After two weeks of criticism relating to a Facebook post telling gay people that God did not want them to change, Bethel Church responded to criticism but refused to clarify their position on the sinfulness of homosexuality.
As we reported in Bethel Church Goes Gay, Bethel is launching a new LGBT ministry called Changed, but the church said that only those who don’t feel “fulfilled” should worry about changing (as you can see in the screenshot below). In fact, the church explicitly said that not all homosexuals must change.
The website for Changed doesn’t refer to homosexuality as sin and neither does the website mention such concepts as sin, repentance, or forgiveness. The ministry seems to merely be a self-actualization and self-help ministry for LGBT people, and doesn’t call them to repentance or even acknowledge that homosexuality is sinful. Bethel’s pro-LGBT ministry coincided with Jackie Hill Perry’s (a Same-Sex Attracted, militant feminist who teaches that God won’t sanctify homosexuals) embrace of Bethel Church and Jenn Johnson’s Word-Faith theology as “not heretical.”
Bethel Church was widely criticized for doing anti-Gospel work with the LGBT, as perceived in their Facebook post. Many people have asked Bethel to clarify whether or not they view homosexuality as a sin.
Out of 3.1k comments, there is no question posed to Bethel Church regarding their stance on gay marriage. And neither was Bethel’s original post about gay marriage. Literally no one was talking or asking questions about gay marriage.
Many false teachers, including Bethel’s new friend, Jackie Hill Perry, assert that marriage should only be between a man and woman, and yet deny that Same-Sex Attraction is sinful. These false teachers in the ‘Christian Eunuch Movement’ deny that homosexuality is sinful unless acted upon physically.
Bethel Church responded to criticism but didn’t clarify their position on the inherent sinfulness of homosexuality. Instead, they chose to clarify a “misunderstanding” that virtually no one had brought up.
Bethel’s response allows them to appear orthodox on the issue of homosexuality to the undiscerning but is actually an intentional side-step of the issue at hand.
Bethel encouraged people to email [email protected] if people have more questions about their positions. We emailed Bethel Church over the weekend and have yet to receive a response to the simple question, “Is homosexuality a sin?”
