January 11, 2013

Giglio Outed as Evangelical: Are your views public enough for attack?

by Clint Archer

What an honor. Evangelical preacher Louie Giglio was invited by the White House to pray at President Obama’s second inauguration. This is an honor bestowed on Evangelicals like Billy Graham (ten times over) and most recently Rick Warren. It’s a good move to invite an actual Christian to pray, since God only accepts the petitions of believers (Prov 15:8, Prov 15:29).

What a faux pas. The inauguration committee summarily uninvited Giglio and basically apologized to the nation for even having considered him.  So what did Giglio do since the invitation’s arrival to elicit the unceremonious retraction? Nothing. What happened was that someone trawling for controversy dusted off a fossilized cassette of his preaching, recorded 20 years ago, in which he made a statement acknowledging the biblical reality that homosexuality is a sin.   

White House PinkThe White House blushed pink with embarrassment and issued this statement:

We were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection, and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this inaugural. ”

 

What exactly were they expecting when they invited an Evangelical Christian preacher to deliver the benediction? Were they hoping for a world famous Christian leader who didn’t know his Bible well enough to read Romans 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 1:10? Did the best and brightest of globally televised events organizers not know that Evangelical Christians (not to mention Catholics, Mormons, and Muslims) believe that homosexual—and heterosexual, for that matter—lust is a sin?

The other bemusing oddity in this fiasco is that the most recent evidence Big Brother could unearth was recorded 20 years ago.

But the real issue is what about you and me? Are our biblically-based views on sin well-known enough to be attacked by detractors?

I’m not singling out views on homosexuality. Are your Bible-forged convictions about abortion, pre-marital sex, male headship in the family and church, disciplining children, six-day creation, and other embarrassingly fundamentalist issues known by anyone beyond your like-minded home group? Or when your co-works query your opinion on that day’s water-cooler controversy, do you steer conversation back to neutral weather-related topics?

Louie GiglioPaul was mocked for subscribing to the biblical view of the Resurrection (Acts 17:32).

John was arrested for proclaiming the biblical view of adultery and divorce (Mark 6:18).

And Jesus was rejected by the denizens of Galilee for enunciating the biblical reality of their need for a Savior (Luke 4:28-29). What do we expect for our reputations, when our Lord was attacked for His views—the very views we still espouse.

“It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matt 10:25).

There is nothing for Christians to be ashamed of for being outed as believing what the Bible teaches. If anything he should be embarrassed by how long it takes for people to know what we believe.

As singer Derek Webb would croon,

The truth is never sexy, so it’s not an easy sell,  you can dress her like the culture, but she’ll shock ‘em just as well.”

I humbly offer my recommendation that you immediately stop reading this post and check out Al Mohler’s penetrating article in The Baptist Press on the topic brilliantly titled, “The Giglio Imbroglio: The Inauguration of Modern McCarthyism.”

[Clint Archer]

in Evangelicalism with 25 Comments
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Clint Archer

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Clint is the pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church. He and his expanding troop of Archers live near Durban, South Africa (and pity anyone who doesn't). When he is off duty from CGate, his alter ego blogs at Café Seminoid, clintarcher.com
  • MMJ

    Thanks brother.
    Do you know if he has stated that homosexuality is sin in recent times? I am unfamiliar with his ministry yet just learnt of the huge conference called Passion (complete with Beth Moore). Thanks.

    • http://thecripplegate.com Jesse Johnson

      I’d say that his withdrawing/being withdrawn is a statement about his views in itself.

      • MMJ

        Yeah that’s true Jesse. Hopefully he would still affirm this if CNN turns up on his doorstep.

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      His response to the situation was: “Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration. Clearly, speaking on this issue [of homosexualtiy] has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.”

      • kevin2184

        Giglio ashamedly waffled on his response. Seriously, what does “call people to ultimate significance” mean? Many gay people that I know who “believe” in Jesus, I’m sure would say that they are being called to their “ultimate significance”. As a former homosexual who repented of my past l can’t tell you how discouraging Giglio’s response that you quoted was for me to hear. I would think it is clear to all how Giglio’s response can easily be honestly misunderstood by gay people to think that Giglio has not only changed his former stance on homosexuality, but that he also believes one can remain in that sin as long as they believe they were “called to their ultimate significance”. I thank God for those who bravely and CLEARLY preach that practicing impenitent homosexuals are on the road to hell (whether they “believe” in Christ or not), and that they must repent or face eternal punishment (1 Cor 6:9-10, Romans 1:27). It is those intrepid souls who don’t equivocate in their message that best demonstrate the love of our Savior (didn’t Christ teach us to do the same?). When I first heard Giglio’s response, I was grieved to hear that he has begun to head down the same equivocating path that Warren started down years ago and that Chan, Keller, Graham, also seem to occasionally veer upon. But after listening to the recent discussions between Brannon Howse and Chris Rosebrough regarding the recent “Passsion” conference and how “off” from sound biblical doctrine many of the messages were, I realized that Giglio’s response is simply par for the social-gospel doctrine he espouses.

  • Ron

    Hey Clint, I hesitated to leave a comment because I have already commented on Giglio at Pyro and Justin Taylor’s blog and don’t want to beat a dead horse. Then I noticed MMJ’s comment saying he was unfamiliar with Giglio. I just cannot recommend highly enough the four radio broadcast that Brannon Howse of Worldview Weekend did just days ago with Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for the Faith where they discussed the Passion 2013 conference and people like Giglio. The discussion not only covered Giglio’s very troubling talk but how the participation of people like John Piper and Francis Chan in such conferences ends up legitimizing people like Giglio and music groups like “Jesus Culture”. Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries also has a piece on Giglio’s apparent hesitation to stand up for the comments that he made almost 20 years ago that are now the topic of discussion.

    I think we all need to read/listen to these discussions as it will help us to realize the bigger picture here. Yes, the censorship of Christians is becoming an ever increasing problem and we need to have the courage to withstand it, but, in this case, as I also think with Rick Warren last time, shouldn’t the bigger question be, “are these really the people (Giglio and Warren) we want representing Christianity (Christ) in the first place? I don’t think so.

    Here are some links so people like MMJ can decide for themselves.

    http://apprising.org/

    http://www.worldviewweekend.com/radio/audio/brannon-howse-aired-january-3-2013

    Thanks, Ron

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      Yeah, Brannon’s stuff is worth checking out. Giglio has some concerning public relationships with very spurious doctrines. Like I said, it wasn’t my purpose to focus here on Giglio and his views on doctrine. I want to capture the opportunity for us to do some introspection of our own.

  • Phoebe

    Why is nobody confounded at the fact that they had to dig back nearly 20 years to find Giglio saying something about the sin of homosexuality? I just fail to see how Giglio is a hero in all of this.

    • MMJ

      Hence my question Phoebe. We don’t know they had to dig back 20 years though do we? Maybe they did, not sure. Yet, I guess the main issue/theme is the administration removing (?) him from being involved due to his previous discussion that homosexuality is sin.

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      Hey Phoebe, you missed have skim-read past the line: “The other bemusing oddity in this fiasco is that the most recent evidence Big Brother could unearth was recorded 20 years ago.” However, I didn’t want to make this a post about Giglio. It’s a post about us. Are our views close enough to the surface to be stumbled upon by anyone who cars to know, or do they need to dig deep to find out what we believe. Shame makes a deep hole to bury our out-of-fashion views.

  • Greg Pickle

    If it’s avoiding a battle over an issue you don’t get to pick, I’m mostly okay with that. If it’s avoiding the quasi-evangelical culture war that seems to think that the only sins are being a homosexual or a Democrat, I’m okay with that too. If fighting homosexuality hasn’t been your #1 priority and you are more concerned with people coming to faith in Christ, that’s great (if you still are willing to call homosexuality a sin and you don’t shy away from texts that plainly say it).

    But there’s something more here than that. I think Louie may do well to hear this admonition from Alistair Begg some 13 years ago: http://www.sbts.edu/resources/archives-and-special-speakers/we-do-not-lose-heart/ (pertinent clip starts at 20:17 and runs for a couple of minutes).

    On a personal level, you punched me in the spiritual gut with this: “Or when your co-works query your opinion on that day’s water-cooler controversy, do you steer conversation back to neutral weather-related topics?” Thanks for the much-needed admonition.

    • http://thecripplegate.com Jesse Johnson

      Greg, I love this comment. Thanks for saying it so well.
      I say this tongue in cheek, but I notice you had to go back 13 years to find that quote from Begg :)

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      Thanks Greg. I’ll check out the link. It’s worth emphasizing your point that Christians tend to single out certain sins; but some unbelievers also freak out about what Christians say about those sins, while they ignore what we say about other sins. Clinton’s second inauguration featured a pastor who was against adultery. It didn’t seem to bug the committee then.

      • Greg Pickle

        Good point, and more germane here than what I said – a point I am ashamedly just now realizing. We need to be bold in our willingness to suffer mocking for the pet knee-jerk issues of the day, even if we don’t make them our hobby horses.

        As the Begg sermon goes, the whole thing is worth a listen – one of my all-time favorites. There’s a reason I knew where to find it :)

  • http://thecripplegate.com Jesse Johnson

    I’ll let Clint, who is probably sleeping right now (being in Africa and all), weigh in on this later. But for now…and this comment may become its own post next week:

    I’m not ready to say Giglio is a hero in this, or a villan in this. But say what you will about him, he is a known element, and he took a stand, and is now dealing with the consequence of all that. Giglio for years has made it his mission to combat sex slavery, and he obviously came to the conclusion that his mission was aided by avoiding that topic. You can object to that conclusion, or you can critique his method/means. But at least he has been consistent.

    And, to his credit, he deserves props for not rolling over on this. He could have, when the sermon was “discovered,” simply have said something like: “those were my views then, back when Don’t ask Don’t tell was the Democrats idea, and Senator Obama was opposed to gay marriage. My views, along our country’s views, have evolved, and I’m not willing to say anything that would limit my mission of trying to end slavery.” Certainly he didn’t say THAT.

    So where does that leave us? Mohler made the point that Giglio’s stance is probably much SOFTER than most evangelicals’, and yet it is still too HARD for current American culture. If Giglio is persona non grata…wow. Rick Warren would be tarred and feathered now. Again, you can critique what Giglio’s mission is, but you have to respect that he did not waver on something that he doesn’t even see as central to his ministry to begin with.

    This event gives us the opportunity to say “there is someone who is being criticized publicly and nationally for a view that I also hold.” We should pray for him and sympathize with him simply for that reason alone.

    • GinaRD

      That’s very well said, Jesse.

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      Thanks Jesse, I’m awake now. But what you said is what I would have said, only better. I’ll cover your shift next time you sleep (if you ever do).

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryan.woodhouse.3 Ryan Woodhouse

    This man, as with Rick Warren and many others are false teachers that need to be exposed anyway so it’s good they get brought up. http://youtu.be/GeWWeyj0S3Y

    We need to test these men, examine their fruits and use discernment in who we rush to acknowledge as brethren. Remember the words of our Lord in Matt 7…that most that profess his name are on the broad road to hell. (an extremely over simplified summary of verses 13-23)

    • http://thecripplegate.com Jesse Johnson

      In Mat 7, it certainly says that most people are on the broad road, but it does not say “most that profess his name” are on the broad road. Just be careful there.

    • http://www.clintarcher.com/ Clint

      I was deliberately trying to avoid making this a post about Giglio and his views and more about us, the Christian observers of this imbroglio, and our application. I don’t want to kick the guy while he’s down. This could have happened to any Christian whose views are obscured by time or starved of airtime.

    • http://twitter.com/christlikeguys Mark Kearney

      Ryan, not sure you can say Giglio is a false teacher. He is Francis Chan’s mentor and was obviously seen good enough by Piper to preach at the passion conference…. Clint I posted a comment here earlier, did it get taken off?

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  • Kevin Jandt

    Agree with Ron. Defending & Contending wrote a strong article as well.

    http://defendingcontending.com/2013/01/04/gospel-discernment-and-passion-2013/

  • http://twitter.com/davidjdunbar David (Dave) Dunbar

    OK, if this is supposed to be about us…

    Let’s make sure WE talk about sin and specific sins frequently enough that people don’t have to go back more than a decade to get our (past or current) view on sin issues. In other words, if we’re faithful to the text of Scripture, in reading and in preaching, we will talk about these sorts of things frequently. And that means you’ll never even be considered for inaugural participation. :-)

    Second, why are we so surprised at the “disinvite”? What do you expect from unbelievers (of either political party)? A love or even acceptance of Law and Grace? Do you really expect them to appreciate the message of sin and salvation? OF COURSE they’re offended.

    This situation be a sad state of affairs (in many ways), but let’s not be shocked. Let’s just go preach the whole counsel of God. And if they throw us in jail for it, then we’ll have a captive audience.

    SDG

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