Revoice LGBTQ+ flourishing movement in this case- it is clear the “common ground ” is the campus at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the domain of Albert Mohler.

As far as assessing if these “Conversations ” are worth having  with the likes of Mormon , Islamic , and LGBTQ+ activist to revoice religious freedom or to place gender/ marriage/ family and sexuality in the blender of social change powered by the theories of leftist and liberal /progressive social sciences – we must consider the conversations that took place in the gates of Sodom of which Abraham’s nephew Lot took part daily. God did not see them as “worth having ” nor did HE send angels into Sodom to seek out common ground between heaven and the “Cities of the plain”. God simply put a stop to it all in one clear assessment from His Throne. Jesus warned us in three powerful words (not much of a conversation )to “Remember Lots Wife “Luke 17:32 . Peter warned us what living on the Common Ground with the homosexual (Queer ,Collins and Revoice preferred word ) culture can do to a man with a Godly heritage and to his family .

2 Peter 2:

  6 “and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; ⁷ and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— ⁹ then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,”

SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND OTHER TGC INFLUENCED INSTITUTIONS ARE GONE

The sinking reality about Revoice for Biblical Conservative Churches and movements is that the effort is driven by activist trained in our own institutions – by our own trusted leaders and in the most fringe of the social sciences aimed at societal change focused like a laser beam on the household of faith . Collins work with Mark Yarhouse- the Revoice godfather/thought leader  with ministries like LOVEboldly prove that little or no real distinction is made between side A ( fully LGBTQ+ affirming ) and Side B (Gay but celibate as Revoice asserts) . LOVEboldly is also working with  their  Devoted Conference to target youth leaders and  youth groups to bypass senior staff and parents with the Revoice message.

2 Timothy 3

Perilous Times and Perilous Men

3 But know this, that in the last days ^[a]perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, ^[b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; ⁹ but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

By Rev Thomas Littleton                                                                                                7/2/2019

The fallout of Revoice 2018  was still swirling as the 2019 event came and went. The most significant of revelation was the open participation of TGC LGBTQ+ expert Mark Yarhouse both speaking and working as part of the Revoice leadership council. He, along with former Christianity Today editor Andy Crouch, are helping provide leadership to this LGBTQ+ “flourishing ” movement helped to solidify (and explain) ‘sTGC shared braintrust and mainstream media promotion.

TGC/ D A Carson had commissioned a Whitepaper from Yarhouse in 2010 which set the stage for the overhaul of homosexuality / LGBTQ+ issues in the mostly  Southern Baptist and Presbyterian Church in America churches and institutions under the TGC influence. Yarhouse  has remained part of the steady supply of TGC speakers nuancing race, gender , sexuality and other contemporary “issues” using psychology , social sciences, and critical theory .

MATTHEW LEE ANDERSON’S ROLE WITH TGC 

In 2013 Mathew Lee Anderson, who is also part of the Revoice leadership with Yarhouse and Crouch , worked with TGC’s  Themelios journal to critique some of the key ideologies of gender theory and sexual orientation in publication at the time .

http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/about

“Themelios is an international, evangelical, peer-reviewed theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. Themelios began in 1975 and was operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. Themelios is published three times a year online at The Gospel Coalition website in PDF and HTML, and may be purchased in digital format with Logos Bible Software and in print with Wipf and Stock. It is also accessible in full-text through the ATLA Religion Database. Themelios is copyrighted by The Gospel Coalition. Readers are free to use it and circulate it in digital form without further permission, but they must acknowledge the source and may not change the content”

D A Carson is the among Themelios editorial staff

“D. A. Carson | Contributing Editor and President

The Gospel Coalition”

TGC influenced seminaries provide most of the Editorial Board

• Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School
• Hassell Bullock, Wheaton College
• Paul Helseth, University of Northwestern, St. Paul
• Paul House, Beeson Divinity School
• Hans Madueme, Covenant College
• Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Gavin Ortlund, First Baptist Church, Ojai
• Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Mark D. Thompson, Moore Theological College
• Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College
• Mary Willson, Second Presbyterian Church, Memphis
• Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship
• Robert Yarbrough, Covenant Seminary

REVEALING TGC DEVELOPMENT OF THE REVOICE IDEOLOGIES PROMOTING ORIENTATION AND DECONSTRUCTING GENDER 

In 2013 Anderson did a book review  for TGC Themelios of James V Brownson’s book Biblical Gender Sexuality :Reframing the Churches DEbate on Same Sex Relationships
Brownson is an advocate for such “Side A ” full affirmation of homsexuality – groups like The Reformation and Mathew Vines. Brownson  is a leader of the Reformation Project and spoke at the 2018 Orlando Conference for Vines Reformation Project .

Team

BLUEPRINTING REVOICE: TGC MAKING A SPACE IN THE MUSHY MIDDLE

The 2013 work in the Themelios journal book review entry  by Anderson shows the kind of efforts to lay the groundwork leading up to Revoice that he and others with TGC affiliation were engaging . The clear goal is to counter traditional views of sexuality and gender and provide a landing strip for the social sciences like critical gender and feminine theory . These are to then be mixed with Greek and Roman cultural history / Augustine / Aquinas /philosophy and flavored with a dose of (Reformed ) theological orthodoxy – in order to assert the offspring of this ideological love fest is both legitimate and biblically sound. It is in fact the illegitimate lovechild of progressive politics and postmodern presumption born into the cultural abyss and temporary insanity of a church held in the grips of organizations like TGC.

CRITIQUING ANDERSONS CRITIQUE OF BROWNSON 

Anderson gives a highly favorable critique of Brownsons work for TGC. We will highlight some points and comments by Anderson ahead of each section and bring special attention to some statements by Anderson on key issues related to the development of the Revoice ideology of which he now is a leader in promoting . Do not forget this is a TGC Theological journal Themelios publication .

http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/bible-gender-sexuality-reframing-the-churchs-debate-on-same-sex-relationshi#

(Note the promotion by Anderson of Brownson’s  Anti- Traditionalist posture , also Sexual Orientation , and Deconstructing  of Gender .)

“This entry into the ever-expanding literature on the Bible’s teaching on same-sex relationships is a welcome yet unsatisfying attempt to “discern the deeper and more comprehensive moral logic that undergirds the specific commands, prohibitions, and examples of the biblical text” that have to do with gender and sexuality (p. 9).”

“Brownson’s argument is thorough and will reward both skeptics and fans alike, as he routinely digs up what for “traditionalists” in this debate have been assumptions and calls them into question. If his argument proves wrong—as I think it ultimately does—saying where and how it goes astray is more difficult than it seems on the surface, as Brownson challenges a way of reading Scripture that for traditionalists has sometimes functioned as a trump card in this debate.”

(Anderson is “thankful ” for Brownsons varied starting point on adressing same sex relations)

“Brownson (thankfully!) starts in a place other than the deeply contested prohibitions of same-sex sexual activity. His first chapter takes on what is for many theologians the central plank of the traditionalist case on same-sex relations: the “one flesh union” that Gen 2:24 speaks of. Brownson contends that it “does not refer to physical gender complementarity, but to the common bond of shared kinship” (p. 35).”

( Anderson suggest Brownson’s work set to problematize the traditionalist positions)

“After clarifying how his own canonically rooted approach sits in relationship to other attempts to find more positive theological resources for same-sex sexual relationships, Brownson then turns toward evaluating four “very broad forms of moral logic” that are “critical for understanding what the Bible has to say about sexuality in general: patriarchy, the ‘one-flesh’ bond of marriage, procreation, and celibacy” (p. 14). Throughout these sections, Brownson offers readings of the relevant passages that are meant to problematize the traditionalist positions. On procreation, for instance, he suggests, “the witness of Scripture as a whole suggests that [procreation] cannot be a defining, or essential, aspect of [one-flesh] unions. What is ‘normal’ cannot simply be assumed to be ‘normative’” (p. 122). In returning to the “one-flesh unions,” Brownson sounds a similar note: “The fact that the Bible uses the language of ‘one flesh’ to refer to male-female unions normally does not inherently, and of itself, indicate that it views such linkages normatively” (p. 105).”

MAJOR POINT -PROMOTING SEXUAL ORIENTATION  AS SCIENCE 

(Anderson -“And critiquing the language of “sexual orientation” isn’t an option from his standpoint, either, as the “resistance of sexual orientation to change” is an “increasingly established scientific fact”)

“In the final section, Brownson turns toward the boundaries of appropriate human sexuality, taking cues from Rom 1:24–27 to focus on lust, purity, honor/shame, and natural law (chs. 8–11). Here, Brownson’s method of rereading Scripture in light of what he takes to be contemporary givens about the nature of human sexuality comes to the fore. He suggests, for instance, that “the attempt by some traditionalists to bracket sexual orientation and to focus only on sexual behavior” as a way of sorting out Romans 1 is “ultimately untenable, even if it may seem necessary or benevolent from a pastoral point of view” (p. 175). And critiquing the language of “sexual orientation” isn’t an option from his standpoint, either, as the “resistance of sexual orientation to change” is an “increasingly established scientific fact” (p. 176). When Brownson turns to “nature,” he pulls a page from many traditionalist’s playbook and affirms that “redemption does not displace or escape nature; rather, it fulfills nature” (p. 250). But our understanding “of exactly how the will of God is revealed in the natural order is subject to change, deepening, and growth over time” (p. 247). Committed gay and lesbian unions can find a place in this “renewed ‘nature’” provided that nature “is not simply determined by anatomy” and because our understanding of “nature” is different enough from that of the NT that “the New Testament does not envision the kind of committed, mutual, lifelong, loving, moderated gay and lesbian unions that are emerging today” (p. 251).

ANDERSON SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF GENDER DECONSTRUCTION TO SAME SEX UNIONS 

(Again from the above section -Anderson’s big reveal is Brownsons deconstruction of Gender that paves the way for Same Sex relations and gay and lesbian -one flesh unions . “But our understanding “of exactly how the will of God is revealed in the natural order is subject to change, deepening, and growth over time” (p. 247). Committed gay and lesbian unions can find a place in this “renewed ‘nature’” provided that nature “is not simply determined by anatomy” and because our understanding of “nature” is different enough from that of the NT that “the New Testament does not envision the kind of committed, mutual, lifelong, loving, moderated gay and lesbian unions that are emerging today”)

(Anderson’s Conclusions summing up what Brownson is promoting )

“In his conclusion, Brownson sums up his position and revisits the controversial prohibitions, repeating arguments about their irrelevance for today’s debates that are by now well known. But he also reminds us that “gender complementarity” is “not taught in Scripture, considered in its entirety, and has never been part of normative Christian teaching” (p. 266).”

“By calling into question whether the “gender complementarity” that is on the surface of the Genesis account is actually a norm that Scripture presents, Brownson indeed moves the discussion closer toward the center of the divide on this question. Yet traditionalists might simply respond that Scripture holds together what Brownson’s distinction tears asunder, namely the covenantal aspects of marriage and the anatomy in which such covenantal commitments are revealed, consummated, and made fruitful in the limited permanence of the gift of children. Brownson suggests that the focus of Genesis 2 is not on the complementarity of male and female, but on their similarity (pp. 29ff.). Fair enough. But focusing on such a similarity is only intelligible within a context where differences are assumed, obvious, and have no need to be argued for, else why bother mentioning the similarity at all? And while Brownson’s suggestion that Gen 2:24 is focused on “the formation of the essential and foundational building blocks of human community—the ties of kinship” (p. 34) is an evocative one, one wonders whether the biological ties beneath that kinship are left with any moral force at all. They did not matter much for society in Plato’s thought experiment in The Republic. Brownson’s emphasis on “kinship” has a similar sort of avoidance of the biological preconditions that make “mutual care” intelligible and valuable.”

“But these are merely initial worries, and Brownson’s book merits a closer and more full treatment than I can afford here. Indeed, his approach is useful precisely for illuminating the difficulty of defending a stance that the church has nearly unambiguously treated as the presupposition for moral reflection about human sexuality, even if there have been differences over the details of that stance. For traditionalists, the debate over whether the presupposition of anatomical difference is only “normal” or also “normative” will not be settled by appeal to empirical claims about contemporary experience or science. The grammar and meaning of human sexuality is different from other investigations into the natural world, for its subject matter extends beyond that which such empirical pursuits can deliver (namely, the meaning of human sexuality and moral norms).”

(Anderson thinks Brownson provides a “Deep Challenge” to traditionalist views on biblical gender and sexual union -worth considering carefully and closely)

“I suspect Brownson’s book will persuade few who do not share his starting points or his means of integrating “experience” into his reading of Scripture. But for the questions it raises and for the deep challenge it presents to the traditionalist account of Scripture, it is a book worth considering carefully and closely.”

WHO IS MATTHEW LEE ANDERSON? HIS LONG HISTORY WITH TGC 

In 2011 TGC / SBC / Christianity Today writer / Ed Stetzer protege’ Trevin Wax interviewed Matthew Lee Anderson for TGC

Thinking Theologically about the Body: A Conversation with Matthew Lee Anderson

“Today, I’m having a conversation with Matthew Lee Anderson, author of the new book, Earthen Vessels :Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith . Matt blogs at Mere Orthodoxy and writes often for Christianity Today I wrote this endorsement of his book  “Earthen Vessels :Why our Bodies Matter to Our Faith ”

“Tattoos, cremation, abortion, gay sex, yoga, online church: No subject is off limits in Matthew Anderson’s provocative book on the body. Anderson challenges us to deepen our understanding of what it means to be embodied. When it comes to body matters, the body matters. Though few will agree with all of Anderson’s diagnosis and prescription, all who read this book will be challenged to consider how our views of the body line up with (or depart from) Scripture and Christian theology. This is a highly ambitious project that deserves careful consideration” Trevin Wax 

ANDERSON AND REVOICE 

Anderson led the Revoice 2018 pre-conference in in PCA “South City Church ” in St Louis with long time associate ministry Spiritual Friendship .

https://revoice.us/events/revoice18/

Anderson academic studies

Click to access Matthew-Lee-Anderson-CV-2017.pdf

ANDERSON’S WORK WITH HISTORY WITH TGC EDITOR 

His additional ties to TGC include his long time work with TGC editor Joe Carter.

Anderson worked with Joe Carter’s “Evangelical Outpost” as co-editor before both joined forces with TGC and folded Outpost into the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola where Anderson is a “Perpetual Member ” and alumni .

FAR DEEPER ERLC / TGC TIES TO REVOICE LGBT+ FLOURISHING

ANDERSON’S WORK WITH ALBERT MOHLER , ACTON UNIVERSITY AND OIKONOMIA NETWORK AT EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

In 2015 Matthew Lee Anderson was working with Oikonomia Network and Acton University to present at the annual ETS meetings with Albert Mohler among others.

ETS and AU

“Major ON events will be taking place at ETS/EPS and Acton University. Here’s the scoop!”

“Acton University: Registration for next June’s Acton University conference opens on Nov. 16. As in previous years, a limited number of evangelical theological educators can get full support to attend the conference through Acton’s Oikonomia Fellowship. The ON will once again host our annual workshop during the conference, featuring TED style discussions on theology and economics from leading figures, and meaty discussions of curricular integration with colleagues in your specific theological discipline. Plus there will be all the learning and networking opportunities we’ve come to expect from AU, so don’t wait to register!”

“ETS/EPS: Don’t forget to come see us at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting this year. We have a full slate of public activities.”

“ETS Tuesday Lunch: The Oikonomia Network is co-sponsoring a panel discussion with the Colson Center, the Acton Institute and Zondervan:”

The topic was

“Benedict, Babylon and Kuyper:

Christian Faithfulness in a Post-Christian Context”

Al Mohler  (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary )

Anthony Bradley ( Acton Institute )

Carl Trueman (Grove city College and Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals )

Matthew Lee Anderson

Stephen Grabill (TGC, Calvin Theological Seminary,Acton Institute)

Greg Forster ( Oikonomia Network )

Tuesday, Nov. 17

11:45-1:00

Hilton Grand Salon C

Anderson who is now openly part of  both Revoice conference and the movements leadership council has a long history with The Gospel Coalition and its partners like Acton Institute and Oikonomia Network drafting the blueprint for the Revoice LGBTQ+ Flourishing movement in the SBC and PCA and other once conservative churches and denominations .

In Part 2 of this series will examine TGC confession of SSA to Revoice incrementalism and over use of critical theory and the social sciences to accomplish its mission .

Proverbs 23

Listen to Your Father