Busy day. Not much time to comment… but check out this story about “an illustration by North Point Senior Pastor Andy Stanley in his April 15 sermon that has been raising questions on where the megachurch pastor stands on homosexuality…“
Here’s a taste of the article from the Christianity Today article titled “Andy Stanley Sermon Illustration on Homosexuality Prompts Backlash.”
Stanley’s message was from the book of John, and he spoke about how messy and seemingly inconsistent Jesus’ love was. “At times [Jesus] seems to be forgiving, and at other times he seems to be holding everybody accountable,” Stanley said in the sermon. “At times he points out sin and at times it’s like he ignores sin altogether.”
To start off, I did not know about this though I am a supporter of Andy Stanley. I’ve been going through his series’ from the beginning of this year and have only seen a couple of his more recent ones. I am assuming this reference comes from his “Christian” series that he has been doing for a while now?
Ultimately, he is scared to say what he really thinks about the gay topic. He wants to keep his following strong and not offend anyone but when it comes to the gay topic that is just not the case. There was a sermon of his where he preached that the society and the culture of Sodom and Gomorrah was the reason why it fell, not homosexuality. In that, he earned my respect. I understand he has a lot to loose if he comes out to say he supports gay people and gay marriage but at the end of the day, it is not about what other people think. It is about doing what is right, what God is telling us a person specifically to do, and being real with one another. My heart goes out to Andy Stanley because I know it is a rough situation. I will still support him through it.