Tony Campolo, a self-described evangelical, yesterday surrendered completely to the homosexual lobby. He is now officially fighting for the other side. He’s turned in the flag with the cross on it and is now proudly waving the one with the rainbow.
Campolo has tried for decades to walk the line between truth and error, between biblical Christianity and cultural Marxism. Yesterday, he completely lost his balance and toppled into the canyon of cultural compromise.
He now has stopped even pretending to adhere to biblical truth on the issue of homosexuality. He is now calling for the full inclusion of unrepentant homosexuals into the church of Jesus Christ.
In a prepared statement, Campolo said yesterday, “I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church.”
We have always thought of the church as hospital for sinners. A place where wounded and broken people could humbly confess their sins before a holy God and receive his forgiveness and restoration. That, after all, is how we all got in.
But Campolo has turned it into a day spa. Repentance, confession, discipleship and obedience is so last century. But the message of Jesus was, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Campolo’s message is, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin all you want.”
Campolo admits his position up until now has been “ambiguous,” because “I was deeply uncertain about what was right.” This is a de facto acknowledgement on his part that he long ago abandoned Scripture as his standard of right and wrong, because if there is any issue on which the Scripture is perfectly unambiguous, it is the matter of homosexuality.
Up until yesterday, Campolo had attempted to serve, in his words, as a “bridge person” between the homosexual community and the Church. Yesterday he blew up the bridge and made his camp with the forces of moral darkness.
The lesson from Campolo’s example is simple: once the first compromise with the truth is made, eventual and total capitulation is inevitable. So don’t start.
A second lesson is that Campolo has been the poster child for the softer, kinder, gentler “nicer than Jesus” approach to influencing culture toward righteousness. It does not work. In fact, in Campolo’s case, he is making things worse instead of better by leading homosexuals further and further from the truth that can save them.
Standing firm for the truth does not require us to be mean. It just requires us to be resolute in the face of bitter hatred, mockery, and ridicule. I can’t know why Campolo has compromised the truth for so long, but it likely has something to do with the fatal desire so many conservatives have to be liked by all the wrong people.
Campolo can eagerly anticipate several days of fawning press attention from the low-information media. He will have his reward in full.
Another lesson here is that with the homosexual lobby, it’s never enough. Homosexual activists will never accept anything less than total and unconditional surrender. Campolo is already finding that out.
In a Patheos blog post on Campolo’s abject retreat, writer Brandan Robertson says he and other like-minded activists are getting ready to turn the screws another notch (emphasis mine):
“It is not enough that Christian leaders simply step forward and announce their support for gay and lesbian Christians. It’s also important that they acknowledge the harm that has been caused by their use of an un-affirming theology and that they publicly repent for their sin of exclusion...In order for LGBTQ to find the healing that we need, the acknowledgement of the oppression and harm we have faced at the hands of Christian pastors, teachers, and theologians is essential.
“It is also notable that Dr. Campolo only addresses “gay and lesbians”, without acknowledging bisexual, queer, and trans* people. For far too long, in both the Church and the broader LGBTQ community, these minorities have felt invisible. When Christians are moved to announce their support for inclusion, it is also essential that they include all sexual minorities. Otherwise, the oppressive cycle of invisibility will be perpetuated.”
So now we discover that public repentance is in fact demanded on this issue, but not from those who engage in sexually deviant behavior. No, no, it is demanded of those who have defended biblical truth on matters of sexuality. They now must be punished and go about in sackcloth and ashes.
And we also find illustrated here the maxim that, with the homosexual lobby, it’s never enough. The ink is not even dry on Campolo’s mea culpa and already he’s being pressured to affirm the mental disorder and sexual confusion of transgenderism. How long will it be before he rolls over on this one?
The proper response to Campolo for evangelicals is to renew our commitment to Scripture. We must plant our feet squarely on the word of God and declare with Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other.”
