Phil Harrell

I was able to listen to Andy Stanley’s messages from today on the topic of same-sex attraction and marriage. What’s clear from Stanley’s teaching is that he’s drawing a distinction between doctrine and pastoral practice. What does that mean? It means the doctrine has not *officially* changed which is why he can technically affirm a “Biblical view,” but for all practical purposes, there is a pastoral accommodation that allows for LGBT-identified persons to disobey Scripture and remain in good standing as a Christian. What Stanley considers as a failure to live up to an unattainable ideal, Scripture calls sinful. Nowhere in the messages was there any expectation that someone would turn from their same-sex relationship. This is an example of unbounded empathy that listens (which is good) but never invites toward transformation (which is not good). For Stanley, if there’s a general commitment to Jesus, that is sufficient. Ethics takes a backseat to empty affirmations of “belief.” This may sound like a way to split the baby, but it is simply another way of saying that Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church are implicitly affirming of LGBT identities and behaviors as consistent with Christian faith. This explains why Stanley valorizes the Christian faith of LGBT individuals and why, perhaps, no reliable or well-known conservative voice was platformed at the Unconditional Conference. What’s most subversive about today’s messages is Stanley’s gaslighting of anyone who disagrees with him, as though dissent from North Point’s ministry model is soaked in animosity, contempt, and hatred toward LGBT family and friends. A textbook move of theological liberalism is to sever doctrine from ethics, a severing that the Bible in no way, shape, or form justifies (John 14:15). Stanley is attempting to be more compassionate than Jesus, which is impossible. Scripture embraces truth and love as mutually reinforcing (1 Cor. 13:6). This sort of third-way “quieter middle space” is neither biblically faithful nor practically sustainable. I should say: Andy Stanley is an acquaintance I’ve spoken with about these issues over the past several years. He’s never been anything less than kind and respectful, so I have no personal animosity in saying this; in fact, I say it with much grief and lament: Andy Stanley is in error, and based on reports I’ve heard of what’s encouraged and promoted at North Point itself through its counseling ministries, the church is leading people down a grave pathway that is unbiblical and therefore harmful to those it claims to serve.