Marco Rubio was far and above the favorite candidate of the Evangelical Intelligentsia in this election cycle. We were told by evangelical leaders like Russell Moore, Eric Teetsel, Wayne Grudem, Denny Burk and Greg Laurie that Rubio – who said he was “fully theologically and doctrinally aligned with the Roman Catholic Church” – was a genuinely saved person. The widespread support of Rubio among evangelical and Baptist intelligentsia prompted many others, like president of the 2017 Southern Baptist Pastor’s Conference, Dave Miller, to also assert that this Roman Catholic candidate was a Christian. Others stopped short of declaring Rubio saved, for example Albert Mohler and Thomas Kidd, but got dangerously close to giving the pro-abortifacient candidate bonafides as a fellow Christian.
Even Rubio’s proposition of making young women register for the draft didn’t dampen the evangelical Christian love affair with a candidate who is neither Christian nor evangelical. Other, more conservative and confessionally evangelical candidates couldn’t be given support by the seminary and parachurch leaders who tend – like those affiliated with the Gospel Coalition – to lean left.
Christian News Network reports that Marco Rubio, favored by Russell Moore (who has been accused by the Wall Street Journal of having a “softening tone on homosexuality“) that evangelicals must “abandon a spirit of judgment” in regard to practitioners of sodomy.
Speaking at the Rediscovering God in America Renewal Project event, Rubio said…
“To love our neighbors in the LGBT community, we should recognize that even as we stand firm in the belief that marriage is the union between one man and one woman, there are those in that community and in same-sex relationships whose love for one another is real, and who feel angry and humiliated that the law did not recognize their relationship as a marriage… To love our neighbors, we must recognize that many have experienced sometimes severe condemnation and judgment from some Christians. They have heard some say that the reason God will bring condemnation on America is because of them. As if somehow, God was willing to put up with adultery and gluttony, and greed and pride, but now, this is the last straw. [Emphasis mine]
Rubio covered all the liberalized cultural-Christian talking points:
Sodomy-centered love is real
Homosexuals have been humiliated by the law not recongizing their sodomy-centered relationships
Christians have been condemning and mean
A comparison of sodomy to gluttony, greed and pride
Belittling the notion that sodomy deserves God’s judgment.
Rubio continued…
“To love our neighbors, we must abandon a spirit of judgment. Do not judge or you will be judged. For in the same way you judge others you will be judged. And with a measure you use it will be used to measure you. And we should remember not to ignore the plank in our own eye…I want to be clear with you: Abandoning judgment and loving our LGBT neighbors is not a betrayal of what the Bible teaches. It is a fulfillment of it. Jesus showed us that we do not have to endorse what people do in order to accept them for who they are—children of a loving and a merciful God.”
The talking points continued.
Love means not judging
We have planks in our eye
Abandoning judgment is a fulfillment of the Bible
We should accept people without endorsing what they do
Homosexuals are children of God
The evangelical intelligentsia did their best to convince us this man was a Christian, and some even suggested he was an evangelical. Men like Grudem, Kidd and Mohler; who served on his faith advisory boards, might want to reach out and advise him.
The truth is, Rubio might have made a fantastic president. He might have even been electable. However, justification by presidential primary is not a thing. Be wary when someone’s Christianity is no deeper than the election cycle.
