“Message” Bible Creator Eugene Peterson Says Homosexuality Is Not Wrong — and Then Backtracks
Eugene Peterson, who is best known as
the creator of “The Message,” a reading Bible that uses contemporary language,
has come out in support of homosexual “marriage,” saying that he would
officiate a same-sex “wedding” if asked.
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| Eugene Peterson |
But after a firestorm, including
possible boycotts from large bookstores and publishing houses, Peterson backtracked
and said he would never perform a same-sex wedding.
HOW
THE FIRESTORM BEGAN. In an interview with Jonathan Merritt at
Religion News Service on July 12, 2017, the author of more than 30 books described
how his views on homosexuality have changed over his pastoral career.
Merritt
said of the interview:
It’s one of the
hottest topics in the church today, and given Peterson’s vast influence among
both pastors and laypeople, I knew his opinion would impact the conversation.
Though he has had a long career, I couldn’t find his position on the matter
either online or in print. I did discover that “The Message,” Peterson’s popular paraphrase of the Bible,
doesn’t use the word “homosexual” and “homosexuality” in key texts. But this
wasn’t definitive proof of anything. After all, those words never appear in any
English translation of the Bible until 1946.
Then Merritt
asked Peterson:
You are
Presbyterian, and your denomination has really been grappling with some of the
hot button issues that we face as a culture. I think particularly of
homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Has your view on that changed over the
years? What’s your position on the morality of same-sex relationships?
Peterson,
who formerly pastored a PCUSA church, answered:
I have been in
churches when I was an associate pastor where there were several [homosexuals]…
They just assumed that they were as Christian as everybody else in the church.
One of the young
people that had grown up under my pastorship, he was a high school teacher and
a musician. When he found out about the opening, he showed up in church one day
and stood up and said, “I’d like to apply for the job of music director here,
and I’m gay.” We didn’t have any gay people in the whole congregation. Well,
some of them weren’t openly gay. But I was so pleased with the congregation. Nobody
made any questions about it. And he was a really good musician.
I wouldn’t have
said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian
and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do. I think that kind
of debate about lesbians and gays might be over. People who disapprove of it,
they’ll probably just go to another church. So we’re in a transition and I
think it’s a transition for the best, for the good. I don’t think it’s
something that you can parade, but it’s not a right or wrong thing as far as
I’m concerned.
Peterson
was a founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Bel
Air, Maryland, where he served for 29 years before retiring in 1991.
Finally,
Merritt asked Peterson:
A follow-up: If
you were pastoring today and a gay couple in your church who were Christians of
good faith asked you to perform their same-sex wedding ceremony, is that
something you would do?
Peterson’s
forceful answer was “Yes.”
His
answer contradicted God’s Word. It contradicted even his own Bible version,
“The Message,” which says,
“Don’t have sex with a man as one does with
a woman. That is abhorrent.” (Leviticus 18:22 Message)
“They pretended to know it all, but were
illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole
world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. So
God said, in effect, ‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.’ It wasn’t
long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and
out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and
worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless,
the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they
soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men
didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one
another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid
for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless
wretches.” (Romans 1:22-27 Message)
These two
“Message” passages are clear: sex between men is abhorrent. And only sexually
confused people abuse and defile one another, women with women, men with men —
all for lust.
It is hard to understand how Peterson could
betray these solid stances on the homosexual sin.
HOW
PETERSON BACKTRACKED. After the firestorm,
in a statement to The Washington
Post
on July 13, 2017, he said:
Recently a reporter asked me whether my
personal opinions about homosexuality and same-sex marriage have changed over
the years. I presume I was asked this question because of my former career as a
pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), which recently affirmed homosexuality
and began allowing its clergy to perform same-sex weddings. Having retired from
the pastorate more than 25 years ago, I acknowledged to the reporter that I “haven’t
had a lot of experience with it.”
To clarify, I affirm a biblical view of
marriage: one man to one woman. I affirm a biblical view of everything.
He was clear in his retraction.
Yet, considering that the
evangelical world is discussing his controversial interview and retraction, let
us look at how The Message was vague in one classical Bible passage
against the homosexual sin:
“Don’t you realize that this is not the way
to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his
kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse
the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom.” (1
Corinthians 6:9-10 Message)
Perhaps because the English version
of this passage in “The Message” is so ambiguous the producers of the Brazilian
version made it longer:
“Don’t you
realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about
God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use
and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as
citizens in God’s kingdom. I’m talking about heterosexual debauchery,
homosexual immorality, idolatry, greed and destructive vices.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Message)
The English version does not have: “I’m talking
about heterosexual debauchery, homosexual immorality, idolatry, greed and
destructive vices.” Yet, even
in this case, there are problems. Homosexual immorality (orgy of men with men) is sin as heterosexual
debauchery (orgy of men with women) is sin. So if marriage between a man and a
woman (without immorality and debauchery) is not a sin, why should (by
following the logic of this longer ambiguous Brazilian passage) “marriage”
between a man and another man (without immorality and debauchery) be a sin?
The English
version condemns vague sex abuses, and the Brazilian version tries to correct
the vague condemnation by adding a condemnation that hits immorality and debauchery,
not homosexuality. While serious versions of the Bible directly condemn
homosexuality — regardless if it is involved in immorality and debauchery — The
Message, in English and Portuguese, leaves in some way the door open for
homosexuality not involved in immorality and debauchery.
The English
version left problems that the Brazilian version was unable to solve and
clarify. Instead, it created larger ambiguities and problems. Sex between man
and woman is sin only when involved in immorality and debauchery. Is homosexual
sex similarly sin only when involved in immorality and debauchery? The American
and Brazilian Message did not answer this question and this ambiguity is
consistent with Peterson’s ill-fated interview.
Yet, other Bible versions are much
clearer:
“Do you not know that the wicked will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral
nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor
thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit
the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NIV)
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the
kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NKJV)
Peterson’s interview with the Religion
News Service, just as the PCUSA is already doing, followed “demonic
illusions,” as warned by his own “The Message”:
“The Spirit makes it clear that as time
goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic
illusions put forth by professional liars.” (1 Timothy 4:1 Message)
Other Bible
versions say,
“The Spirit clearly says that in later
times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1 NIV)
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in
latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits
and doctrines of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV)
Only the
Holy Spirit can prevail against “demonic
illusions,” “deceiving spirits” and “doctrines of demons.”
The
same Bible that warns that in the last days there would be an explosion of
apostasy also informs about a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit — an “explosion”
of the Holy Spirit and his supernatural gifts.
“‘In the Last Days,’ God says, ‘I will pour
out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your
daughters; Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams. When the
time comes, I’ll pour out my Spirit On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they’ll prophesy.’” (Acts 2:17-18 Message)
PCUSA is a
so liberal environment that even a Pentecostal or charismatic Presbyterian could
be ensnared by its liberal stances on homosexuality. Often the best advice for
Christians in such environment is to leave Babylon or face spiritual decadence
and apostasy. To remain is to run the risk of serious spiritual contamination.
Perhaps
this is Peterson’s case.
A church guided by Christ is a place where
Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel to homosexual
sinners, heal their wounds and diseases and expel their demons. But PCUSA is filled of “demonic illusions,”
“deceiving spirits” and “doctrines of demons” regarding the homosexual sin and
other sins. People open or filled with the Holy Spirit and his supernatural
gifts should, for their own survival, leave this environment of apostasy as
soon as possible.
On Trump, Peterson said to Merritt, “I think we’re in a
bad situation. I really do. Donald Trump is the enemy as far as I’m concerned.”
Not
that Trump is an enemy of the homosexual agenda. His State Department has proved to be
pro-sodomy and America under Trump continues making
sodomy great. But apparently Peterson’s interview showed displeasure
that the Trump administration is not as virulently pro-sodomy as the Obama
administration was. Has Peterson become a “discreet” hard-core liberal?
Has
PCUSA, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, in its
liberalism produced such feelings and ambiguities in Eugene Peterson?
Peterson explained his complaint
about Trump, saying, “He has no morals. He has no integrity.” What did Peterson
expect? Trump is a member of PCUSA. But at least he has been open to prayers
from Spirit-filled Christians.
If no firestorm had happened, would
Peterson have backtracked? What will happen when there are no conservative
firestorms?
It is just a pity that Peterson did
not leave Babylon in time.
With
information from the Religion News Service, Charisma News and The Washington
Post.
Portuguese
version of this article: Eugene Peterson, criador da Bíblia “A Mensagem,” diz que a
homossexualidade não é errada — e então volta atrás
Source: Last Days Watchman
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