Recommended by the United Reformed Churches’ 2024 Report on Sexuality
“Here is a robust and Biblical response.” –Rev. Gavin Beers
The following is an excerpt from the newly-released book, Is the Church Pro-Gay: How to Respond to a Moral Crisis with God’s Love
Available at Google Store & Amazon on Kindle, Softback & Audible: https://tinyurl.com/3bncsbf3
The Gay Crisis in the Churches
When we consider John Ortberg Jr., we find troubles for the church from a different front. He was the pastor of the 4,000-plus attendeeMenlo Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Fuller Seminary and Wheaton College graduate, he wrote several books and traveled the speaking circuit. He was amiable, non-controversial, and admired. He was popular enough that even having a transgendered daughter did not harm his reputation.
After a long-standing discontentment with the liberal Presbyterian Church (USA), he helped establish the more moderate Evangelical Covenant Order denomination (ECO).[i] He was revered as one of America’s great pastors until his fall in 2020.
Ortberg’s troubles began in 2018 when a volunteer youth worker at his church confessed a dark secret. The young man admitted to being a pedophile yet claimed to be celibate. Satisfied that he had not molested anybody, Ortberg let him continue working with childrenin the youth group.[ii]
As it turned out, John Ortberg not only allowed the pedophile to work with kids, he did not inform other church leaders. So, no one knew but John and John’s daughter, Mallory (who identifies as a male named “Daniel”). She broke the silence by sending a letter to the church asking them to investigate.
The church investigated and reprimanded John for his “poor judgment.” But Mallory was not satisfied. Months later, she revealed the name of the pedophile youth worker: John “Johnny” Ortberg III. It was John Ortberg’s son.[iii]
As is common practice in press coverage, another side of this sordid tale is missing. Johnny is a homosexual. Just as it is an uncomfortable truth that some male heterosexuals lust after young girls, some male homosexuals lust after boys.
In mid-2020, the daughter revealed that for years Johnny schemed to be alone with boys.[iv] Specifically, she wrote:
Last Friday, my younger brother John Ortberg III (Johnny), who is thirty years old, disclosed to me that, for as long as he can remember, he has been sexually obsessed with children—especially, he says, boys between the age of 8 and 13.[v]
This scandal is even more disturbing because it foreshadows our collective future as churches face uncomfortable sexual challenges of one type or another. How? Not only has LGBT been officially normalized as public policy, more churches are becoming gay-friendly. While they are not necessarily endorsing gay lifestyles, they are nurturing the homosexual identity.
[Available: Google Store & Amazon on Kindle, Softback & Audible: https://tinyurl.com/3bncsbf3 ]
[i] Church Executive, “Hard Decisions,” Church Executive, March 2, 2012, https://churchexecutive.com/archives/keeping-cool.
[ii] Leonardo Blair, “Megachurch Pastor John Ortberg Allowed Volunteer Attracted to Minors to Work with Children, Church Reveals,” The Christian Post, February 4, 2020, https://www.christianpost.com/news/megachurch-pastor-john-ortberg-allowed-volunteer-attracted-to-minors-to-work-with-children-church-reveals.html. See also “Update from Our Elders,” Menlo Park Church website, https://menlo.church/communications.
[iii] Bob Smietana, “Megachurch Pastor John Ortberg Kept a Family Member’s Attraction to Children Secret. Then His Son Blew the Whistle,” Religion News Service, July 6, 2020, https://religionnews.com/2020/07/06/megachurch-pastor-john-ortberg-family-member-attraction-to-children-secret-menlo-church-daniel-lavery-whistelblower.
[iv] Daniel Lavery , “As an Adult,” Twitter, June 28, 2020, https://twitter.com/daniel_m_lavery/status/1277386080371736576.
[v] Jessica Lea, “John Ortberg under Fire Again, This Time for Hiding Son’s Identity,” Church Leaders, July 6, 2020, https://churchleaders.com/news/378377-ortberg-menlo-church-son.html. See also Ortberg’s daughter’s original tweet, “Volunteer was my brother,” Jun 28, 2020, https://twitter.com/daniel_m_lavery/status/1277386075246395392.
It is important to exalt God and his law in our language describing sin and sinners. Please use the term “Homosexuality” instead of “Gay Lifestyle”.
“Same-Sex-Attraction” is, of course, “Homosexual Lust”.
“Genital Mutilation” is really the horror of “Transgender” in its final iteration.
DSM-5 and pop-culture lingo have nothing in common with the Word of God.