The Gospel is MEANT to be Offensive!? Part 1

Many Christians smuggle in their judgmental doctrines by making the claim that the Cross, the Bible, and the Gospel are intended to be offensive. What a strange idea. Let's talk about it.

Last week I addressed what evangelical pastor/author, J.D. Greear called his one “practical” problem with non-affirming churches not being clearly upfront about their non-affirming beliefs and policies. In his opinion, such silence/non-position makes it so the church forfeits their ability to control the narrative. In other words, culture (according to him) has already decided that evangelical churches are not safe or good places for LGBTQ people. So rather than accept such a designation as being dens of bigotry and homophobia, Greear exhorts non-affirming churches to “strategically” be proactive and declare their non-affirming position, so that they can then follow it up with, “But we still love you!”

I also touched on how my one “practical” problem with church’s lack of clarity is that it creates a guaranteed-to-cause-pain bait and switch situation. Where LGBTQ folks are led to believe they are really, truly welcome at a church, only to find out that they’re not.

So while I obviously disagree with Greear’s theology and ecclesiology, we do actually agree on this one thing: it’s better for churches to be upfront and clear about their non-affirming LGBTQ beliefs and policies.

Then, in the article, Greear unpacks two (what he calls) “Biblical” problems with churches not being clear on their beliefs/stance.

Today I’ll start my response to the first of these “problems.”