[Australia] The Australian edition of The Gospel Coalition put forward an interview with Ed Shaw, who founded Living Out with Sam Allberry. Living Out and Sam Allberry have been widely supported by The Gospel Coalition in the United States, as well as by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Although some of the more conservative support for Living Out has waned since this expose was published, TGC still promotes their work around the world.
The article, published August 13, quotes Shaw as claiming that Jesus suffered from Same-Sex attraction.
TGC: Tell us about your plans for the youth night on Friday night? Do you see youth as a particularly vulnerable age for confusion on matters of sexuality?
Shaw: I’m wanting the young people who come to this event to know that Jesus is the one person that they can fully trust with their sexualities, identities and gender because he is both their Creator God and a human being who knows what it is like to grapple with a sexuality, identity and gender.
This old fallacious canard is taken from a twisting of Hebrews 4:15, which we explained in the post, No, Jesus Wasn’t Tempted with Homosexuality.
The gist of the argument is this: A perverted sexual desire comes from the Fall of Adam, inherited by our sinful nature. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin, without Original Sin or a depraved nature. Jesus’ endurance from temptation – like those given by Satan in the wilderness – were from sins external in nature, not internal from within his nature.
To claim that Hebrews 4:15 implies that Jesus was inwardly tempted with perversions of his nature really does have damning consequences upon our Christology and impugns the sinlessness of Christ.
After all, Jesus himself taught that sinful sexual desire was a transgression – even if not acted upon (Matthew 5:27-28). The entire Living Out ministry is built upon the presumption that Same-Sex Attraction is not sinful, and they dare go so far as to claim that Jesus probably dealt with the desire as well.
The Gospel Coalition of Australia has a different leadership council than that in America, and in can be found here. Unfortunately, they are just following the path of TGC United States, which has Sam Allberry – the most prominent member of Living Out – as an editor and contributor.
