How Albert Mohler and Tim Keller’s Gospel Coalition are “Queering” Christian Faith
By Thomas Littleton
revcoltom@gmail.com
May 30, 2018
Few in the Evangelical world are unacquainted with Dr. Albert Mohler. Many view him as one of the last remaining statesmen of the SBC and a champion of Conservative Inerrancy of Scripture and Reformed Theology. Almost all champion him for his historical stand and the salvation of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary many years ago, which meant saving the Southern Baptist Convention from ruin by liberals who were promoting homosexuality, feminism, liberation theology and social justice. It will therefore be hard for some Christians to even consider the possibility that so esteemed a conservative as Albert Mohler is, behind closed doors, training and promoting LGBT activists to infiltrate churches, while in the public eye he professes to uphold the Bible. Mark Twain once said, “Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and he can sleep till noon.” In the case of Dr. Albert Mohler, “Give a minister a reputation as an ultraconservative, and he can advance the liberal agenda with impunity.” Albert Mohler’s reputation of yesteryear does not change the facts of the present, and God does not call for the protection of false teachers.
The Church has suffered long at the hands of infiltrators and its judgement has been clouded by a constant flood of rhetoric disguised as “Biblical worldview.” Most of the current narratives for Christian consumption, including Dr. Mohler’s, come NOT from the Word of God but from the social sciences and humanities wrapped in a loose application of theology so saturated with philosophy and relevancy that is almost meaningless chatter. The leaders of today’s great evangelical movements derive their inspiration, not from a Divine calling but from conclusions driven by polls and numbers and cultural winds, and the Church is the victim of these leaders who are affiliated with think tanks and funded by soft money, dark money and easy money from progressives who not only hate the Christian Faith but are delighted to see the collapse of what appears to be the last vestige of the Christian conservatism in the U.S.
None have advanced the rejection and vilification of conservative Christianity more than the 2007 creation of The Gospel Coalition (TGC) and the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC) under Albert Mohler’s protégé, Russell Moore, since 2013. Having thoroughly vilified and neutralized conservative Christianity, these self-appointed leaders have their version of a kinder, gentler, “more robust” LGBT+ Christianity poised to make its debut in the SBC and PCA. The finger prints and DNA of Albert Mohler and Russell Moore are found throughout the 2018 Revoice Conference for “LGBT+ Christianity in the Church.”
Nathan Collins is the “Founder and President of Revoice” for “Promoting LGBT+ Flourishing in historic Christian tradition.” Nate Collins is a longtime student and protégé of Albert Mohler, having received his Masters and Doctorate at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and then joining the faculty of SBTS. Collins is a New Testament Instructor and Garrett Fellow (grading papers and counseling SBTS students on academics) and is currently an Adjunct Online Teaching partner for SBTS. Collins has also represented SBTS as one of its Scholars for the Evangelical Theological Society, presenting his papers on sexuality, gender and related issues from his academic work at SBTS. Collins self identifies as a homosexual in a “mixed orientation marriage.”
Dr. Albert Mohler conferring Ph.D. on Nate Collins @ 2017 SBTS Commencement
Scott Sauls is a key Tim Keller (TGC) protégé who is now in Nashville and has an ongoing working relationship with Russell Moore and the ERLC. Sauls helped organize the Revoice meetings in February 2018 and is working with Nate Collins to promote Revoice and “LGBT+ Christianity.” See the Revoice webpage.
Karen Swallow Prior was hired by Russell Moore as an ERLC Research Fellow, and is also promoting the LGBT+ event on the Revoice website. Thus, an ERLC Fellow is directly involved and urging a “Revoice” of the Christian conversation on LBGT+ Flourishing in the Church.
Branden Polk is a scheduled speaker at the Revoice Conference. Polk is the founder of Arrowhead Advising LLC which has been a contractor for ERLC to advise Russell Moore on issues such as the 2017 “Christ Centered Parenting Conference,” the April 2018 MLK/50 Conference of TGC featuring Russell Moore in a massive Critical Race Theory extravaganza. Brandon also advises Moore on ERLC’s Prison Reform Bill promotion. Branden is a huge fan of and friend to RuPaul Drag Race / Drag Queen judge, Todrick Hall.
Mark Yarhouse is an APA-affiliated psychologist who heads the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity and is, surprisingly, a Professor of Psychology at Regent University, Virginia Beach VA. Yarhouse also works for D.A. Carson, cofounder of The Gospel Coalition, of which Albert Mohler and Russell Moore are Council members. In 2010, Carson commissioned Yarhouse to draft a White Paper as guidance for TGC Campus ministries. Yarhouse’s White Paper became the template for TGC’s Campus outreaches, introducing the new Queer language to Christian college students – LGBTQ phrases and concepts also voiced by Albert Mohler and promoted as the “revoiced” rhetoric for the Church in the Revoice, “Promoting LGBT+ Flourishing in the historic Christian tradition” conference. Yarhouse’s Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity promotes the upcoming Revoice conference “promoting LGBT+ flourishing in historic Christian tradition on Facebook below.*
TGC is NOT a Gospel Movement
In recent months TGC’s mask as a coalition for “The Gospel” has slipped significantly and the ugly face of progressive Critical Race Theory, Feminism, and now the full on “Queering of Christianity” is peering out from what most have assumed was a Conservative Biblical coalition of Evangelical denominations. We cannot say why but we can see who and in this expose you will learn HOW this has happened. It’s time we understand that TGC’s regurgitation of accepted orthodoxy on issues like homosexuality is mere lip service to the thesis in a grand dialectical process that is taking place through endless dialog on these topics with assurances that these conversations must take place because each of these issues is “a Gospel (that word again) issue”! The dialectical process works like this: a thesis or accepted truth is challenged by its antithesis or falsehood and a protracted dialogue is engaged to bring about consensus, a compromise on which both sides agree. To compromise the Christian position on human sexuality, the thesis (Bible doctrine) has been challenged by its antithesis (LGBT+ inclusion) leading to a synthesis of the two positions (LGBT+ Christianity). By means of a dialogue, driven by LGBT rights organizations which have been known to secretly collaborate with denominational leaders, the Christian Church is being coerced to compromise and eventually abandon its Biblical position on human sexuality. This dialectical scam, however, cannot succeed if the Body of Christ realizes what is at stake – the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just the Facts, Sir
To learn the background of the Revoice Conference scheduled for July 26-28 in St. Louis, Missouri, please read “Trusted SBC and PCA Seminaries are producing Sexual Minority Activists” and listen to my interview with Janet Mefferd. Additional interviews can be found at Worldview Weekend. Besides the obvious fact that the conference has taken a huge leap in the language and approach to LGBT issues – promoting “LGBTQ Flourishing in the Historic Christian Tradition” and “Sexual Minorities in the Church” – the next layer in the development of Revoice unveils its problematic origins.
In 2010, D.A. Carson sought help in developing the narrative on sexuality and gender for the campus ministry focus of TGC. Assistance came from Regent University Professor of Psychology, Mark Yarhouse, a “Christian psychologist in LGBTQ+ studies” whose Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity also promotes the Revoice Conference. A White Paper, “A Christian Perspective on Sexual Identity” (2010) by Yarhouse, became the “Gold Standard” for all discussions of LGBTQ for TGC campus ministries, which also involved Yarhouse making the rounds to most of the Bible colleges and seminaries affiliated with TGC. You Tube has archived many of his presentations (some were even Chapel Services) to impart his perspective on Gender and Sexual Identity to young seminarians and Christians in our conservative institutions. Yarhouse has spoken to students at Wheaton, Biola, and even small, remote colleges like conservative Covenant College on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. My point being the ideology D.A. Carson commissioned to craft the TGC message has seen thorough saturation of Christian institutions and is now the false doctrine of the Revoice Conference.
So, what is wrong with it and what exactly did this 2010 White Paper establish?
Yarhouse is a member of the American Psychological Association on LGBT issues and the nature of his work for the APA over many years involved conducting dialogues between homosexual psychologists and Christian psychologists to move the Christians away from their Biblical framework to an alternative framework to provide consensus (common ground) with the gay community on sexuality and same-sex marriage:
“In 2000, he chaired a groundbreaking symposium at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention that brought together gay psychologists and Christian psychologists to discuss common ground in treatment options for those who experience sexual and religious identity conflicts. He chaired similar dialogues at the APA on the many meanings of marriage (among different religions and among various groups within the gay community), services for adolescents experiencing sexual identity concerns, and an approach to services referred to as the sexual identity therapy framework.”
Yarhouse’s career reveals the overlap of input from the gay community, gay psychologists, and the affirming APA, in his endeavor to find common ground for Christian counseling professionals in treating patients with the full spectrum of LGBTQ issues. The APA signed on to the gay rights movement in 1973 when, having been infiltrated by gay activists, it depathologized homosexuality in order to keep the political correct message and funding for equality. The ideology of the APA and Revoice is antithetical to Christian conversion and the message of repentance, so it is no surprise that Yarhouse’s conclusions on the politically-charged related issue like “Conversion Therapy” have denied its benefits, and considered it harmful. In his work with TGC, this APA involvement led to disowning Conversion Therapy by coalition leaders like Albert Mohler, Russell Moore and Tim Keller.
Orientation is another key point in the case Yarhouse developed for TGC. Sexual Orientation is real according to Yarhouse, and homosexuality is an orientation, that is, fixed, defining and (all but) impossible to change. No doubt Albert Mohler felt confident, armed with the backing of TGC white paper, APA pseudoscience and Yarhouse’s study of 98 people, to repent in public in the now infamous 2014 ERLC conference on “Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage.” This confident yet baseless apology for himself and the Evangelical community (especially Southern Baptists) for having been “wrong about sexual orientation” was much to the delight of the gay press.
Why Albert Mohler and Russell Moore Abandoned Conversion Therapy
The LGBTQ lobby has identified Reparative or Conversion Therapy as one of their key targets to vilify as “harmful and false,” even calling it fraud in recent battles in California. The Human Rights Campaign and LGBTQ advocates want churches and denominations to “remove homosexuality and LGBTQ from their ‘sin list’” and have chosen this front to make that fight. They are keenly focused on “LGBTQ Youth” protections from Christian “ex -gay” efforts help gay youth to freedom from homosexuality. Reparative /Conversion Therapy in the broadest sense of the term would mean any non-affirming counsel on LGBT. A 2017 HRC effort in Miami Dade County proves the overreach of this effort into the church, Christian Counseling and even Christian parents who disagree with the normalization of LGBTQ. “The speech ban’s attempted reach beyond ‘licensed’ professionals to anyone and everyone else, including pastors counseling church members and parents counseling their own minor children, was an egregious First Amendment violation,” Staver said. “Licensed counselors and unlicensed persons all have First Amendment rights to counsel minors against the harms of homosexuality and gender confusion, for secular, scientific, and religious reasons.”
Given Russell Moore’s back door meetings in 2014 with HRC and many other LGBTQ activist groups at which time both Moore and Mohler spoke out in favor of Orientation and against Conversion Therapy, for the first time in a public conference, the timing is extremely suspect for them to have come in line with and sync Baptist public policy with HRC’s increasing demands and advocacy. In short, by abandoning Conversion Therapy, Moore and Mohler and others in TGC have abandoned Biblical “conversion” for homosexuals. While other sins – yours, mine and ours remain part of the testimony of our past, as stated in 1 Corinthians 6:11; “such WERE some of you,” under the new doctrine of Yarhouse, TGC, Keller, Carson, ERLC, Moore and Mohler, conversion is “off the table” for LGBT+ Christians who can self-identify with sins which Scripture prohibits in the Church.
These men seem confident that they are speaking for the Church, again as a Gospel perspective on LGBTQ which in fact has NO Biblical basis for its claims which have been derived from and synchronized with the humanist, secular, affirming mental health establishment. This is the basis of TGC ‘gold standard’ for LGBT issues which was commissioned by D.A. Carson in 2010.
Most of the language on LGBT issues we now see emerging in the evangelical community is already in play and contained in Yarhouse’s writings for The Gospel Coalition. “Same Sex Attracted,” “Gay Christian,” “Sexual Minorities in the Church” and more are all waiting in the que to be introduced into the Christian “conversation” by “LGBT+ Christian” professionals endorsed by TGC, Mohler, Moore and (from the 2014 conference indications) the Human Rights Campaign.
The point never mentioned in this evangelical orgy of newspeak is that the Gospel issue of orientation is that which ALL humanity shares from the fall of Adam, that being an “orientation to sin.” The “old homosexual sin nature” is not to be indulged or glorified as “gay pride” but reckoned to be “dead” having been “crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6, Eph. 4, Col. 3). However much they profess that “homosexuality is SIN,” Mohler, Russell Moore and others of TGC (not so much Tim Keller since his 2015 Veritas wishy washy response to the question) are also advocating for a special “non-sinful” status for homosexuality and LGBT-related sins by the Church, which leaves those affected without hope of spiritual rebirth and a future beyond same-sex attraction, which God calls “vile affection” or, the next stage, “LGBT+ Christianity.” We ask, “Who is really harming LGBT people by the deception perpetrated by Yarhouse, the APA and others for TGC?” Who has negatively impacted the Gospel here? This psychology derived cultural relevance driven adaptation of the gospel has hurt and exploited and bullied the entire circle of those upon whom it has been forced as a “Gospel issue” by trusted leaders, without being told or warned of its origins or its endgame. The upcoming Revoice Conference, however, gives us a glimpse of the endgame and the accelerated pace at which TGC determines to arrive at this “future Christianity” Revoice is calling for.
Yarhouse and his apparent disciples of Revoice use the perspective of Feminist Gender Theory to address the topic of transgenderism while admitting that much of what he speaks to on the topic is extremely rare… “perhaps one in 10,000 people affected and a broad range of experiences of gender related issues like Gender Dysphoria.” (GD being another APA and related industry word play, from when Gender Identity Disorder was changed to Gender Dysphoria, to avoid an accusatory term like “disorder” much in the same way the use of mental illness was removed from the APA language many years ago. Simply change the language and the problem goes away because it is no longer viewed in the same light).
Yarhouse makes the case that three frameworks of thought can be identified on the entire spectrum and that the way for the Church to address these issues is within the appropriate, relevant, informed framework (rather than the Word of God).
Speaking in the leftist language of Intersectionality, Yarhouse’s power point presentation offers a mostly confused and lost public the options of “Integrity, Disability or Diversity” which he insists will provide “Clarity” (the power point title). I will leave further investigation and discussion of these options to the more serious researcher in the link provided above and will spare the average reader the discussion of the confusing “Clarity” offered by Yarhouse. One point that begs to made here is that few would find this material to be a topic for a Chapel service in Bible Colleges and Seminaries of the SBC and PCA. Yet unsuspecting parents paying the tuition will find it has been indeed.
Unsuspecting Parents Beware: The Gospel Coalition “Queers the Conversation” of Campus Ministries
Was it an honest approach by TGC leaders to, not only derive their message on LGBT issues from these polluted wells, but predetermine to introduce those new terms into the evangelical community over a protracted period of time to ensure their reception and, worst of all, to draft this messaging NOT for the current body of believers but specifically for young believers whose parents are paying massive tuitions to send them to conservative “Christian” institutions operated, instructed and staffed by these same leaders? If this message shift was not intentional, why launch a progressive movement that targets the young and vulnerable hearts and minds of OUR youth. Most perverted of all is that the older members of TGC churches have heard a constant chorus of how the cultural views on issues like LGBT have shifted and WE must adapt the approach of the Church to meet those changing attitudes. Rather than reinforcing our youth with Bible doctrine and conservative messages, these leaders have again synchronized the evangelical position with the secular and furthered the VERY problem recited to the parents of those students as the imperative for compromise. And all at the parents’ expense. Brilliant, but nonetheless FAR from honest and, arguably, a deception MUCH worse.
The Gospel Coalition’s D. A Carson and Mark Yarhouse have made their White Paper a type of “Gold Standard” for all things LGBT+ for Campus Ministries. At Revoice we see speakers which include members of the PCA’s Campus ministry, Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), CRU (formerly Campus Crusade, with whom Tim Keller has worked at RTS, Orlando with pro LGBT ideology). All of the speakers for Revoice now appear under the heading of TGC/Yarhouse 2010 campus collaboration as “Sexual Minorites” in the Church. Intervarsity, which has close ties to Keller, even has its own Sexuality Tool Kit with access available to members only. The circle of young SBTS and Covenant seminarians (and others) are highly trained leaders of the dialogue for social change. Many of these same Revoice speakers also work with TGC. Advocacy and narratives for the cause of these “invisible minorities” (LGBT+ people) and frameworks that enable dialog to move the conversation forward are the mantra of these new Faith-Based Sexual Minority professionals. TGC, Carson and Yarhouse have made a major contribution to the development of this dialogue, its guidelines and training provided on campus. In the case of conservative Covenant College on Lookout Mountain GA, Yarhouse lectures on multiple occasions even in Chapel. Other Christian institutions like Biola and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) have hosted these instructional and “inspirational” discussions to their young student bodies. The mission appears to be nothing less than to revolutionize the conversation in Campus Ministry, on the campuses of both secular and Christian colleges, universities and seminaries nationally and internationally. It seems fair to say that The Gospel Coalition is leading the way in “queering the conversation” on campus and, very soon, in the churches. Revoice’s boast of “reexamining the virtues and treasures of Queer Theory and Queer Culture” for the Church make a strong case that the historic pathway of Cultural Marxism – Critical Theory and Minority Rhetoric – has been chosen for these utopian goals.
REVOICE: An INDEPTH Look at the TGC/ERLC Connection
“Sexual minorities in the Church” is among the most common phrases Yarhouse proposed for The Gospel Coalition in his LGBT “gold standard” setting White Paper. So where has the language and that conversation taken us in just 8 short years under the leadership of TGC? *Revoice 2018* When my first article on this conference was written, some of the speakers and other leaders, mentors and organizers were not yet visible. Since that time the Revoice website has added many details, the most revealing being long time Tim Keller staffer and protégé’ turned church planter, Scott Sauls role in Revoice. Sauls, who appears to be campaigning for the role of Elisha to inherit Keller’s mantle in the PCA, helped initiate plans for Revoice at meetings in St Louis in late February 2018. And, just days ago, Sauls appeared on the website strongly endorsing the vision of Revoice, which is to “Promote LGBT+ Flourishing in historic Christian Tradition” (in SBC, PCA and other unsuspecting affiliated churches of TGC).
“Flourishing” has long been a favorite word of Keller derived from his association with and work of Frankfurt School inspired Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia (UVA). If you do not understand the significance of the Frankfurt School please take to time to inform yourself about Cultural Marxism, the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and the myriad of think tanks promoting its Leftist ideology. This influence is not Gospel-centered in the least, rather its reliance on Critical Theory to obtain its long sought after goals is exactly what is taking place with Revoice.
“The underlying and enduring aspect of critical theory common to all its multitudinous expressions is the creation and application of interdisciplinary theories growing out of a worldview dedicated to overturning the false consciousness of traditional Christian thought and social order and so serving as an instrument of social transformation. Critical theory comes in all shapes, sizes, and expressions but the one thing it has in common is criticizing any residual influence of Christianity that remains on any and all of our Western institutions and disciplines. It typically expresses itself as the voice of the oppressed and the aggrieved and in doing so seeks to employ ‘social justice’ and ‘fairness’ as the sting within the theory. However, in order to do so Critical theory must invert and redefine almost all realities in order to be able to secure the superior position of the oppressed.” (The Cultural Marxist Toolbox)
The moral transformation of the Christian Church is the vision and endgame of Revoice, as Scott Sauls stated, “The Revoice Conference and the many trustworthy voices associated with it – many of whom are personal friends of mine – is a terrific place to begin this journey” (of what it means to be a “Christian” AND a “sexual minority”).
ERLC Research Fellow and An ERLC Consultant Jive Talking “Revoice”
Karen Swallow Prior is a controversial pro-LGTB+ Research Fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission whose president is Albert Mohler’s protégé’, Russell Moore. Just recently, Ms. Prior was hit by a bus (literally) while walking in downtown Nashville. (Please pray for her recovery from serious injury, surgery and also from the False Gospel of “LGBT+ Christianity Flourishing in the Church.”) Prior had joined Scott Sauls in endorsing the Revoice Conference in the most glowing terms. She is not the only ERLC endorser of Revoice, however. Just days into the unveiling of the speakers for Revoice, Brandon Polk, the owner and founder of ERLC consultant, Arrowhead Advising, was added to the lineup. Arrowhead Advising assisted Russell Moore and the ERLC with the controversial “critical race theory/white privilege” focus of the April 2018 MLK/50 Conference, as you can see from Arrowhead’s social media below.
Arrowhead Advising, LLC, April 3 ·
Dr. Russell Moore greeting our meeting on education equity at #mlk50conference.
Arrowhead Advising also helped with the recent ERLC Prison Reform Bill advocacy.
Arrowhead Advising, LLC, April 23 ·
ERLC and Prison Fellowship Support Prison Reform and Redemption Bill
https://www.congress.gov/…/115th-cong…/house-bill/3356/text…
Text – H.R.3356 – 115th Congress (2017-2018): Prison Reform and Redemption Act
Text for H.R.3356 – 115th Congress (2017-2018): Prison Reform and Redemption Act
CONGRESS.GOV
Arrowhead has also worked with ERLCs 2017 Conference on Christ Centered Parenting.
Arrowhead Advising, LLC
August 24, 2017 ·
#erlc2017 on Christ-centered parenting.
Arrowhead Advising, LLC
August 22, 2017 ·
When you’re in Nashville…
Reality Check for Many
Historically conservative Christians of the SBC and other PCA and TGC affiliated churches support the ERLC with their Cooperative Program giving. Where concerns arise is that Arrowhead Advisers’ founder speaking at the Revoice Conference for “LGBT+ /Sexual Minorities Flourishing in the Church” is billed as an ERLC consultant.
“Branden is the CEO and Founder of Arrowhead Advising. As an innovator, social reformer, public speaker, writer, counselor, and creative artist, Branden has dedicated his life to advocacy for the most vulnerable, the developing of transformational leaders, and to changing the way society addresses today’s most sensitive topics such as race, sexuality, criminal justice, education, faith, and more. He has also consulted for organizations such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Harvard University, the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, and The Clapham Group. Branden is a graduate of The College of William & Mary and George Mason University.”
Further concerns should arise from Arrowhead Advisors’ enthusiastic endorsement of a very popular Drag Queen judge, Todrick Hall, from the panel of RuPaul Drag Race TV program.
Arrowhead Advising, LLC
December 17, 2017“Ummm not gonna lie. I have some pretty dope feelings about meeting @todrick last night.
Fantastic performance in Chicago last night. I might have fallen out in the spirit afterwards.
Thanks @barkmauer and friends.”
If given the option to support the ERLC and, by extension, the Fellows and Consultants hired by Russell Moore, it is VERY likely most conservative churches and believers would simply, out of conviction, choose NOT to invest their tithes and Missions offerings with TGCs /ERLC Russell Moore or his mentor, Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Is Revoice Albert Mohler’s New/Now/Next Public Endorsement?
The founder and president of the Revoice Conference is Nate Collins, a graduate of Albert Mohler’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a New Testament Greek teacher, now adjunct online instructor, and Garrett Fellow at SBTS. Collins self identifies as a homosexual in a “mixed orientation marriage,” meaning his wife is heterosexual and he is homosexual. Nate’s record at SBTS indicates he has a Masters and Doctorate from Mohler’s institution and a timeframe of 14 years spent in the Louisville, Kentucky area around or at SBTS. His academic record shows his area of study and campus involvement and his research topics.
These topics include a variety of sexuality, gender, and LGBT Christian faith development. Examples include:
- Gender Identity and Multiplicity
- Secondary Gender Identities in the Biblical World
- Theological Perspectives on Non-Straight Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Sanctification
This last topic was presented by Collins as an SBTS Scholar to the Annual Meeting of Evangelical Theological Society. (Collins has presented multiple times at ETS for SBTS). For many who highly esteem Dr. Albert Mohler for “cleaning the SBTS house of liberal influences” during the Conservative Resurgence, it would seem impossible to associate “Theological Perspectives on Non-Straight Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Sanctification” with either Mohler or SBTS. Yet the influence of TGC consultant, Mark Yarhouse, is cited in Collins’ works, while Yarhouse Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity endorses Revoice (see above). Academic and ideological ties with SBTS and Dr. Mohler and TGC to Revoice become undeniable as well. And many on the faculty of SBTS contribute to TGC and their churches are affiliates. REVOICE IS THE LOVE CHILD OF THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE GOSPEL COALITION AND MARK YARHOUSE, the APA-affiliated Regent University Psychology Professor.
Collins’ work at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary was published as a book titled All But Invisible: Exploring Identity Questions at the Intersection of Faith, Gender, and Sexuality. The book cites the research of Yarhouse and some very dark influences including Havelock Ellis who was a close friend of Planned Parenthood Founder (PP) Margaret Sanger in England, along with a Karl Marx relative during the days Sanger was on the run from the U S law enforcement. Ellis, who is credited with coining the word homosexual in English, was himself a homosexual and sexologist who held great sway in Sanger’s development of pro homosexual ideology. Today Planned Parenthood is the largest, highest funded partner in the promotion of the normalization of homosexuality and LGBTQ. In fact, Planned Parenthood added the “Q” to LGBT for “Questioning” one’s sexual orientation and gender as normal at any age, and has succeeded in making radical Comprehensive Sexuality Education mandatory in public schools as a “Human Right at any Age.”
Collins’ book also delves deep into Gender Theory which echoes the perspectives of Yarhouse as well. Collins bemoans the lack of engagement by the church with feminist gender theory as “unfortunate” (p. 227). A reference to the perverted sexologist Alfred Kinsey is equally disturbing. In a 2013 blog post, Collins explained his view as to why Christians are wrong about gay pride with a discussion and links to the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest leftist, activist funded advocacy for full LGBTQ equality in the world. In 2014, with $8 million in hand, the HRC began a massive focus on the Church in the South called Project One America. My state, Alabama, was one of three initially targeted for change and resources because of the strong influence of the Southern Baptist Convention. Meeting the HRC activist representatives, an apologetics friend and I spoke for 4 hours about their intentions tactics and goals which were brazen and well organized. They were sending activists into the churches, even young teen activists to test reactions. They admitted they were pushing for the removal of LGBT from the churches “sin list” and to force counselling like Reparative or Conversion Therapy out the door of the churches. To my amazement as a Southern Baptist, we were told in the following weeks that these same HRC leaders would be meeting behind closed doors with Russell Moore and Mohler associates at the ERLC conference mentioned above on “Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage.” They had their meeting and from every indication, they found allies in Nashville and boasted “southern Baptist and the gay community break bread together in Nashville.” Nate Collins is now in Nashville where he and Revoice sponsor and mentor Scott Sauls, of Tim Keller’s network, reside and minister.
So, is the Human Rights Campaign funding and providing activists for Revoice? We may know soon or we may never know this side of eternity, but we do know their talking points are well coordinated and harmonize, with the exception of espousing celibacy as a Biblical context for their LGBT+ Christian identity in the Church. The truly Biblical concept of celibacy has nothing to do with providing a haven for those with homosexual desires in the church. This is a perversion of the mention of celibacy in faithful Biblical context. Many homosexuals and lesbians who claim to be celibate, do this to be admitted into church membership. They later change their minds and status, after they decide that celibacy doesn’t lead to “human flourishing.” Case in point. Julie Rodgers, a same-sex attracted but celibate former Assistant Chaplain at Wheaton College is now engaged to be married to another lesbian and admits that she never believed in celibacy.
Another odd narrative is that of Wesley Hill, who is an Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Pennsylvania, and will be a speaker at Revoice. Hill claims to be celibate, but in a recent article he described his emotional breakdown after a male friend ended their friendship to date and eventually marry a woman. The question begs, why would his best friend end their friendship during his courtship of a woman? Hill words “my friend’s new romance” implies a previous romance between them.
“The occasion of that darkness was my friend’s new romance, and my experience of it was almost entirely defined by a deepening jealousy. My friend was my best friend. We both said so often. We had once shared a house and talked sometimes about doing so again in the future. And so, fingering the cellphone in my pocket, I tried to forget for a moment that I wanted him single again, wanted him all for myself. I tried to forget the painful, gradually dawning awareness that he did not want those things. I pulled out the phone and called him, ready to put my best, least envious, least aggrieved foot forward. Tonight would be our last time to see each other for a while, I told him when he answered. Could we, in light of that, have dinner together, just the two of us? I knew the answer as soon as he started to reply. He would not be able to have dinner with me, no. He and the woman he was now dating had already made plans, he said. For a moment, it seemed that he wanted to apologize, but instead he wished me a safe flight, promised we’d speak soon, and hung up. The next thing I did was look for a place where I could sob without being seen.
“It has taken me years of therapy and spiritual direction to face up to what, in retrospect, is the clearest, simplest explanation for those tears. I had fallen in love with my friend, and I was in that moment confronted with the realization that I wasn’t willing to share his love with anyone else.” (“Love, Again”)
Homosexuals complain that celibacy does not lead to “human flourishing” and Wesley Hill’s experience bears that out. But it is difficult to believe that a celibate SSA would have an emotional breakdown that was so severe it required “years of therapy” to recover, if there had been no sexual bonding in the relationship.
Sam Allberry, a celibate SSA Anglican priest and editor at TGC, preaches that celibate SSAs and Transgenders are bearing a “cross” that will earn them a “crown” in the New Jerusalem. In his words, these broken gay people can find peace in their identification with Christ’s brokenness and that they are the real “heroes of the faith.”
“In [Christ’s] ultimate brokenness, we can find the true solution to our own brokenness, the true hope of the gospel.”
“Sam Allberry – TGC editor and author of ‘Is God Anti-Gay?’—outlines a biblical response to the unique issues of transgenderism in our day. This response includes a unique understanding, a unique compassion, and a unique hope.” (The Gospel Coalition, “What Christianity Offers to Transgender Persons”)
This profane teaching – that celibates with “vile affections” are “heroes of the faith” – has nothing to do with Scripture and everything to do with Eastern mysticism, where celibates are held in high honor as in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Buddhism and other Eastern religions.
Here’s a novel idea for the apostate church of our day. Why not preach the Good News of freedom from the bondage of sin to homosexuals and lesbians?
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:1-11
There is a clue as to why Wesley Hill and Sam Allberry and the PCA have nothing to offer homosexuals besides a life of struggle and failure against same-sex desires. Hill wrote this about a couple who were godparents:
“They stood at the font as their friends’ baby was sprinkled with water and marked as Christ’s own forever, and they promised to help raise him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Hill and Allberry are members of the Church of England, which practices infant baptism, as does the PCA. Wesley Hill’s heretical belief that infant baptism saves explains why these denominations don’t preach the “new birth” as “a new creation” and why congregants are not set free from the dominion of sin.
Conclusion and Confusion
The Revoice Conference and its ties to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, once the flagship seminary of the SBC, are a sad commentary on the state of affairs at the SBC and wave a massive red flag warning to those who expect the clarity of Scripture from denominational leadership on the Gospel, humanity, human need, and sin. To those who have experienced deliverance FROM homosexuality or who wish to leave that life behind them and find hope in Jesus, the message of Yarhouse and Revoice appears to be one of contradiction to those have been set free and a hopeless message to those who seek deliverance. The Presbyterian Church of America, which separated from the liberal PCUSA to form a new denomination, build new churches, colleges and seminaries and disciple conservative young believers, are in shock and awe as Revoice is being hosted by a PCA Church – Memorial Presbyterian in St Louis – whose Pastor is a speaker, and seven Covenant (PCA) Seminary grads and two professors (three if you count Sauls’ past work) are speaking and conducting workshops at the conference. Several members of the PCA campus ministry, Reformed University Fellowship, are also involved in Revoice.
One workshop praises Queer Theory as an “Adventure” and considers the “virtues” lost by the Church by discarding Queer theory, culture and literature. The Church must therefore reexamine these contributions which they discarded – “the treasures Queer Theory, Queer Culture and Queer Literature will bring into the New Jerusalem at the end of Time.” This workshop is conducted by Grant Hartley, a young missionary with CRU (Campus Crusade).
Revoice signals a major shift in the talking points of Tim Keller, Albert Mohler, ERLC and The Gospel Coalition. It is high time for Conservative Evangelicals who follow them — attend TGC-affiliated churches, read their books and media and blogs, entrust them with their grown children’s education and ministry calling, send them financial support, use TGC curriculums and most frightening – children’s materials—to be asking the hard questions. Saints, do you really want to entrust your faith, family, children and grandchildren to their ‘Reformed and Reforming’ version of LGBT+ Christianity?
Conservative Take Down
In 2016 and 2017, TGC and ERLC revealed other realities somewhat hidden before. The “never Trump” mantra (which has yet to end) and the use of TGC and ERLC’s full resources to defeat a fellow Southern Baptist in the Alabama Senate race (and thereby help elect a far left-pro homosexual, Human Rights Campaign supported candidate in his place) reveal the progressive POLITICAL AGENDA behind the theological mask of TGC and ERLC. In addition, that same political agenda is working to destroy the old guard of Christian conservatism, starting in earnest when a group of TGC-affiliated activist journalists, led by outed gay writer Jonathan Merritt, were sent out in major media outlets to attack and take down Dr. Paige Patterson, another champion of the SBC’s conservative Resurgence.
Through a feminist feeding frenzy of a MeToo moment, where most of the charges were disproven, overblown and distorted by the media hype, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President, Paige Patterson, was forced out by the Board of Trustees. Out with the old and in with the … new progressive leadership which promotes “LGBT+ Christianity.” Mohler’s affiliate of The Gospel Coalition, J.D. Greear, is poised to take the presidency of the SBC in a matter of weeks. The one stalwart old guard conservative NOT under attack by MeToo or any other progressive movement is Albert Mohler. Considering the realities just one layer beneath Revoice, TGC and the ERLC, the stellar reputation of Al Mohler appears to be little more than a faded memory.
Time to ask the hard questions, beloved! Will the SBC and PCA leaders we trust and are NOT involved in this “LGBT+ Christian” deception rise up and condemn it? Will anyone provide leadership against it?
Paul admonished Timothy
“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’—which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. (1 Timothy 6:20, 21)
“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.” (Titus 3:10-11)
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For those who wish to see more of Revoice’s heretical statement of its mission, here it is if you are not done already.
“The word revoice means ‘to update or refurbish with a new, fresh voice.’ It was originally used within the world of musical instrument repair, but metaphorically it can refer to the shape of the conversation that a group of people have about a particular topic. For example, when the pro-life movement first gathered steam, it focused almost entirely on the goal of ending abortion through the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, this eventually led to criticisms that pro-life advocates were ambivalent toward other forms of reproductive injustice, such as a lack of access to affordable childcare or maternity care for the impoverished. Although the pro-life movement had always been ‘anti-abortion,’ it soon become synonymous with ‘anti-woman.’ Thankfully, leaders in the pro-life movement today are aware of this and are recalibrating—or revoicing—their messaging and strategy accordingly. “Few conversations taking place today need to be revoiced more than Christian discussions about LGBT people and the way they experience their gender and sexuality. Like talking heads on evening news, conservative Christian leaders and their conservative LGBT brothers and sisters find themselves in a conversation whose posture, content, and tone is ill-suited to developing a consensus path forward. Yet this is a gospel issue. These conversations need to be revoiced so that the gospel of Jesus Christ can more easily be applied to the individuals who are involved in them.
“What is the mission of Revoice?
“To encourage, support, and empower gay, lesbian, and other same-sex-attracted Christians so they can experience the life-giving character of the historic, Christian sexual ethic.
“What is the vision of Revoice?
“Revoice exists because we want to see LGBT people who adhere to the historic, Christian sexual ethic flourish in their local faith communities. We envision a future Christianity where LGBT people can be open and transparent in their faith communities about their orientation and/or experience of gender dysphoria without feeling inferior to their straight, cisgender brothers and sisters; where churches not only utilize, but also celebrate the unique opportunities that life-long celibate LGBT people have to serve others; where Christian leaders boast about the faith of LGBT people who are living a sacrificial obedience for the sake of the Kingdom; and where LGBT people are welcomed into families so they, too, can experience the joys, challenges, and benefits of kinship.
“What does Revoice believe about human sexuality?
“We believe that the Bible restricts sexual activity to the context of a marriage covenant, which is defined in the Bible as the emotional, spiritual, and physical union of a man and a woman that is ordered toward procreation. At the same time, we also believe that the Bible honors those who live out an extended commitment to celibacy, and that unmarried people should play a uniquely valuable role in the lives of local faith communities. Together, these two convictions constitute the ‘traditional sexual ethic,’ because it represents the worldview that the Bible consistently teaches across both the Old and New Testaments and that Christians have historically believed for millennia.
“But a historic, or traditional, sexual ethic in itself is not automatically a Christian sexual ethic. Simply abstaining from sex outside of marriage does not make one a faithful and thriving disciple and follower of Christ. Furthermore, LGBT people who remain faithful to the Bible’s teaching about sexual expression do not automatically thrive as Christians in their local church. A Christian sexual ethic that is life-giving for all people, including LGBT people, is not something that we can simply assume we already possess, but must instead be a goal that all Christians—straight and nonstraight—continually attempt to construct and refine anew in their own cultural context. Settling for less than this results in a version of the traditional sexual ethic whose cultural relevance might not be immediately apparent to populations of people who live at the margins of our society. For these individuals, a culturally irrelevant sexual ethic simply doesn’t feel livable.”
