Andy Stanley Suggests Defending ‘Gay Rights’ is a ‘Moral Value’ the Gospel Set Loose

Hello, in this video, we're going to be looking at a story from protestia .com. The headline reads, Andy Stanley suggests that defending gay rights is a moral value the gospel set loose. So in this sermon, which it's not really a sermon because in a sermon you have to open the Bible and preach from the Bible, but in this speech, Andy Stanley seems to suggest that the teachings of Christ and the gospel have actually led to such wonderful things as the gay rights movement.

Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley, and the Protestia Story

Yeah. So first of all, who is Andy Stanley and why does this matter? Andy Stanley is the son of Charles Stanley, former Southern Baptist convention, president and the head of in touch ministry. So Charles Stanley has been on television for decades.

Since everybody knows who he is and because of who Charles Stanley is, Andy, who was put into the ministry by his father, Andy has gained widespread acceptance within the evangelical church in the United States and because he was accepted and you know, just his ministry is just grown and grown.

He pastors one of the largest churches in the United States, North point church. So Andy is bottom line, one of the most famous and influential pastors in the country. So in this speech delivered on March 26, 2023, Andy Stanley favorably quotes gay affirming author Philip Yancey.

Philip Yancey, Gospel Principles, and the Claim That Gay Rights Are a Moral Value

Some people try to wiggle out of this and say, well, no, this is just what Philip Yancey is saying. Not Andy. No, Andy is quoting Yancey in a positive way. Andy Stanley agrees with what Philip Yancey said, and basically that the gospel, the teachings of Christ have set loose, have led to all these good things, you know, human rights and civil rights, which we would say is good.

But Andy Stanley says, well, they all have also led to gay rights and he thinks that's a good thing too. So watch.

For those who condemn the church for its blind spots, they do so by gospel principles. In other words, the very principles that people outside the church use to hold the church accountable are actually principles that came from Jesus, arguing for the very moral values that the gospel originally set loose in the world.

In other words, when people say, we need justice and we need human rights and we need, we need, they're actually leveraging the teaching of Jesus, whether they know it or not. Here's, here's what he goes on to say.

And there's so much evidence for this. I've shared some of that with you before. He writes human rights, civil rights, women's rights, minority rights, gay rights, disability rights, animal rights, the success of these modern movements.

These are all modern movements. The success of these modern movements reflect a widespread empathy for the oppressed that has no precedent in the ancient world. Again, what is intuitive to us is not intuitive.

We learned it. What is self evident to us about the dignity that other people deserve? It is not self evident. We learned it and it, we learned it. It was launched by the teaching of Jesus.

Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, and Drag Queen Story Hour

Okay. So what are gay rights for the past 20, 30 years, the people who have been fighting for gay rights, the issue has been gay marriage. That is the gay right they have been fighting for. Of course, now that we have gay marriage, so-called gay marriage in this country, they've moved on to other things such as demanding drag queen story hour for little kids in your local public school and library.

So that's where that road leads. But Annie Stanley is saying that the gay rights movement is a good thing. And it's not that there's somebody out there in the world who's of the world who believes that because obviously lost people are going to buy in with whatever the next thing is that's going to happen.

The issue is that you have probably one of, if not the most famous evangelical pastor saying something like this. So when Andy Stanley teaches this and he's been, if you've been following him in the news, this is just more of the same.

Andy Stanley's Longstanding Gay-Affirming Pattern

Andy Stanley going back to 2012 preached a sermon called when Gracie met truthy, we talked about a homosexual couple in his church that Andy thought it was fine and they were serving in the church as a gay couple.

But then Andy found out that the man was still, one of the men was still married to a woman. So Andy encouraged him to divorce his wife, get that over and done with. And then you and your gay lover can serve in the church and it all be fine.

Andy Stanley has been gay affirming for a while. People just haven't come to terms with it. I know how this goes because there's been local churches that have gone gay affirming and you know, you try to tell people and they just, they don't want to believe it.

But the thing is when you have famous teachers saying things like this, that trickles down into the local churches. So a local church will go bad because you have famous people like Andy Stanley doing stuff like this.

Apostasy, Sound Doctrine, and the Pastor's Duty to Preach the Word

So that's why it matters. And that's why a pastor has to kind of talk about this kind of thing. This isn't something that I would want to talk about, but Andy Stanley has massive influence. And there's local churches and Christians I know and pastors who have defended Andy Stanley.

Why are they doing that? Because he's famous and he's got some influence over them. So this really matters because when a person strays from biblical truth, if they stray too far, the word is apostasy and you have to recognize that souls are at stake.

Souls are at stake. So a lot of people are just being deceived. Andy Stanley is deceived himself and he is deceiving others. The purpose of a pastor, according to second Timothy chapter four, verse two is to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

Andy Stanley is not preaching the word of God. Andy Stanley is not teaching sound doctrine. He's taking worldly philosophies. Let's face it. Andy is teaching the opposite of what the Bible says, but he's bringing that false doctrine into his church and trying to pass it off as truth that as if the teachings of Christ has led to the gay rights movement and isn't at all wonderful.

We all know that Jesus and the apostles and Moses, uh, were not fighting for gay rights. They were not concerned about like, that's absurd. We all know that that's the case. And Jesus in Matthew 19 taught that marriage is between one man and one woman.

So Andy Stanley, he is corrupting the evangelical church in the United States and he is leading hundreds of thousands of people astray and his reach can even get down into maybe even your local church.

Why Andy Stanley's Influence Matters in Evangelicalism

So that's why this matters. One final thought. Why is Andy Stanley so popular and accepted within evangelicalism? Even when he clearly isn't preaching the Bible, he's not teaching sound doctrine. People accept him bottom lines because who is, who his father is.

I've had this conversation many times, always goes the same way. When people hear Andy Stanley, they, Oh yeah, that's, that's Charles Stanley's son. And they're inclined to think that he's solid because they have such a high view of, of his father.

My friends, that's simply not the case. Andy Stanley, if, if you know somebody who's listening to him or a pastor who's following him and trying to implement his teachings in that local church, this is very, very dangerous.

And we just need to stick to what the Bible says. And when Andy Stanley contradicts it, you know, we need to say something, we need to say something. That's why I'm doing this video. So I hope it was a help to somebody.

Thanks for watching. Till next time, may the Lord be with you. Have a great day.