LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A Baptist seminary professor said Aug. 20 it is hypocritical for Christians to preach against sins like homosexuality they see outside of the church and not about sins like divorce that affect church members.
Russell Moore
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"It is very, very easy for you to get 'amens' and applause by standing up and denouncing sins that are not immediately present in your own congregation," Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said during a weekend conference on the church and home at the seminary in Louisville, Ky.
"Look at the difference between the way conservative evangelical churches in America speak to the issue of divorce and the issue of homosexuality," said Moore, who also is teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville.
Moore said both the issues of divorce and homosexuality are clearly addressed in the Bible, but "in the one case we speak in very muted and ambiguous terms."
"The reason we say we do that is because divorced people are hurting and they need grace and mercy," he said. "Of course! Do you not think homosexuals need grace and mercy?"
"The reason we speak that way is because the people in our congregations are not watching divorcee parades in San Francisco and shaking their heads in disgust," Moore said. "We have far more out-of-the-closet divorcees than out-of-the-closet homosexuals in our congregations, at least that we know about, and the out-of-the-closet divorcees are the ones who are tithing and paying bills, and so we speak to them in a very different way than we speak to others on the outside. That is a scandal."
Moore chaired the committee that drafted a resolution adopted this summer by the Southern Baptist Convention titled "On the Scandal of Southern Baptist Divorce."
The resolution said that Southern Baptists' "accommodation to the divorce culture" undermines their Christian witness and leaves "spiritual wreckage" in Southern Baptist churches.
It called upon churches to emphasize the importance of marital fidelity and to minister to families in crisis "through counseling, mentorship, and, where necessary, through biblical church discipline."
Moore said both the man within the church who is leaving his wife and the homosexual watching from the outside know about the double standard. The answer, he said, is not to condone homosexual behavior but to speak clearly about both sins.
"The only way that man who has broken up his family is ever going to find peace and reconciliation, and indeed the only way he is ever going to listen to you, is if he thinks you know what he has done," Moore said. "His conscience is already telling him what he has done. He is trying to silence it and paper it over, and you are not showing him grace and you are not showing him mercy by just putting him in the singles-again Sunday school class."
"You are showing him mercy and grace by saying: 'What you have done is a grave evil that deserves the everlasting condemnation and curse of God, but Jesus has borne the curse of the law including for your abandonment of your family, and if you are hidden and found in Christ, there is no condemnation for you. When God views you, he sees you exactly as he sees Jesus, 'This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased,'" Moore said. "That's the gospel message."
According to an event description, the Aug. 20-21 Connecting Church and Home Conference was designed to equip pastors, church leaders and parents with ministry strategies for building stronger families within the church.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.