UCO forum on sexuality and spirituality

Last Monday, October 15, 2018, the University of Central Oklahoma hosted a forum to discuss the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity from a Christian perspective. The event was co-sponsored by several student organizations: S.A.F.E - Student Alliance for Equality, UCO Women's Research Center, BGLTQ+ Student Center, all groups that reject the Biblical perspective on sexuality, and Valid Worldview, a Christian student group based at Fairview Baptist Church.

UCO's Dr. David Macey, Professor of English and Assistant Vice President for Global and Cultural Competencies, and the faculty adviser for Student Alliance for Equality, was the moderator.

The four participants, from left to right:

• Trey Witzel, Associate Pastor, First United Methodist Church of Edmond
• Kris Williams, Q Space LGBTQ+ Facilitator, NorthCare
• Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, Professor of New Testament, Houston Baptist University, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice (Abingdon Press)
• Stephen Black, Executive Director, First Stone Ministries, author of Freedom Realized - Finding Freedom from Homosexuality & Living a Life Free from Labels (Redemption Press)

Dr. Myron Pope, UCO VP for Student Affairs, welcomed the presenters and audience on behalf of UCO, and emphasized the importance of coming together and listening to one another. At a time when so many debates on contentious issues -- or really, the conservative, traditional perspectives on these issues -- are being shutdown by mob threats, UCO is to be commended for allowing this debate to occur. The participants all comported themselves with respect, as did the audience, with the exception of one speaker during the Q&A and an audience member at the end who was called out by Stephen Black for flipping him off as he gave his closing remarks.

The defenders of Biblical truth backed up their arguments with logic and evidence, but also spoke movingly from the heart. The opening question had to do with the source of their passion. Dr. Gagnon recalled a Laurel and Hardy scene, where they're in a lineup of soldiers and asked to step forward to volunteer, and everyone else takes a step back, leaving them as the volunteers. That explained how he felt when he was the only professor at Pittsburgh Seminary (part of the mainline, liberal Presbyterian Church USA) to make the case for the Biblical teaching on sexuality. His efforts ultimately turned into a 500-page book that comprehensively set out the Bible's teaching on the issue and addressed the various challenges that have been raised by religious liberals.

Stephen Black spoke about his personal history, how he became involved in homosexual activity (with the encouragement of his Catholic parish priest), and how God delivered him out of that way of life and then led him into ministry, helping people who deal with unwanted same-sex attraction and gender confusion. Later in the forum, he spoke at length about First Stone Ministries, their approach to counseling and what distinguishes their approach from much-maligned "conversion therapy."

Here is video of the forum itself:

And Q&A with the audience:

At one point, Witzel or Williams mentioned Matthew Vines, the former evangelical who wrote a book disputing the way Christians have understood the Bible's teaching on sex and sexuality. Gagnon replied that he had challenged Vines to a debate, but Vines had yet to accept.

It's in the Q&A that the gloves come off. In the face of Gagnon's thorough exposition of what Jesus taught about the nature of marriage and sex, and the acknowledgement by serious Bible scholars who support gay rights that the Bible condemns homosexuality, the leftists on the stage retreated to the claim that the Bible doesn't matter because we can't trust it. Early on, Witzel boiled down the position of the religious left: "I don't give a damn about scriptural interpretation." Toward the end, Williams claimed it was impossible to know what Jesus said or thought, because the gospels were like a game of telephone -- written down too long after and unreliably transmitted. As J. Gresham Machen pointed out almost 100 years ago, liberal religion is not a variety of Christianity, but an "essentially different type[] of thought and life."

Witzel and Williams illustrated the fact that the liberal Christian's God is one of his or her own invention. Effectively, they say that anything in the Bible that contradicts one's inner sense of morality can be discarded, thereby making one's own feelings the ultimate authority, not God or His word.

But for Christians who define their faith and practice by God's Word, this video, particularly the comments by Robert Gagnon and Stephen Black, will provide a solid apologetic that will strengthen them in their own walk and equip them to strengthen other Christians who feel beleaguered by the world.

MORE:

The day before the forum, Prof. Gagnon spoke at Fairview Baptist Church during the Bible study hour and during the morning service, whose campus ministry, Valid Worldview, co-sponsored the forum. The audio starts about 2 minutes in.

Finally, here is the extended version of a documentary that was screened at Fairview's Sunday evening service, "Such Were Some of You," which tells the stories of several men and women who left the "gay" lifestyle to follow Christ.