You Wouldn't Believe If This Was Not Recorded...

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Oprah once asked the question, Does it mean you perceive being gay as a sin? Many argue that we shouldn't make a big deal out of how

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Christians answer Oprah's question. However, our answer to this question is important because it reveals our views of scripture, sin, and repentance.

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Are we unashamed of what scripture teaches? Do we recognize the seriousness of sin?

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Do we understand what it means to truly repent and thus what it truly means to be saved?

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Let's take a look at how some of the most popular megachurch pastors answer Oprah's question.

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The last one will shock you, maybe. Joel Osteen needs no introduction.

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Osteen gets it right when he acknowledges homosexuality as sin. It's a fine line.

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We're for everybody. But of course, as a Christian pastor, my base is off what I believe the scripture says.

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And it's between, you know, marriage between a male and a female. But again, we're for everybody. And that's where I draw the line.

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What's your view now? You know, Piers, it really never changes because mine's based out of the scripture.

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That's what I believe that the scripture says, that homosexuality is a sin. So, you know, I believed it before and I still believe it now.

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Respecting my faith and believing, you know, in what the scripture says, that's the best way

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I can interpret it. However, Osteen also admits that he only admits this in interviews and never actually teaches this to his congregation.

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You know, if you listen to my message, they're about lifting people up. And so it's not... I mean, I really talk about the homosexuality when we get on the interviews.

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And there's a bunch of people who clearly are gay who are in your church. You're calling them sinners.

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I mean, that... Well, so that... It's the opposite of uplifting. It does, but one, I don't necessarily focus on that.

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I only talk about that on the interviews. And even when Osteen acknowledges homosexuality as sin, he usually downplays this with numerous qualifiers.

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You know, I don't really focus on a lot of those things. I try to stay in my lane of what I feel called to do. That's not my core message.

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My core message is how do you have a healthy self -image? How do you let go of the past? How do you raise good children?

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How do you reach your dreams? Everybody's on a journey. So I try to say, here's my focus, here's my lane.

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You know, that's kind of where I've stayed in that. And I don't understand all those issues. And so, you know,

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I try to stick on the issues that I do understand. Stephen Furtick is the immensely popular pastor of Elevation Church, similar to several other megachurch pastors we'll hear about later.

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Furtick seems to be working very hard to stay completely silent on the issue of homosexuality.

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He once preached a series called Cow Tipping, about which his wife, Holly, comments, yesterday's message was about divorce, abortion, and sexual immorality.

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But unsurprisingly, this sermon no longer exists. It's been deleted, hidden where no one can ever find it again.

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Church Clarity notes that, in a marriage application in its peripheral pages,

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Elevation Church states, marriage is an institution created by God for a man and a woman to become husband and wife for as long as they both shall live.

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But again, unsurprisingly, that page also no longer exists.

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Our best guess is, if forced, Furtick would say homosexuality is a sin, but he doesn't want anyone to know that.

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When Oprah asked T .D. Jakes, Does it mean you perceive being gay as a sin? Jake said clearly that he believed homosexuality is a sin.

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I think that sex between two people of the same sex is condemned in the scriptures.

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And as long as it is condemned in the scriptures, I don't get to say what I think. I get to say what the

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Bible says. At the same time, immediately after this, Jakes wanted to downplay his stance, saying that he doesn't want to be known for what he's against.

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I don't want to even be known about what I'm against. I want to be known about what I'm for. That's perfectly fine.

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We want to be known for being for the gospel, not for being against homosexuality.

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But that's not what Jakes said. I'm for people bettering themselves, no matter who they are and where they are, doing all they can be to be all that they can be.

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In another interview, Jakes said his view of homosexuality is evolved and evolving.

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I'm sorry, is your thinking evolved on this? Evolved and evolving. Evolved and evolving.

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So like Joel Osteen and Stephen Furtick, it's clear that Jakes is working very hard to obscure his view of homosexuality to be accepted by the culture.

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Chad Veach is the pastor of Zoe, the church that Chris Pratt attends.

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Ellen Page called out Pratt for attending an anti -LGBTQ church, but Veach, like Furtick, is working very hard to not let anyone know what he believes about homosexuality.

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In an article for the Christian Post, Veach said, I think when we shine a light, we don't have to tell darkness how dark it is.

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So I don't have to address all these peripheral issues when the gospel is the main issue.

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I think some people get themselves in a lot of trouble by trying to make statements about subjects that I don't think are gonna heal anybody.

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I don't think they're gonna bring that much health to people's souls. So I think as long as we keep pointing people to Jesus, he is gonna deal with the heart issues.

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He's gonna deal with the lifestyle stuff. But if people don't know what heart issues and lifestyle stuff

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God calls them to repent of, then they won't repent of these things. Similarly, a

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New York Times article says this about Veach. Mr. Veach believes he can save souls by being the hip and happy -go -lucky preacher, the one you want to share bowl of acai with that backyard bowls on Beverly Boulevard, who declines to publicly discuss politics in the

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Trump era because it's hard to minister if no one wants to come to church. Jesus is supposed to be fun, right?

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Um, no. Jesus is not supposed to be fun. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

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And he is coming again as a righteous judge. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's my Jesus. Rich Wilkerson Jr.

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and his wife, Dawn Cherie, are pastors at VU Church in Miami, Florida. In the

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Christian Post article about Chad Veach, Veach said, for example, Rich Wilkerson Jr.

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and I and a lot of our friends, we try to shine bright in dark spaces and we don't have to go around telling them how dark they are or address these issues.

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We are just trying to shine bright and God will do the rest. In a sermon titled, Love on the

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Weekend, Let's Talk About Sex, Wilkerson said this. Paul writes and says, here's the deal.

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Sex is good, but it's good between a man and a woman in a marriage. But it's pretty much impossible to find

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Wilkerson saying anything explicitly about the issue of homosexuality, even though the

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Bible teaches about this subject. Coral Lentz is a former pastor at Hillsong.

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Lentz has said some of the most unbelievable things in his attempt to avoid saying anything about controversial issues like homosexuality.

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In a CNN interview, Lentz said this. When it comes to homosexuality, I refuse to let another human being or a media moment dictate how we approach it.

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Jesus was in the thick of an era where homosexuality, just like it is today, was wildly prevalent.

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And I'm still waiting for someone to show me the quote where Jesus addressed it on the record in front of people.

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You won't find it because he never did. In an interview with Katie Couric, Lentz said this.

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Do you feel like, you know, you have a moral imperative to speak publicly about some of these more controversial issues?

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No, because we try to be like Jesus. Very rarely did Jesus ever talk about morality or social issues.

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In an interview with The View about a similar controversial issue, Lentz said this.

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So it's not a sin in your church to have an abortion? That's the kind of conversation we would have.

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Finding out your story, where you're from, what you believe. Yeah, I mean, God's the judge.

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People have to live to their own conviction. Andy Stanley is the pastor of North Point Church, one of the largest megachurches in the country.

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In a sermon titled, When Gracie Met Truthy, Stanley tells a story about a wife who discovers her husband is committing adultery with another man.

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About five, five and a half years ago, she discovers that he's in a relationship with another guy.

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When Stanley confronts the husband, he called it just good old fashioned adultery and did not say anything about homosexuality.

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Glad you're at one of our churches, you know, that's a good thing. But your partner, he's still married.

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So see, this is just good old fashioned adultery. Like you're in a sexual relationship with someone else's husband.

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Time Magazine writes, at the Southern Baptist Convention's three day October bootcamp to train more than 1300 evangelicals to double down against gay marriage,

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Stanley met together with both LGBT evangelical advocates and SBC leaders for a closed door conversation about whether their different views on gay marriage put them outside the faith.

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It seems clear that Stanley is actively working to downplay and compromise concerning this issue.

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Judah Smith is pastor of Church Home, the church that Justin Bieber attends.

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In an interview with MTV, Smith said this, I think that when you start talking about sexual preferences, here's what

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I truly believe, across the board, talking sexual preferences. That's a very personal, intimate thing that I have chosen to establish friendships and relationships with people before I, I do not like blanket statements.

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Blanket statements can be very misleading and misunderstanding. So I have chosen and will continue and asking even our team that we are going to take these very personal pains and journeys, particularly sexual preference.

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I'm very deliberate in doing that personally with people. MTV writes, he does confirm that City Church has no written policy on gay leadership.

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Like so many other megachurch pastors, Smith refuses to explicitly say what the

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Bible clearly teaches about the subject. Brian Meeks, former pastor of Ed, well, just listen to this.

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I don't care if the Bible says gay people suck. The Bible is pro -slavery, both in the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. It doesn't have a very great view of women leading and teaching.

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I have lots of things I disagree with about the Bible. Clearly Meeks isn't even close to being a

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Christian. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church, teaches this.

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The law of God is made to expose the lawless, rebellious, ungodly, sinners, unholy, profane, killers of their parents, murderers, immoral men and homosexuals.

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That's not a nice group to belong to. And they will not inherit the kingdom of God because you have to turn from your sin repent, confess, and beg for mercy.