In the cesspool of modern American culture, at some point in the last few decades, it has become in vogue to have a “gay bestie,” a homosexual best friend attached to your social entourage. I’m not sure when exactly that became the case because actual Christians have a tendency to maintain some form of separation from the lost world, but it was probably about the time it became in vogue for anorexic white girls in Hollywood to carry around those strange looking rats in their purses. For the cool kids of American evangelicalism, that gay bestie is a journalist named Jonathan Merritt.
Wherever you find the Latte Mafia of evangelicalism’s social justice brigade – or who I’ve termed the Evangelical Intelligentsia – you’ll find Jonathan Merritt, the limp-wristed son of former SBC President, James Merritt (who is also recently “woke“). Merritt writes for Religious News Service, which is basically the Subaru of evangelical news reporting. Writing with all the gay ambiguity with which Liberace played the piano, Merritt is a left-of-center progressivist who has capitalized upon his famous Southern Baptist dad to speak with authority on issues that no other homosexual could possibly imagine. And like any good sitcom father, Merritt Sr. has either embraced his son in the fullness of his homosexuality or remains intentionally ignorant with Ostrich-Sand Syndrom that his son is, as we would say back in the hills, is queerer than a three dollar bill.
Merritt is also the constant social media companion of Ed Stetzer, Russell Moore, JD Greear, Karen Swallow Prior and others in the Intelligentsia who are hell-bent on chasing after culture like a buck in rut. Whatever the talking points of the social justice guild, you’ll find Merritt flanking them with an article for whichever Christian publication that is willing to pretend he’s not gay. But as we’ve been saying forever, and will continue to say, Merritt is the Boy George of evangelicalism. It’s not ambiguous. It’s not a “maybe.” His tent is clearly pitched toward Sodom. All the while, America’s most famous evangelical leaders utilize him as a powerful ally in the press and as an important resource for their agenda. This is the equivalent of partnering with the devil; a big, gay, rainbow-colored, glitter-splattered devil with a rainbow cape.
In spite of his well-publicized gay adventures that were – against his will – exposed by a homosexual colleague with whom he had relations, evangelicals have acted like he’s straight as an arrow, even if the arrow is pointed left. A loved one asked me recently, “How do you know he’s gay,” to which I responded, “Making out with another dude is pretty gay.” Common sense is not all that common. With one foot still in the closet (he is a blogger for Christian media, after all), Merritt has daily dared anyone to out him, not realizing that the only people who consider him still in the closet are the people using his associations with the press like he were a puppet. No one really thinks Jonathan Merritt is a Christian who’s being conformed to the power of Jesus and sanctified by his spirit to be freed from the bondage of gayness. We all understand Merrit is a half-closeted homosexual who won’t be inheriting the Kingdom of God without some serious repentance. But he’s making it increasingly difficult for even his straight besties to play pretend that he’s not the flaming variety of homosexual.
Merritt recently tweeted the following…
Commentary could be provided on the content of the tweet, I suppose. By “abuse” Merritt means “they were told homosexuality was a sin.” By “ignorant,” Merritt means they taught the Bible’s clear teaching on sodomy. By “happy, healthy adults,” Merritt means they engage in anal intercourse (or some other unnatural, aberrant variety of bodily penetration) and are at vastly higher odds to receive disease, illness or early death. By “celebrate you,” Merritt means, “celebrate me, because I’m one of you.”
That aside, this son of a former SBC President is celebrating gay pride. And this shouldn’t just reflect upon the bundle of sticks himself, but it should reflect upon all those, like Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer and so many others, that have made Merritt a powerful ally in dismantling the conservative coalition of the Southern Baptist Convention.
