Blog — Tony Campolo Has Completely Fallen Off the Deep End
Tony Campolo is calling “for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church.”This leads 
to the immediate question of whether you can be “gay” and Christian. Campolo says he places his “highest priority on the words of Jesus,” although he only points to the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25 as he proclaims his change in position on the issue of “gays” within the church. Of course, this chapter says nothing about homosexual relationships. In his support for so-called same-sex marriage, Campolo totally ignores Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 when he defines marriage as only between one man and one woman as He quotes from Genesis 2. How does Campolo justify same-sex “marriage”?
Compolo’s statement says “the institution of marriage should always be primarily about spiritual growth.” What about God’s command after the flood in Genesis 9 to, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”?
Dr. Rob Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, makes this note about Tony Campolo: “He has little understanding of how to read Scripture in its historical and literary context, at least as regards to this issue.”
Tony Campolo notes a Christian “is not to condemn or reject gay people, but rather to love and embrace them, and to endeavor to draw them into the fellowship of the Church.” How does Campolo define “love”? Is it love to remain silent as a child plays in the middle of a busy intersection? Is it love to allow someone to continue in a lifestyle that is destructive? Is it love to remain silent when an eternal soul is being led down the wrong path? Is it love to ignore the historic Biblical interpretation of sexual morality and embrace today’s politically correct version of sexuality? Is it love to allow someone to continue in their delusional ways?
It is love to tell someone God loves them as they are, but it is not love to allow them to think God wants them to stay where they are. As Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” For someone to be drawn into the fellowship of the church, first that person must walk away from their sin. As Romans 6:23 notes, “The wages of sin is death . . . .”
Tony Campolo is wrong on this issue and has been for several years. His wife Peggy has been a long time proponent of homosexual issues and she has led her husband far from the Biblical teachings. How can the Campolos read the words of Jesus in Matthew 19 and still support so-called same-sex marriage? How can they read Romans 1 and say homosexual activity is approved by God? They, nor anyone else, can read those verses and truthfully say that a Holy God will embrace sinners and allow them to enter His Kingdom unless they repent or turn away from their sin.
Yes, the church must welcome homosexuals into the church just as they must welcome all sinners into the church. However, the job of the church is to fix broken people and such cannot happen unless the church is willing to teach the whole truth of the Gospel story and point people to the Savior Jesus Christ. Unless the broken people entering the church building have a personal encounter with the Great Physician, Jesus, their broken lives will never be healed. If the church allows the world to become more influential on it than God’s Holy Word, then the church has lost its power and is no longer the salt and light that Jesus commanded it to be.
Romans 1:18-32
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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