Here’s Exactly Why MacArthur’s Advice On Gay Children Is So Dangerous:

Last updated on: September 1, 2014 at 2:20 pm by Benjamin L. Corey

Here’s Exactly Why MacArthur’s Advice On Gay Children Is So Dangerous: 2014-09-01T14:20:40-05:00 Benjamin L. Corey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Not long ago, I publicly stood against John MacArthur’s advice to parents of adult children who are gay on the account that it was not only theologically flawed, but dangerous as well. You can see the old post and the original MacArthur video here, but to quickly summarize: MacArthur told parents of adult children who were both gay and professing Christians that if their children did not repent, they should be shunned and “turned over to Satan”.

My argument was that MacArthur was taking a passage on church discipline and attempting to apply matters of church governance to familial relationships– something I believe is a misapplication of the scriptures.

I took some heat for standing up to him. There were plenty of emails (as usual) and this time there was a rebuttal video by Christian Apologist, Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, both criticizing me as well as my employer, Patheos.

The storm from my take on MacArthur has died down, until I was reminded this morning of exactly why I think his advice on gay children is so utterly abhorrent and dangerous: this idea of shunning, alienation, turning over to Satan, combined with a general bigotry towards the LGBT community, has the potential to lead to violence and abuse.

The below video made it into my newsfeed this morning and reminded me of the whole thing. It is the sad yet perfect example of what I fear MacArthur’s parenting advice can lead to in the hands of hate-filled bigots (this is not to say that anyone with a traditional theology of sexuality is hateful or a bigot, just that some are.) The video was filmed recently by a young man named Daniel Pierce, who came out to his Christian family in a meeting that went way, way wrong. The meeting quickly turned verbally abusive, and ended violently.

Now, I get that MacArthur would not condone verbal or physical abuse, and hope he would also condemn the behavior seen in this video. However– and this is my point– even if traditionalists turn out to be correct on the theology of sexuality, the advice of MacArthur has the easy potential to lead to violence and destroyed lives, as seen in the video below.

My hope and prayer for John MacArthur is that he will see this video and see the praxis his theology can lead to– and that he’ll repent of giving such dangerous advice to the Christian public.

Here’s the video:

* Trigger alert: verbal and physical abuse. This video may be disturbing for some viewers:

Previous Post

August 28, 2014

I'm Thinking That Calvinism Needs An Extreme Makeover (#CalvinismDebate)

Next Post

September 3, 2014 10 Things Your Childhood Pastor Didn't Tell You (But Should Have)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abuse Adoption Asked & Answered Atheism Atonement Bible Book Calvinism Christian Culture Christian Nonviolence Christmas Church Church Killing Lies Community Creation Care Creationism End Times Evergreen Forgiveness Fundamentalism Gender Gender Equality Ghosting Grief Guns Healthcare Hell Hermeneutics Holy Land Human Trafficking Hunger Immigration Islam Israel Jesus Justice Lent Letting Go Of Hell Series LGBT Life Mark Driscoll Missiology Most Popular Posts Nationalism Old Testament Open Theism Parenting Persecution Political Poverty Prayer Pro-Life Pro-llife ethic Progressive Christianity Prosperity Gospel Put It To Bed Series Race Sincere Questions Suicide Prevention That God Show Theology To Those Christians Who Say Travel Unafraid Uncategorized War What Franklin Graham Is Wrong About Today

Select a Month October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz