{"id":1700,"date":"2024-01-06T20:41:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T03:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:52:21","slug":"excerpt-from-is-the-church-pro-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/06\/excerpt-from-is-the-church-pro-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from Is the Church Pro-Gay?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recommended by the United Reformed Churches’ 2024 Report on Sexuality<\/strong>

“Here is a robust and Biblical response.” –Rev. Gavin Beers<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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The Gay Crisis in the Churches<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a long-standing discontentment with the liberal Presbyterian Church (USA), he helped establish the more moderate Evangelical Covenant Order denomination (ECO).[i]<\/a> He was revered as one of America\u2019s great pastors until his fall in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortberg\u2019s 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]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s daughter, Mallory (who identifies as a male named \u201cDaniel\u201d). She broke the silence by sending a letter to the church asking them to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church investigated and reprimanded John for his \u201cpoor judgment.\u201d But Mallory was not satisfied. Months later, she revealed the name of the pedophile youth worker: John \u201cJohnny\u201d Ortberg III. It was John Ortberg\u2019s son.[iii]<\/sup><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-2020, the daughter revealed that for years Johnny schemed to be alone with boys.[iv]<\/a> Specifically, she wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014especially, he says, boys between the age of 8 and 13.[v]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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[i]<\/a> Church Executive, \u201cHard Decisions,\u201d Church Executive<\/em>, March 2, 2012, https:\/\/churchexecutive.com\/archives\/keeping-cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> Leonardo Blair, \u201cMegachurch Pastor John Ortberg Allowed Volunteer Attracted to Minors to Work with Children, Church Reveals,\u201d The Christian Post<\/em>, 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 \u201cUpdate from Our Elders,\u201d Menlo Park Church<\/em> website, https:\/\/menlo.church\/communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> Bob Smietana, \u201cMegachurch Pastor John Ortberg Kept a Family Member\u2019s Attraction to Children Secret. Then His Son Blew the Whistle,\u201d Religion News Service<\/em>, July 6, 2020, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2020\/07\/06\/megachurch-pastor-john-ortberg-family-member-attraction-to-children-secret-menlo-church-daniel-lavery-whistelblower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> Daniel Lavery , \u201cAs an Adult,\u201d Twitter, June 28, 2020, https:\/\/twitter.com\/daniel_m_lavery\/status\/1277386080371736576.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[v]<\/a> Jessica Lea, \u201cJohn Ortberg under Fire Again, This Time for Hiding Son\u2019s Identity,\u201d Church Leaders, July 6, 2020, https:\/\/churchleaders.com\/news\/378377-ortberg-menlo-church-son.html. See also Ortberg\u2019s daughter\u2019s original tweet, \u201cVolunteer was my brother,\u201d Jun 28, 2020, https:\/\/twitter.com\/daniel_m_lavery\/status\/1277386075246395392.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recommended by the United Reformed Churches’ 2024 Report on Sexuality<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-church","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1726,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions\/1726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}