Tim Dieppe reviews ‘Pride: Identity and the Worship of Self’ by Matthew P. W. Roberts (2023)

Further disturbing trends in the institutional Church

Pride month and the LGBT assault

The importance of staying close to the Lord.

Are We Heading for an Apostate Church?

In last week’s editorial Dr Clifford Denton gave solemn warnings about the vulnerability to judgement of Church and State in Britain. I want to follow this by exposing some of the things that are happening in the denominational churches of Britain – particularly the Church of England and the Methodist Church.

Information comes into our office on a daily basis from readers all over the country showing the degree to which post-modernist beliefs and practices are entering the churches in Britain. We see it as our duty to share some of this information with our readers for two major purposes.

Post-modernist beliefs and practices are entering the churches in Britain.

First, it is our hope that those who have leadership influence in the churches will recognise the degree to which they are drifting away from the truth of the New Testament Gospel that has been at the heart of Christian mission followed by faithful believers for nearly 2000 years and is in grave danger of being lost. Secondly, we would like all Bible-believing Christians to be informed in their prayer life so that they can pray in line with the will of God for his church.

Church of England

Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, informed Synod that it was his intention to lead the Church of England to become a ‘radically inclusive church’. He failed to define exactly what he meant by such a term, but before the end of the year he sent a letter to all Church of England Primary Schools telling the teachers to encourage the children to cross-dress in preparation for living in a pro-LGBTQ+ nation.

Anglican Primary Schools promote LGBTQ+ values

Some six months later a meeting was held in Church House Westminster to discuss education in Anglican Primary Schools where it was stated by the leader that it was Church of England educational policy to promote LGBTQ+ values in its schools. Only one voice was raised pointing out that this was a denial of biblical truth and the man who raised the objection was firmly told that this policy was not open for discussion.

No Discussion

A similar thing happened last month at an educational policy discussion in the Anglican diocese of Derbyshire where homosexual teaching is replacing biblical truth in Church of England Primary Schools. Bible-believing Christians are not only being side-lined but are being banned from raising any objections, or are simply being told that the Bible has got it all wrong and that the church is now teaching a different gospel.

Abandoned Church Organ / See Photo Credits

Methodist Church

It is not only the Church of England that is abandoning biblical truth – the Methodist Church has gone even farther. They have recently appointed an American minister from the United Methodist Church in Chicago USA to a key national position. This man and his ‘husband’, who is a lecturer at Queens College Birmingham, has been working as a minister among Methodist churches in Birmingham where he took groups on the Birmingham Gay Pride March, led training days and was working on planting a ‘radically inclusive church group’ in the City of Birmingham with a plan to establish eight more across the Midlands.

He has now left Birmingham for London where he has been appointed to a key national role in the Methodist Church as ‘Director of Evangelism and Church Growth’. This is described as “a new position aimed at supporting the development of these vital areas in church life”. This man is said to be “young, intelligent, personable, energetic and hard-working” and has “the ear of the Methodist Church leaders”.

Promoting Radical Inclusion

As the national Director of Evangelism for the Methodist Church in Britain this man is reported to be “preaching another gospel of radical inclusion where people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community are encouraged into fellowship and leadership without any requirement for a change of lifestyle. The LGBTQ+ lifestyles are promoted as completely acceptable.”

Our reader who wrote to us states –

“The gospel he promotes has other very worrying elements as well. A flavour of his theology can be seen by reading some of his Twitter feeds and also from the statements put out by the ‘Urban Village Church’ in Chicago where he was a pastor. They describe him as ‘A missionary to Europe and the UK’. From his blogs he is called a ‘Recovering Control Freak’ (whatever that means!). He also works as a coach with something called ‘Epicentre’ where he gets alongside ministers and clergy of all denominations to develop Mission and Church Growth.”

A false gospel will destroy the church, not build it.

Abandoning Truth

The truth of the gospel is under attack today from many different sources – not only from the secular post-modernist world, but from within the church where truth is being sacrificed on the altar of expediency. But a false gospel may promote church growth by increasing numbers in the pews, but once we abandon the gospel of ‘salvation only in the Name of Jesus’ we are entering realms that will destroy the church, not build it.

There are numerous warnings in the New Testament against preaching another gospel, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). Paul also severely warned the Galatians, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal 1.7).

What we are seeing today is a destructive power of deception spreading through the churches. It will inevitably lead to their further decline and eventual collapse. Maybe it is God’s will to destroy the corrupt man-made denominations that we call ‘churches’ so that out of the rubble the true ‘ecclesia of the Lord’ will emerge.

Maybe we are already seeing the beginnings of this true church in the multitude of home-based small groups meeting for prayer and studying the word of God.

Moral decadence and cowardice…or demonically inspired madness.

Ely Cathedral proclaims solidarity with the LGBT community and flies the rainbow flag at the city’s first ever Gay Pride Parade¹: yet more evidence, if any were needed, of the Church of England’s growing celebration of apostasy.

Let us be clear, the Bible unequivocally prohibits any and all behaviours identified as sexual sin, which includes fornication, adultery, homosexuality and incest – in fact anything outside marriage between one man and one woman for life. It also clearly states that in the beginning God created Adam. Then, because there wasn’t any fit helper or companion that could be found for the man, and he was lonely, God took one of his ribs and made a ‘woman’.

So from the beginning the man and the woman were a part of each other. They were ‘bone of bone’ and ‘flesh of flesh’, and together they ‘completed’ each other. God’s command and gift to them was to live with each other in lifelong and exclusive union, so that they might support each other, and together care for any children they might have.

That’s the template for humanity and the way we are made – not as gender-neutral beings who can choose for ourselves if we want to identify as men, women, or anything in between, but as biological beings with clear identifying characteristics based on our sex at birth.

The template for humanity, the way we are made, is not as gender-neutral beings who can choose for ourselves how to identify, but as biological beings with clear identities from birth.

Of course this isn’t to say that on occasion things don’t go wrong: sadly, a very few babies are born with ambiguous genitalia, just as others are born with life-threatening conditions or disability – and when that happens, all alike need help. But the starting point is that we are created male or female – it’s in our DNA - and we are designed to live in lifelong, exclusive ‘relationship’ with someone of the opposite sex. For the Church, in its wisdom, to hold or maintain anything that deviates from this fundamental order is a denial of Christian faith, and apostasy.

Assault Now Permitted

At a similar event to that in Ely, earlier this summer in Bournemouth an elderly gentleman was physically assaulted by a gang of LGBT thugs, for daring to say homosexuality was a sin prohibited in the Bible. You’d think on the basis of age alone such bully-boy tactics would have provoked public outrage and calls for punishment of the offenders. But no! Apparently in 21^st Century Britain, ‘hate crime’ goes only one way, so that if you’re gay, lesbian or trans-gender, you can say and do whatever you want.

Is this really what democracy has become? Where free speech is permitted only for those who follow current – and, by definition, transitory - cultural norms? And is this why the Church has buckled? Is it afraid? Or has it been infiltrated and taken over by the self-serving and/or deliberately malign?

When the Church loses its voice, the rot in society spreads, and the weak and voiceless become increasingly vulnerable to abuse. Now, on the coat tails of adult licence, it is becoming mandatory that children as young as four be inculcated with this sexually damaging ideology that flies in the face of biology and refutes science. At the very least, teaching a child of four that it’s up to them to choose their gender is deeply confusing; at worst it is pure and simple exploitation, prioritising justification for adult behaviours over child welfare. But subsequently teaching children the finer details of anal and oral sex, without mention of the attendant, but well-established, physical risks and harms, is criminal.

The unhappy truth is that we are breeding a damaged generation, caught in the slime of moral degeneracy, and for whom sex in all its forms has become the be-all and end-all of life, with paedophilia and abuse flourishing for the simple reason it is very hard any longer to say ‘no’.

When the Church loses its voice, the rot in society spreads and the weak and voiceless become increasingly vulnerable to abuse.

Enough!

No matter what LGBT and transgender activists would have us believe, sin is not a variable concept subject to cultural change that can be redefined at whim. And God has not become more sophisticated in the two thousand years since his Son walked the Earth calling people to repentance. Nor has he changed his mind about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour.

The bottom line is, either God is a figment of mankind’s collective and fevered imagination - in which case nothing said in the Bible matters a jot. Or he really is the Supreme Being and Creator of all, and the moral precepts in Scripture stand, in which case we need to get a bit of backbone and defend the faith for which Christ died.

It is not possible to compromise with sin. A little bit of pre-marital sex or adultery isn’t okay, no matter what we teach children today about their sexual rights. Anal sex isn’t ‘normal’. Destroying innocent life before birth because the mother doesn’t ‘feel ready’ is not a woman’s inalienable human right. And self-identifying as a surgically changed man or woman, with a lifetime ahead on drugs, is not fulfilment: it’s mutilation.

As the battle for the soul of our nation grows, the devil still prowls around like a wolf, seeking those he can devour. He is becoming worryingly successful. It is time for the Church and ‘ordinary’ Christians alike to stand up for and defend our faith.

First published on the Voice for Justice UK blog, 21 August 2018. Rev Lynda Rose is Director of VfJUK. 

References

1 See coverage here.

Can Israel learn this lesson about not capitulating to intimidation?

The victory of National Trust volunteers who objected to wearing badges showing support for gay pride was as welcome as it was unexpected – given the current politically correct climate.

For those outside the UK, the National Trust is charged with looking after many of the nation’s great estates, particularly in cases where their upkeep is no longer economically viable for the original owners. Now, following an outcry to a new directive barring volunteers from public-facing duties at a Norfolk stately home if they refuse to wear the gay ‘rainbow’ symbol, over which dozens have quit, the Trust has backed down.

Unpaid staff at Felbrigg Hall had been offered behind-the-scenes roles after saying they were “uncomfortable” with the idea – part of a six-week ‘Prejudice and Pride’ event marking 50 years since the de-criminalisation of homosexuality.¹

As Trust members, my wife and I were already concerned about the trend shown in their magazine to promote the homosexual legacy linked with some of their country houses, so I suppose this ‘badge of honour’ was the next inevitable step. But the Trust has tripped up, fulfilling a biblical promise that “whoever leads the upright along an evil path will fall into their own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance” (Prov 28:10).

The Beginning of a Fight Back?

The BBC and other media are milking the ‘golden’ anniversary for all its worth, plaguing us with a veritable flood of gay propaganda - so much so that it seems hardly possible to find alternative viewing. Their clear agenda is to heap this new morality on millions of people, forced to pay for the ‘privilege’ with a hefty license fee.

That is bad enough, but when the national body entrusted with the immense privilege of looking after vast swathes of our magnificent cultural and historical heritage takes up the same baton, for which they have absolutely no mandate (neither does the BBC, for that matter), things have gone too far.

When the National Trust picks up the same baton as the BBC, for which neither have a mandate, things have gone too far.

The courage of the National Trust workers is to be applauded. It shows there is still a remnant of decent folk – whether Christians or not - who have decided against having their hard-fought freedoms, principles and consciences dictated to any longer. The shame is that our spineless church leaders failed to lead the way in what could be the beginning of a fight-back for a recovery of Christian standards.

Violence Closes Down Justice

Of course, it’s too early to say if a backlash has truly begun – and things could yet get worse. After all – riots, terror and intimidation seem to have successfully shut down justice in Israel, where murder and mayhem followed the killing by terrorists of two Israeli border policemen on the Temple Mount in July. These riots were not incited by Jews, whom you might have thought would have been justified in doing so, but by Palestinians.

Because of the slaying of the policemen, the Israeli Government installed metal detectors at several Temple Mount entries as an obvious safety measure – and this is what sparked the riots (said to have been inflamed by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran). To their shame, however, the Israeli authorities eventually backed off as tensions threatened to get out of control.

Bizarrely, Jews visiting the Mount – where their first and second Temples stood 2,000-plus years ago and which Muslims now claim as their own² – are not even permitted to pray on what is their holiest site! And they do not object to metal detectors, as they have no intention of harming anyone.

The Word of God is Clear

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to caving in to mob-rule in the ongoing battle between gay rights and God’s laws in Britain.

In Hull, Yorkshire – once renowned from its predominance of evangelicals including the legendary William Wilberforce – a Church of England minister has held a special service to mark the city’s homosexual pride celebrations. The event was addressed by a transsexual activist who was born male but lives as a woman and describes himself as a lesbian.³

There is still a remnant of decent folk who have decided against having their hard-fought freedoms, principles and consciences dictated to any longer.

Meanwhile, the Emmaus Group⁴ have launched a series of articles highlighting what they refer to as increasing acts of sedition⁵ against our most holy God. “One of the biggest challenges hitting the church right now is the storm of secularism and humanism with its LGBT and transgender movements,” they said, adding: “The word of God is clear, concise and unambiguous: no sexually immoral person will have a place in the kingdom of heaven.”

Also among those denied entry to God’s eternal dwelling, they point out, are “all liars” – and they will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 21:8). Such people “willfully pursue what is in opposition to God’s will and practice it with pride. So it should be no surprise the LGBT movements hold what they call ‘pride’ festivals…celebrating all that is abominable before God. And church leaders who advocate in favour of such iniquity will be judged more harshly.”

For the Joy Set Before Us

I nevertheless hope and pray that we have turned a corner. Ordinary, decent folk also have rights – especially to a quiet life devoid of manipulation, intimidation and interference from busybodies determined to force their agenda onto an unsuspecting world.

The words of King Solomon are so true of today – and they also give us hope: “When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall” (Prov 29:16).

Christians, meanwhile, need to shed their flabby compromise and start “training in righteousness” under the word of God (2 Tim 3:16). Like the first century Galatians, too many have been led astray by false teaching, earning the fiery rebuke of St Paul: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (Gal 5:7).

The writer to the Hebrews urges us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” – not to throw in the towel at the first sign of muscle strain or breathlessness, but focusing on Jesus who endured opposition, pain and suffering “for the joy set before him” (Heb 12:1-3).

Notes

1 BBC Radio 4 and Daily Telegraph online, 5 August 2017; Mail on Sunday, 6 August 2017.

2 Though temporarily handed over to the charge of the Jordanian-based Waqf (Muslim authority) in order to reduce tensions following the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel took back territory illegally annexed in 1948, the Mount is actually under Israeli sovereignty and has been linked to the Jews for thousands of years.

3 Hull CofE minister criticised for homosexual pride service. Christian Institute, 1 August 2017.

4 A forum seeking to reconcile the Church with her Hebraic roots while also highlighting the plight of Christians and Jews in the Middle East and challenging the body of Christ over obedience to God’s commands.

5 Dictionary definition: an offence that tends to undermine the authority of a state; an incitement to public disorder.