Sex

Episode 300-God In Drag – Drag is Holy?

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Disciple Up #300
God In Drag – Drag Is Holy?
By Louie Marsh, 3-29-2023

Link to article below: https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/03/21/oh-my-god-n538175

Oh. My. God.

DAVID STROM 12:31 PM on March 21, 2023

I am not a theologian, nor do I play one on TV.

I didn’t even stay in a Holiday Inn Express.

Still, as a convert to Catholicism, I was catechized as an adult, and have a passing familiarity with Christian theology. I also, I hope, am not a complete idiot, and it takes a complete idiot to take the new theology being pushed by the Left seriously.

Two different videos I ran across inspired me to write this piece. The first was a video of a progressive preacher explaining why drag performances are holy. Not just acceptable. Not even a wonderful expression of the diversity of human experience.

Holy.

‘Drag is holy’? Get help buddy. pic.twitter.com/l8tmlOfAsE

— 🇦🇺🇳🇿 ♀️Emma ♀️ 🇭🇺🇬🇧 (@TheCynicalHun) March 20, 2023

Holy doesn’t just mean “good,” “fun,” or even “excellent.” It means sacred. As in a sacrament. It has a specific theological meaning that even those with the meanest of intelligence should be able to understand. Certainly, a pastor should be able to.

But no. This particular pastor, The Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, believes that Jesus is God in drag, and hence drag is holy.

At first, I was certain this was a parody since no Christian pastor (nor, I would imagine, any other person schooled in any of the Abrahamic faiths) could possibly make this argument. Jesus is God in drag? Who would say that?

But no, this dude is real, and people actually pay attention to him.

The Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines is an ordained minister with standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. He currently serves as the Senior Minister of University Christian Church in San Diego, as the Co-Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, and as the Co-Host for “The Moonshine Jesus Show.” He has a passion for pursuing social justice for the marginalized, demonstrating the Good News of God’s radically inclusive love, and proclaiming a relevant message for today’s ever-changing world. At the time he was called to his current church, Caleb was the youngest Senior Minister in his congregation’s history.  Within three years, the congregation had already grown by over 50% and experienced much revitalization; a trajectory that continues.

Caleb’s views on the intersection of religion and public life have been featured in diverse publications, such as The Nation Magazine, The Economist, The LA Times, Disciples News Service, Chalice Press, The Christian Left, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, The Center for Prophetic Imagination, the Convergence Leadership Project, and Sojourners.  He currently serves on the national boards of ProgressiveChristianity.org and Jubilee USA Network. Caleb has served churches and nonprofits in Missouri, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. Caleb is the author of The Great Digital Commission: Embracing Social Media for Church Growth and Transformation (Cascade Books, 2021), which quickly reached #1 on Amazon’s New Releases for Church Growth and was awarded a Silver Medal Illumination Book Award in Ministry/Mission.

So Caleb has some minor claim to fame, and clearly, there is some real money behind him and his message.

Drag is holy. Jesus is God in drag.

Lord help us.

PLAY VIDEO, the response.

 Drag is Holy

 Jesus mother hen – “37“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38See, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”” (Matthew 23:37–39, ESV) Jesus does NOT call himself a hen!

 Gender is a construct –this man doesn’t know what a metaphor is!

 Jesus can be a mother-hen you can dress in drag.

 Jesus was, and humanity is, God in drag. – Jesus was God in human flesh and ONLY Jesus was, this statement is a form of what I’ll call double blasphemy!

 For all of you in the back…

JOHN MCARTHUR VIDEO ON JESUS MOVEMENT

Hippies come from San Francisco to Southern Cal and join Calvary Chapel.

Partly true, but there were hippies in SoCal then as well.

Drug-induced young people –   They joined Calvary Chapel AFTER they got saved and quit doing drugs!

Hymns went out, suits went out –  No where in the NT are we commanded to dress up for church. In fact, the very little that is said about it would lead you to go in the direction of being casual not dressy!

“9likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” (1 Timothy 2:9–10, ESV)

For the first time in church history the conduct of the church was conformed to a sub culture.

What does he think Evangelicalism is? IT’S A SUB CULTURE! This is also false historically as the church has often conformed to subcultures to reach them for Christ.

“19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:19–23, ESV)

Led to the culturally driven and culturally defined, give them what they want…

That’s what he’s doing. He’s harkening back to the 40’s, 50’s, and early 60’s and conforming to that culture, wearing suits, singing hymns, etc. Do you think the Apostle Paul wore suits? The hymns he’s talking about are around 300 years old at best. He’s just as much, IF NOT MORE, a captive of his traditional culture as Calvary Chapel, etc. is of theirs.

Lonnie Frisbee who led the Jesus movement, and died of AIDS…

Lonnie didn’t lead it. It had no one leader, and Lonnie was only around for about a year or two before he took off. I was involved in the Jesus movement in PHX and I had never heard of Lonnie until years later. If you were going to pick one person who had the most influence upon the movement, at least in the Western United States, if would have been Chuck Smith.

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation

Collin Hansen

https://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Keller-Spiritual-Intellectual-Formation-ebook/dp/B0B4CYYBN9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Timothy+Keller%3A+His+Spiritual+and+Intellectual+Formation&sr=8-1

So when counterculture youth found Jesus, whether through street evangelism or makeshift communes or rock concerts, they didn’t want to put on a suit or pantyhose and wait for Sunday morning. Many found their way to Sproul in Ligonier Valley instead.

The same movement sent young adults to the Swiss Alps in search of truth with Francis and Edith Schaeffer at L’Abri. They weren’t pining for the 1950s. They wanted a vibrant relationship with God, along with the music and dress and art of the bohemian avant-garde. The Schaeffers gave them cutting-edge culture, but not for its own sake. They got Jonathan Edwards and Abraham Kuyper—an entire Reformed worldview—in the vernacular of Andy Warhol and Paul McCartney, from Francis Schaeffer,

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Episode 297-The Gospel Coalitions Sex Article

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Disciple Up #297
The Gospel Coalition’s Sex Article
By Louie Marsh, 3-8-2023

An article was published on the Gospel Coalition’s website last week. It immediately drew criticism, even from people who don’t engage in online criticism like Rick Warren. In response, TGC published a PDF of the intro and first chapter of the as yet unpublished book to help “give context.”

That only drew even more criticism and so as of March 6th, 2023 the link to that PDF became a link to an Open Letter.

I’ll be reading the letter and then reading some excerpts from the PDF which I downloaded and is no longer available. In the show notes you’ll find a few excerpts from the article but not the PDF since I don’t own it and don’t want to break the law. The link to the letter of apology is below.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-wont-save-you/

Dear Readers,

Thank you for your feedback on the Keller Center’s book excerpt from Joshua Butler posted on March 1, 2023. And thank you for your patience while we took the time to listen to our critics and the serious objections from concerned fellows, as well as discuss this matter with our Board of Directors and care for our friend Josh.

Earlier this week, we accepted Josh’s resignation as a Keller Center fellow. He will no longer lead an online cohort with the center nor speak at TGC23. While he will no longer participate in these events, Josh remains a beloved brother and friend whom we respect and care deeply about.

To our fellows and our readers, please forgive us. The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics is a new effort by TGC, and we are still learning how to work with our directors and our fellows to produce content that will serve our readers in a way that is trusted and wise. To ensure greater accountability with our fellows, we will develop better review systems for our work together. We will also review our publication processes more broadly at TGC and develop plans to ensure greater accountability to you, our readers.

Again, thank you for your patience with us. At TGC, we want to provide a venue for healthy dialogue and robust debate on important matters that affect us all. We want to model grace-filled conversations, and we want to learn from one another. In this case, we failed you and hurt many friends. Thank you in advance for your continued prayers.

For Christ and his gospel,

Julius Kim

President

The Gospel Coalition

 Excerpts from the article that started it all

Sex Won’t Save You (But It Points to the One Who Will)

MARCH 1, 2023

JOSH BUTLER

I used to look to sex for salvation. I wanted it to liberate me from loneliness; I wanted to find freedom in the arms of another. But the search failed.

Sex wasn’t designed to be your salvation but to point you to the One who is.

Union with Christ

Sex is an icon of Christ and the church. In Ephesians 5:31–32, a “hall of fame” marriage passage, the apostle Paul proclaims, “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (NIV; I’ve translated proskollao as “cleave”).

Paul says both are about Christ and the church.

This should be shocking! It’s not only the giving of your vows at the altar but what happens in the honeymoon suite afterward that speaks to the life you were made for with God. A husband and wife’s life of faithful love is designed to point to greater things, but so is their sexual union! This is a gospel bombshell: sex is an icon of salvation.

How? I’d suggest the language of generosity and hospitality can help us out.

At a deeper level, generosity is giving not just your resources but your very self. And what deeper form of self-giving is there than sexual union where the husband pours out his very presence not only upon but within his wife?

Here again, what deeper form of hospitality is there than sexual union where the wife welcomes her husband into the sanctuary of her very self?

Giving and receiving are at the heart of sex.

The Bible makes this distinction explicit. The most frequent Hebrew phrase for sex is, literally, “he went into her” (wayyabo eleha). Translations often soften this for modern ears, saying he “made love to her” or they “slept together.” But the Bible is less prudish than we are, using more graphic language to describe what happens in the honeymoon tent.

Sexual Union Pictures the Gospel

This is a picture of the gospel. Christ arrives in salvation to be not only with his church but within his church. Christ gives himself to his beloved with extravagant generosity, showering his love upon us and imparting his very presence within us. Christ penetrates his church with the generative seed of his Word and the life-giving presence of his Spirit, which takes root within her and grows to bring new life into the world.

 

Inversely, back in the wedding suite, the bride embraces her most intimate guest on the threshold of her dwelling place and welcomes him into the sanctuary of her very self. She gladly receives the warmth of his presence and accepts the sacrificial offering he bestows upon the altar within her Most Holy Place.

 

Their union brings forth new creation.

Editors’ note:

Josh Butler—a fellow at the newly launched Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics—will be leading a seven-week online cohort this spring on “The Beauty of the Christian Sexual Ethic,” based on his forthcoming book Beautiful Union (Multnomah, 2023). The cohort—limited to 200 participants—will meet weekly from May 11 to June 22, 2023. Learn more and register. This article was adapted from Beautiful Union: How God’s Vision for Sex Points Us to the Good, Unlocks the True, and (Sort of) Explains Everything (Multnomah, April 2023) by Joshua Ryan Butler. Copyright © 2023 by Joshua Ryan Butler. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Josh Butler serves as a lead pastor of Redemption Tempe in Arizona, is the author of the critically acclaimed books Beautiful Union, The Skeletons in God’s Closet and The Pursuing God, and is a fellow with The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He lives in the American Southwest with his wife, Holly, daughter Aiden, and sons James and Jacob.

 

 

Episode 205

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Disciple Up # 205
Christians & Cohabitation
By Louie Marsh, 3-31-2021

Article I read from:

https://tipsyredfox.com/news/2021/03/22/the-cohabitation-dilemma-comes-for-americas-pastors/

At least three ways to look at marriage:

  • Legal
  • Traditional
  • Biblical

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen. 2:22

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  Ephesians 5:25-27

32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Eph. 5:32-33

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Episode 32

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Disciple Up # 32
Merry Go Round Morality & Sexual Harassment
By Louie Marsh, 11-22-2017

Bible talks about it:

2  And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. Genesis 34:2 (ESV)

5  Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6  And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7  She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.” 8  Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9  Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Ruth 2:5-9 (ESV)

The Bible Expressly Forbids it:

 “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.” Deuteronomy 22:25-27

3  But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4  Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:3-4 (ESV)

THE CULTURAL MERRY-GO-ROUND:

 From a largely Biblical sexual view to extremely libertine and now – in this one area – back to Biblical. Strange isn’t it?

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