Dear Jackie,
My friends at Protestia recently published yet another critical article about you. Their latest critique is about the recent statement you made about scripture and sexual orientation:
“It can sound righteous to say ‘God wants you to be straight,’ but I’ve yet to read anything in the 66 books of the scriptures that implies that. God wants you for himself.”
Let’s ignore for a moment that this statement was made in the course of promoting Preston Sprinkle of all people. That’s problematic in and of itself. Let’s just focus on the statement itself. It’s wrong; it’s remarkably wrong. The Bible absolutely implies that God wants mankind (particularly Christians) to be straight. If you had said, “Nowhere in scripture does it state ‘Thou shalt be straight'” then I might not take issue. We shouldn’t expect to see a command like that in scripture. The term “straight“, as a descriptor of sexuality, did not enter the cultural lexicon until the 20th century (and by the way, the term itself implies that to be gay is to be crooked). The psychology of sexual orientation that has developed in modern times did not exist when the Bible was being written. Paul did not take a course in Queer Theory or Gender Studies while learning under Gamaliel.
But you said scripture doesn’t “imply” that God wants you to be straight in the 66 books of the Bible. Jackie, that implication is in the first book. Not only is that implication in the first book, it’s in the first part of the first book. God made Adam. His very name, Adam (אָדָם), implies that he is representative of all mankind. God determines that it is “not good” for the man to be alone.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,“This is now bone of my bones,And flesh of my flesh;She shall be called Woman,Because she was taken out of Man.”For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2 18-24 NASB
In second chapter of Genesis we see that woman was made for man. They belong together. The pattern of leaving parents to start new families is established here. God, in Genesis 1:28, tells man “to be fruitful and multiply”. A basic biblical anthropology implies that God wants you to be straight. He made men and women to go together.
Jackie, it took a whole two chapters of scripture to see this implication. I could go on and argue further and better from the rest of the scriptures that come after the first two chapters but I’ve said enough to make the point I needed to make. Your argument about “reading nothing in the 66 books of scripture” about God wanting you to be straight is exposed as specious. Preston Sprinkle may not have noticed but I did.
And I doubt I’m the only one. Let’s switch gears for a moment. Do you ever wonder why LifeWay promotes you as a Bible teacher? You didn’t come to faith in Christ until adulthood and you haven’t been a Christian or an adult for very long. Only recently (and after you began your career as a Christian speaker) did you seek a formal education in seminary (and good for you for doing so). There are literally hundreds of more experienced pastors, writers, and professors better qualified to teach than you. So why you? Why does LifeWay push you? Because you are marketable. You, Jackie, given your background, are a novelty and a draw…a novelty and a draw that makes profoundly dumb statements like the one I’m critiquing here. Ask yourself, “If I didn’t used to be a stud lesbian, would anyone pay for my books and conferences?”. LifeWay and company love money so they won’t quit you. So, maybe you quit them.
Let me end this letter on a personal note. My cousin follows your teaching. Her father, as we say in the south, wasn’t no count. Her husband is a good father, a loving spouse, and a great American…but he’s a Roman Catholic. So, my beloved cousin, who loves Jesus, has never had a father or husband to lead her in her Christian walk. Then LifeWay and the Evangelical Industrial Complex gives her and women like her teacher like you. Frankly, that just burns me up.
Take a break, Jackie.
Someone’s Brother in Christ,
Seth
