Imagine if you will that your pastor comes to you and says, “I have an attraction to women who are not my wife but don’t worry about it brother because I’m seeking to put to death this desire.”
What would you do? You certainly would be shocked. And then you would think furiously about what to do: ask him to step down, ask him to get counseling, go to the session, something. And I doubt many, if any, would smile and do nothing.
Now imagine if he said instead, “I have an attraction to animals but don’t worry about it brother because I’m seeking to put to death this desire.”
I would imagine your immediate, gut response would be revulsion—and rightly so. Then you would seek to get him help, one way or another.
Now imagine your pastor comes to you and say, “I have an attraction to men but don’t worry about it brother because I’m seeking to put to death this desire.”
What would you do? Would your reaction be the same as the first case? Or the second? Or somewhere in between?
Well, something like this has happened in the case of Pastor Greg Johnson of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In an article at Christianity Today, he publicly confessed his private sin of homosexuality. As he described it,
“At age 46 I’m still a virgin fighting a constant battle for sexual holiness. (Goodness knows, for the last 15 years I haven’t been able to trust myself with an unmonitored internet connection.)”
So how are people responding to this? We already know what many people would do according to social media. They would “celebrate his celibacy.” Or they lauded his “good and godly example.” Others responded with grief and prayer. Still others called him to step down from the ministry.
But why these different responses to the same sin? Or the different responses to the different sins? Are not all sins bad? Are we not all sinners and so should respond to our sins in the same way, with grace and mercy?
The differences often arise from our God-given knowledge that some sins are more heinous in the sight of God than others.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism question 83 (a public, theological standard of the PCA) summarizes the importance of distinguishing between degrees of sins, that not all sins are equally heinous.
Q. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.
Why is this significant?
Because it highlights a question implicitly answered by those promoting Johnson’s public confession: non-practicing homosexuality is not such a heinous sin that it should be kept private. A related assumption is that this sin is not such that a minister should step down from the ministry after publicly announcing it.
But what if a pastor confessed to struggling with bestiality? Or pedophilia? I’d like to think there would be a public outcry. I’d like to think there would be calls to have him step down as a minister.
But is publicly confessing to intense, internal struggle with homosexuality a heinous sin in comparison to others we accept in the pastorate?
Just asking the question illustrates how far pagan society has seeped into the churches’ collective psyche. This issue was not even entertained 50 years ago. For centuries, legally, socially and ecclesiastically, homosexuality, practiced or not, was commonly assumed to be a heinous sin, a sin against nature.
To the question of how heinous this sin is, the Westminster Larger Catechism 151 sheds some light. Without going into details, three key points demonstrate the seriousness of this sin.
First of all, the heinousness of this sin arises “from the circumstances [of the sin]…if in public, or in the presence of others, who are thereby likely to be provoked or defiled.” Public announcements of private sins are commonly avoided for obvious reasons. Imagine if your church treasurer announced that he was “money-attracted and have been my entire life.” Imagine what your church members would think and do in such a case. This problem is further compounded by the fact that Johnson’s public reputation will become less described as a minister of the Gospel (who certainly sins) and more readily known as the-pastor-that-struggles-with-homosexuality.
Secondly, the heinousness of this sin arises from the “persons offending…if they be of riper age, greater experience or grace, eminent for profession, gifts, place, office, guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by others.” Confessing this private sin (and the sin of addiction to homosexual pornography, as he admitted in an interview last year) coupled with his age (46), his greater experience (a pastor of many years), his office (a public minister of the Gospel) and that he is a guide to others by virtue of that office and by virtue of his speaking at the celibate, homosexual Revoice conference last year—all contribute to the heinousness of this sin.
Lastly, the heinousness of sodomy arises from “the nature and quality of the offense.” Homosexuality is not merely a sexual sin like other sexual sins. Desiring the opposite sex is acceptable within marriage. Desiring the same sex is never acceptable. This sin is more heinous than struggling with adultery. It is true that it is a private sin—or rather it was a private struggle until he announced it.
Sexual attraction to those of the same sex is a heinous sin. Unfortunately, this has not been the first time ministers have confessed such a sin. And I fear it will not be the last.
If the church is to stand against the filthy deluge of the Second Sexual Revolution, she needs to take seriously again the truth of the catechism: “Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.”
“Conservatives” in the PCA need to decide if they’re going to be nice, noble losers and do nothing or if they’re going to save the largest remaining conservative Calvinist denomination. If the latter, they’re going to have to gird their loins, act like men, and take action even though it’s going to be unpleasant and messy. God’s truth and his church are worth far more than man’s feelings. God will not honor us if we fail to defend his church. Greg Johnson is doing the same thing the liberals did to the PCUSA 100 years ago and the same thing the Federal Visionists did: lying that this is just a disagreement over terminology and vocabulary rather than over heinous sin.
Greg Johnson should not be in the ministry AT ALL based on his own words. Still, he has plenty of other denominations he can go to and still be a minister. He doesn’t want to. He wants to take over another conservative one. There are no other conservative ones if the remaining ones go bad. Our backs are against the wall.
Time to pray and time to fight.
I hope Teaching Elder Greg Johnson follows through the judicial process all the way to General Assembly. This issue truly should come to a head once and for all, and there needs to be a clear way forward for the PCA in our society. As it is, the PCA is not speaking with a unified voice on this profoundly important issue, and it is a disservice to Christ’s Bride (not to mention unhelpful to the Body) to be so nebulous in our declared standards.
What if your pastor stood up and admitted “I have little understanding of grace and mercy, I struggle with a desire to judge others hearts, and unlike those I’m judging, I act out and allow this sin to manifest itself in full daylight, and refuse to repent and seek mercy for myself.” What if that?
Here’s another real eye-opener from the Aquila Report. I’ve read similar things from Ross Douthat.
Any pastor identifying himself as a “gay” Christian is making an idol out of a heinous sin which is a violation of the first commandment. Psalm 1 explains the progression of sin thusly: first you’re walking in the counsel of the wicked, then you’re standing in the way of sinners, then you’re sitting in the seat of mockers. In the final stage, you’re identifying comfortably with the sin. You’re at ease with it and mocking others:
This guy, Greg Johnson, doesn’t care at all about how he’s offending his brothers or bringing shame on the church of Christ, yet he expects us to believe he’s just as qualified to be a teaching elder as a man with natural desires and a family.
“Christians may and ought to testify more respect to loose worldlings than to loose Christians…The reason of this limitation is here assigned. It is impossible the one should be avoided. Christians must have gone out of the world to avoid the company of loose heathens. But this was impossible, as long as they had business in the world. While they are minding their duty, and doing their proper business, God can and will preserve them from contagion. Besides, they carry an antidote against the infection of their bad example, and are naturally upon their guard. They are apt to have a horror at their wicked practices. But the dread of sin wears off by familiar converse with wicked Christians. Our own safety and preservation are a reason of this difference.”
[Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and
Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2253.]
Overture 28 and part II agrees with this article.
Greg Johnson is up to something more sinister than making the PCA welcoming to homosexuals. He’s trying to establish himself as a high priest of a paganized, shamanistic “Christianity”.
I am joining a PCA after parenthetically wandering in the wilderness of evangelicalism. Too many PCA ministers fail to see the danger and, if they see it, are hoping it will just blow over. But this requires action.
Hello Pastor. I have some questions:Does ligonier ministries is a good theological website? And can I used the verses when Jesus said that if you look with a lust to a woman you are sinning in order to demonstrate that same sex attraction is a sin? And which other verses can I use to demonstrate that same sex attraction is a sin and attraction or desires to make sin is a sin?
Romans 7:6ff. are a good set of verses. And Gal. 5:17. Ligonier has many good things the last I checked them out. But it is best if you can find a local Reformed pastor who you can trust.
Please may I ask what on should do if one does find oneself same sex attracted or, for that matter, attracted to a woman that isn’t one’s wife? I suppose that’s in part a general question about the route that the church should lead its congregation but it is also a specific question about what Greg Johnson should do in dealing with things that he has talked about.
Depending upon the severity formal counseling may be needed. Certainly daily prayer and keeping busy to avoid drifting thoughts. Like all sins, it may be one that is struggled with until heaven. But fight it we must and can by God’s strength.
Conservative PCA churches are heading for the exits. In my experience, when good people start leaving an organization it starts an avalanche of other good people leaving. This leaves only the bad people.
Andy Webb is leaving the PCA. Is this a snowball rolling downhill?