GREEAR MIGHT BE SBC PRESIDENT BUT HIS VIEWS ON LGBTQ+ SEXUALITYCOME STRAIGHT FROM REVOICE AND THE CULTURAL ABYSS 

By Thomas Littleton                                                                                                 11/24/2019

J D Greear is in his second term as President of the Southern Baptist Convention and the worst nightmares for those concerned about his less that Biblical moorings are coming true. This week it surfaced on his “Ask Me Anything ” podcast that Greear affirms the use of “preferred pronouns for transgender people”. Greear sources others in his position including Catholic Ryan Anderson and ERLC Andrew Walker but more shocking than his FOOLISH ASSERTION is that he uses a REVOICE LGBTQ FLOURISHING LEADER Preston Sprinkle  as his main source on the point that “using transgender pronouns is “PRONOUN  HOSPITALITY “. More on that in a moment .

Some of the Preston Sprinkle TRANS PRONOUN REASONING Greear uses .

“The arguments against pronoun accommodation summarized above all rely on two important assumptions about the nature of language. These assumptions are all the more powerful because they remain unstated:

• Assumption #1: Pronoun gender always and only refers to an individual’s appointed sex.
• Assumption #2: When our definitions of words differ from other people’s definitions, ‘telling the truth’ means using our own definitions” (11.6). “

(more on  problem with J.D. Greear using  Prestons Sprinkle as a source later)

This sad truth telling  of his warped views on Greears garnered some open rebuke .

Even the author of “The Benedict Option Ron Dreher saw Greears position as surrender. It really cant get much worse than for Dreher to think your soft peddling LGBT.

A Top Pastor’s Culture War Surrender

“A Top Pastor’s Culture War Surrender”

J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His pronouns are he/him (ERLC screenshot)

Ron Dreher’s criticism –

Dreher critiques a bloggers view  and then tries to weigh in from the middle but comes back to some hard realities on what Greear is promoting .

“If the Democratic Party has its way, and passes the Equality Act — it passed the House this year, but the GOP Senate didn’t take it up — then the use of preferred pronouns will become a federal civil rights mandate.”

“So, look, I understand the desire for a pastor to be gracious to people he’s trying to evangelize, and not to enter into conversations with them from an adversarial position. But the pronoun issue is not merely a matter of courtesy. It means something substantively. The use of language creates social realities. ”

Others like Robert Gagnon expressed concern with “What is Happening to the SBC ” in a  Facebook post .

GREEARS VIEWS ON PRONOUN USE ARE A BIG DEAL SINCE HE IS SBC PRESIDENT. BUT FAR WORSE IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF HIS VIEW BENG FOUND IN THE REVOICE MOVEMENT.

GREEAR’S TAINTED WELL OF RESOURCES EXPLAINING HIS POSITION

When talking with a transgender person, which pronoun should you use?

When talking with a transgender person, which pronoun should you use?

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

Pastor J.D. discusses transgenderism, gender ambiguity, and the concept of pronoun hospitality.

“A glimpse inside this episode:”

Old maxim: Behind every question is a questioner.

• When I hear a question like this, I immediately imagine the sort of person asking it. Sometimes it may be someone trying to pick a fight.
• But behind those who identify as transgender, that experience is invariably a person filled with confusion, pain, and rejection.
• Sadly, the church has often failed to be the sanctuary of the hurting for people in the LGBTQ community. We need to acknowledge that and repent of it.
• Behind every case of ssa or gender dysphoria is a question about unanswered prayer.

Before we talk about trans pronouns, I think it may be helpful to talk a little bit about transgenderism more broadly.

WHO DOES GREEAR SOURCE 

A Catholic- Ryan Anderson

” Ryan Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment

• • • • “He deals with these questions (about sex vs. gender, pronoun usage, etc) in a very straightforward while (usually) grace-filled way/”

ERLCs Andrew Walker – a Russell Moore disciple and Employee  a VERY close                                                                friend and coworker of Revoice leader Matthew Lee Anderson

Russell Moore’s disciple and employee says =

Andrew Walker: “My own position is that if a transgender person comes to your church, it is fine to refer to them by their preferred pronoun. .. If and when this person desires greater involvement or membership in the church, a church leader will need to meet with them and talk about how they identify. … The best solution is to avoid pronouns altogether if possible. Calling a person by their legal name or preferred name is more acceptable because names are not objectively gendered, but change from culture to culture.”

• Best if you use the proper name over and over, even if it means it sounds weird

AGAIN -THE SBC PRESIDENT IS USING A CENTRAL LEADER IN THE REVOICE MOVEMENT AS A SOURCE !

Who is Preston Sprinkle?

He is a Masters University Graduate who helped found and serves in the leadership of the controversial Revoice LGBT+ Flourishing movement .

His organization conducts training for leaders and churches in ” welcoming ” the LGBT+ Community and LGBT+ Christians into the church

• Worked at Eternity Bible College

•  

  Studied at University of Aberdeen

•  

  Studied Biblical exegesis at The Master’s Seminary

•  

  Studied at The Master’s College

•  

  Went to Bullard High

•  

  Lives in Boise, Idaho

•  

  From Fresno, California

   

Our Leadership

SPRINKLE IS ON THE FOUNDING REVOICE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL AND A SPEAKER

Preston Sprinkle, PhD President at Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender

Sprinkles own organization has Revoice leadership as well

https://centerforfaith.com/about/our-leadership

Revoice members in Sprinkles leadership

Nate Collins -Revoice founder

Mark Yarhouse – the APA / TGC/ LGBT thought leader

Rachel Gilson – CRU leader TGC author

Gregory Coles – author Single Gay Christian promoted by TGC/ D A Carson

Laurie Krieg

Pieter Valk

Bill Henson – leader Bring them Home LGBT church welcoming  leadership

GREEAR DRAWS HIS PRONOUN USE FORM REVOICE SPRINKLE -THE FULL QUOTE

The full citing by Greear of Revoice leader Preston Sprinkle is below :

“Preston Sprinkle, who heads up The Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender, has a similar approach:”

• “He calls it “pronoun hospitality.” 
• The Bible appears to use accommodating language. ACTS 17. We know there is only one God.
• You might find a correlation in “wives” in polygamous society / to a divorced man: “your adulteress”
• I wouldn’t invest too much into language–”oh, I am lying” You can be clear in other ways.
• “I’ll argue in this paper that the most biblical response to transgender people’s pronouns is a posture of unequivocal pronoun hospitality.”
• That is, I believe that all Christians can and should use pronouns that reflect the expressed gender identities of transgender people, regardless of our views about gender identity ethics. If a person identifies herself to you as ‘she,’ I hope you will consider it an act of Christ-like love to call her ‘she’ out of respect, whether or not you believe that the way she expresses her gender identity is honoring to God” (11.1).
• “What does it look like for people who think differently about gender identity ethics to speak truthfully and effectively about one another? This paper considers the common reasons given by Christian conservatives for rejecting the idea of pronoun hospitality, then challenges two assumptions about the nature of language that such arguments make and lays out an affirmative case for pronoun hospitality based in a robust understanding of how language works” (11.1).
  • “Christian arguments against pronoun accommodation—that is, using the pronouns with which trans people identify—are generally rooted in the importance of truth-telling. According to this view of language, the purpose of a pronoun is to make a statement about a person’s appointed sex” (11.4).
  • “Whereas [the truth-telling position] emphasizes the importance of truthfulness for the sake of personal integrity before God, Andrew Walker’s position focuses primarily on how his truthfulness will impact others who are listening to his words” (11.5).
• “The arguments against pronoun accommodation summarized above all rely on two important assumptions about the nature of language. These assumptions are all the more powerful because they remain unstated:
  • Assumption #1: Pronoun gender always and only refers to an individual’s appointed sex.
  • Assumption #2: When our definitions of words differ from other people’s definitions, ‘telling the truth’ means using our own definitions” (11.6).
• “When we apply Paul’s linguistic approach to the pronouns we use about transgender people, I believe we arrive at a posture of pronoun hospitality: a willingness to accommodate the pronouns of our transgender neighbors regardless of our own views about the Christian ethics of gender identity” (11.10).
• Based off of Acts 17″

Southern Baptist president says he prefers to call transgender people by their chosen pronouns

GREEAR SPOKE TWICE AT RUSSELL MOORE’S HOMOSEXUALITY CONFERENCE 

J.D. GREEAR WAS CHOSEN TO BE ONE OF THE ERLC SPOKESMEN AT THEIR CONTROVERSIAL 2014 GAME CHANGING CONFERENCE ON HOMOSEXUALITY

DON’T FORGET THIS IS THE ERLC EVENT WHERE DOZENS OF LGBTQ ACTIVIST WERE WELCOMED INTO A CLOSED DOOR MEETING WITH BAPTIST LEADERS.

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

GAY CHRISTIAN NETWORK

MATTHEW VINES

MORE

No one was ever told what happened in this ERLC/ LGBT activist sit down in 2014 but we do know is that all those SBC speakers like Moore. Mohler and Greear almost never mention that the LGBT agenda exist or speak to the end goals like the Radical Comprehensive Sexuality Education the activist seek to mandate in Pre K3 thru 12.

https://erlc.com/resource-library/event-messages/by-conference/2014-national-conference

“From the 2014 ERLC National Conference on The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage.”

GREEARS FIRST TOPIC ?

In the opening of this presentation Greear acknowledges he gleaned his views and information/ insight into the LGBT topic from ….”Russell Moore. Greear also shares a testimony about a Same Sex Attracted Staffer in his church who is repeatedly “yielding to temptation ” but never mentions his removal for leadership or any church discipline  about the habitual sinning.

“PREACHING LIKE JESUS TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY AND ITS SUPPORTERS “

https://erlc.com/resource-library/event-messages/preaching-like-jesus-to-the-lgbt-community-and-its-supporters-jd-greear

https://erlc.com/resource-library/event-messages/jd-greear-on-what-it-means-not-to-judge

“What does the Bible mean by, “Judge not, that you be not judged”? And how does this fit in with the way the church ought to respond to the LGBTQ community? Can the love of Christ transcend humanity’s sexuality and get to the heart? J.D. Greear breaks down all these points and explains how the church ought to respond to all peoples.”

J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, and the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Read More

THE HOSPITALITY MYTH

Others in the SSA / Gay Christian tgc/ erlc conversation like Sam Allberry and Rosaria Butterfield use the “Hospitality Narrative” .

THE HOSPITALITY NARRATIVE  IS REALLY QUIET WORN AND FLIMSY .

Rosaria Butterfield Calls You to (Radically Ordinary) Hospitality

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/april-web-only/rosaria-butterfield-gospel-comes-house-key.html

https://rosariabutterfield.com/testimony-conversion-1

Singleness, Same-Sex Attraction, and the Church: A Conversation with Sam Allberry, Rosaria Butterfield, and Christopher Yua

THE “HOSPITALITY NARRATIVE” IS BASED ON EZEKIEL 16 MENTION OF THE SIN OF SODOM

48 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”

“GAY CHRISTIAN” AND OTHER LGBT ACTIVIST LOVE TO POINT TO THE VERSES ABOVE BUT CAREFULLY OMIT VERSE 50 & THE MENTION OF “COMMITTING ABOMINATION ”

 50 “And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.”

LETS FORGET THE SENSITIVITY / HOSPITALITY  AND COMMIT TO THE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD.

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME WHEN THE BIBLE REFLECTS THE NEED TO REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE WORLD AROUND US ? NO JUST THE OPPOSITE .

Living Sacrifices to God

Romans 12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your [b]reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.