Beginning on Saturday, nearly one thousand United Methodist delegates gathered in St. Louis to debate the issue of whether the UMC should revise their church’s doctrine and practice regarding same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy. They will consider several proposals, including one favored by the United States bishops called the One Church Plan, which drastically redefines...

Alan Jacobs recently wrote a blog post lamenting the “Christian language policing” he has observed around the issue of “Gay Christianity,” which in part includes a discussion on whether it is prudent for Christians to identify themselves with LGBT terminology. Prompting his post was an article by Mary Eberstadt, which Jacobs quotes at length: “The...

Updated Editor’s Note (3/22/19): Remarkably, Azusa Pacific University has reversed itself once more and removed from its student standards of conduct language that prohibited public LGBT relationships, causing Eric Teetsel’s original critique to be relevant once more. While the postscript at the end of the article is no longer applicable in light of this reversal,...

Sixteen years ago, Mary Eberstadt wrote an article for The Weekly Standard about the unfolding sex abuse scandal that was roiling Roman Catholicism then. The title of the article, “The Elephant in the Sacristy,” referred to the homosexual aspect of the sex abuse scandal that was being downplayed, ignored, and even covered up by some for...

Alister McGrath defines heresy with these words, “A heresy is a failed attempt at orthodoxy, whose fault lies not in its willingness to explore possibilities or press conceptual boundaries, but in its unwillingness to accept that it has in fact failed” (Heresy, p. 31). McGrath reveals what is an ironic truth about heresy. It is...