Homosexuality

Republished with permission from Baptist Bulletin Sept/Oct 2010. All rights reserved.

During the 2010 GARBC Conference, messengers of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches passed a “Resolution on the Open Practice of Homosexuality in the Military,” urging churches to contact U.S. senators and representatives who are in the process of changing current policies that prohibit gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. In the resolution, which passed unanimously, the messengers expressed our position that “no further changes to the current policy be made into law.”

The GARBC resolution recognizes that chaplains are “providing compassionate Christ-like care to all service members and their families,” even those who are practicing homosexuality. But chaplains also have a responsibility to faithfully preach and teach that homosexual practice is Biblically wrong. The resolution concludes by calling on churches in the GARBC fellowship to “express Christ-like compassion without condoning the behavior of those who proclaim a homosexual lifestyle, and to pray for our government and military leaders (I Tim. 2:1–2).”

Earlier in the year, the Armed Forces Chaplains Board invited Chaplain John Murdoch, director of Regular Baptist Chaplaincy Ministries, to write a response letter summarizing the GARBC’s position on the proposed changes. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had established the Comprehensive Review Working Group to study how the changes would affect the military. In turn, the CRWG asked the Armed Forces Chaplains Board to request responses from each of the 202 endorsing groups. Prior to writing his response, Murdoch contacted GARBC chaplains for additional input.

“What protects chaplains from accusation of hate speech or crimes, and punishment for preaching, teaching, or counseling from their faith traditions?” Murdoch wrote in his official response. “The GARBC believes that freedom of speech and freedom of religion will be impacted significantly if the [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] policy is repealed.”

Murdoch is a U.S. Army veteran who was a GARBC pastor for 27 years and formerly the chief of chaplains for the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. He is actively involved in the endorsing community in Washington, D.C., where he has served on the executive committees of both NCMAF (National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces) and ECVAC (Endorsers Conference on Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy). He was elected president of the Military Chaplains Association for 2004–2006. As official endorser for GARBC chaplains serving in the U.S. military, his contacts on behalf of the GARBC are significant.

Murdoch expressed gratitude for the opportunity to address the issue, even if the media considers the repeal of a military ban on openly gay members a done deal. “It doesn’t matter what the outcome is; it is our responsibility to speak.”

This week the media have been carrying the report of an anti-gay pastor who has been “outed” as a closet homosexual. A conservative Lutheran, the minister had been vocal in his opposition to the ELCA’s decision to ordain openly homosexual ministers. He is now being held up to public shame as a person who experiences same-sex attractions.

According to the publishers of a homosexually-oriented magazine, this pastor has been attending a twelve-step program for men who are trying to live celibate lives while experiencing homosexual attractions. The publishers commissioned a reporter to lie his way into the group. The magazine then published several admissions that the pastor is supposed to have made while under what he imagined to be the confidentiality of the program.

The pastor is now being denounced as a hypocrite both by those who are pro-homosexuality and those who are anti-Christianity. His ministry is in jeopardy. Most people seem to think that he is getting exactly what he deserves.

As of this writing, no one has alleged that the pastor ever actually had a sexual relationship with another man. No one has documented an inconsistency between the man’s profession and his conduct. So far, the case is very different from that of Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals who stepped down from his post after being accused of a relationship with a homosexual prostitute.

The purpose of this essay is not to determine the guilt or innocence of the pastor in question. Indeed, the essay will name neither the accused pastor nor the publication that has accused him. The episode does, however, contain certain lessons that Christians need to learn.