Showing posts with label Christianity Today. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity Today. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Christianity YESTERDAY


Christianity YESTERDAY

Michael Heath
When I deepened my commitment to Jesus Christ before departing my teens I soon discovered a magazine called “Christianity Today.”  It’s the public relations arm of serious-minded evangelicals, or at least that’s how it fancies itself.  The rag needs a new name.  It’s dedication to the dead ideologies of the not-so-distant past make it “Christianity Yesterday,” not “Christianity Today.”  The world is slowly pivoting away from the sappy globalism that inspires their readers.
I stopped reading it decades ago.  I got bored with it.  It’s ideas never showed up in the right places.  I should say that I kept hearing about it’s work from all the wrong people.  I remember when Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family’s political guru, turned his back on them in favor of the warrior Christian of my generation, James Dobson.  That’s all ancient history now.  Minnery was complicit in the dismantling of my work and ministry in Maine over a decade ago.
The experience of Brazilian blogger Julio Severo with Christianity Today is instructive.  I know Severo personally.  He is a dedicated and articulate opponent of sodomyism in two languages — Portuguese and English.  He blogs on the subject relentlessly.
Consider this pathetic commentary penned by the Brazilian version of Christianity Today,
“Severo is one of those quixotic evangelicals, willing to fight windmills that maybe only he can see. In his words, even the Brazilian government would be interested in asking for his deportation because of the criticism of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ‘The president makes an uncompromising defense of homosexuality and abortion. How much is left for us to consider Lula and his administration as possessed? It is destroying the morality and honesty of society,’ he says. The histrionic tone gives Julio Severo’s profile an incendiary outline that he makes a point of feeding, not just when he speaks of homosexuality. He defends, for example, the right of evangelical parents to homeschool their children (a practice prohibited by Brazilian law) as a way of keeping them safe from the school’s allegedly harmful influences.”
Trump gets a pass from the so-called Christian magazine on sodomy while it singles out the issue in Severo’s case as evidence of his “histrionic tone,” “incendiary outline” and “quixotic” nature.  An obvious fact now about the Left is it’s unreasonable fixation on sodomy and sodomites.  Christianity Today’s recent faux pas about Trump that drew excoriating criticism from the magazine’s founding dynasty is evidence of their mental collapse into nonsense.
There’s one thing you can now count on when it comes to the chattering class of the West.  If at all possible they will find a way to tolerate sodomy.  It is the signature issue of our age.
It is such a critical global issue that not one, but two, U.S. Ambassadors held an event at the Disunited Nations one week before Christmas entitled, “Decriminalizing Homosexuality in Solidarity with LGBTQ People.”  The Christian Post pointed out that the statement about the event noted “President Trump’s commitment to the effort to legalize homosexuality worldwide.”  America’s ambassador to Germany, an out and proud sodomite, headlined the event.  He bragged about ongoing American taxpayer efforts to “decriminalize homosexuality in at least 69 countries.”
History is not going to be kind to our age.  This sort of thing is beyond words, it is so diabolical and wicked.  If there is one tradition on earth that sodomites should be honoring due to it’s forbearance it is Christianity.  Instead they choose the most ubiquitous global holiday of the ancient faith to rub everyone’s nose in their sin.  Does their arrogance know no limit?  They have failed in their decades long effort to shoehorn sodomy into Christianity … but they won’t stop.  Must things devolve into violence before they decide to take their disgusting practices and notions back into the blackened closet corners from which they emerged?
Christianity Today is done.  Put a fork in it.  America’s goose is cooked also, unless Trump gets serious about delivering on his populist promises.  The natives are restless.  It’s way past time to get serious about ending the attack on family, Christianity, Europe and common sense.  Pray that 2020 doesn’t open with violence in Richmond, Virginia.
The Left has poked the silent sleeping bear in America one too many times.
Portuguese version of this article: Cristianismo ONTEM
Divulgation: Last Days Watchman
Recommended Reading:

Monday, December 30, 2019

Franklin Graham criticizes Christianity Today for its far-left-wing editorial to remove Donald Trump saying his father Billy voted for the president and praised him before his death


Franklin Graham criticizes Christianity Today for its far-left-wing editorial to remove Donald Trump saying his father Billy voted for the president and praised him before his death

By Julio Severo
Franklin Graham, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham who founded Christianity Today, said his father would be disappointed in the anti-Trump editorial the magazine published on December 2019.
“My father supported Donald Trump, believed in Donald Trump and he actually voted for Donald Trump and if he were here today he would tell you that himself,” Graham said to Fox News.
Christianity Today’s Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli wrote an op-ed that said President Trump should be removed from office, mentioning Billy Graham’s name twice, as if the famous evangelist could support a far-leftist stance of the magazine against Trump.
“They’re a very liberal left-wing magazine now and my father did start it back in the ‘50s,” the younger Graham said on Fox News, explaining his grandfather was also an early editor of the publication. “But over the last 20, 30 years he hasn’t been a part of it and it’s drifted to the left. And this magazine does not speak for these evangelical Christians.”
As a confirmation that Christianity Today does not speak for evangelicals, 200 conservative evangelicals, including Graham himself, signed a letter to the magazine’s president, Timothy Dalrymple, to reverse its left-wing stance against Trump and against pro-Trump evangelicals.
Among the signatories of the letter are George Wood, chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, Rev. Tim Hill of the Church of God, former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee; and former Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann.
Dalrymple refused to accept criticism that Christianity Today has become far-left. Instead, he wrote that his magazine is in fact “theologically conservative” and “does not endorse candidates.”
“Out of love for Jesus and his church, not for political partisanship or intellectual elitism, this is why we feel compelled to say that the alliance of American evangelicalism with this presidency has wrought enormous damage to Christian witness,” Dalrymple wrote.
Roughly 8 in 10 white evangelical Protestants say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job, according to a December poll from The AP-NORC Center. This is not a surprise because the main supporters for Trump in 2016 were white evangelicals, who gave him the victorious presidency.
The Pew Research Center reports that 77 percent of white evangelical Protestants approve of Trump’s presidency. Yet some actions of his administration have caused confusion among evangelicals. Even though he has been a pro-life champion — except in cases of babies conceived in rape —, Trump has not only appointed pro-homosexuality judges, but, just as Obama did, his administration has also meddled in foreign affairs and rebuked Christian nations that ban homosexuality.
However, Trump’s progressive stance on homosexuality is hardly a problem for Christianity Today, which has the same progressive stance.
Even though Christianity Today voiced all kind of left-wing criticism against Trump, there is one point where the left-wing magazine did not voice a single criticism against Trump: Homosexuality. It was the only issue where Christianity Today exempted Trump.
I was not so lucky. In 2009, Christianity Today, in its Brazilian edition called “Cristianismo Hoje,” published a long interview with me, and they saw a lot of problems in my Christian stance against the gay ideology.
My interview with the Brazilian version of Christianity Today was published in its printed magazine and on its website. You can, if you read Portuguese, see it here in Cristianismo Hoje. Because Christianity Today edited important points of my interview, you can also read it, in Portuguese, in full here in my Brazilian blog.
In one of the points of the interview, the Brazilian Christianity Today said,
Severo is one of those quixotic evangelicals, willing to fight mills that maybe only he can see. In his words, even the Brazilian government would be interested in asking for his deportation because of the criticism of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “The president makes an uncompromising defense of homosexuality and abortion. How much is left for us to consider Lula and his administration as possessed? It is destroying morality and honesty of society,” he says. The histrionic tone gives Julio Severo’s profile an incendiary outline that he makes a point of feeding, not just when he speaks of homosexuality. He defends, for example, the right of evangelical parents to homeschool their children (a practice prohibited by Brazilian law) as a way of keeping them safe from the school’s allegedly harmful influences.
Lula was the Brazilian counterpart of Obama and a friend of Obama. Even though Christianity Today portrayed me as a “quixotic” evangelical — a reference to Don Quixote, who saw imaginary threats —, the homosexualist threat is far away from being imaginary.
Fortunately, U.S. conservative evangelicals have shown more respect for my work. WND has published several interviews with me for over one decade and The Religion and Society Report, of the late theologian Harold Brown, published a long essay by me in 2006 titled “Behind The Homosexual Tsunami in Brazil,” detailing the non-imaginary threats of the Lula administration in Brazil.
Like the U.S. Christianity Today, the Brazilian Christianity Today sees only left-wing Protestants and non-Protestants as realistic, down-to-earth, practical and serious.
Originally, Billy Graham founded Christianity Today in the 1950s to counter left-wing Protestant magazines. But the progressive virus is so powerful that Christianity Today was infected. This infection has spread, through the U.S. Christianity Today, to other nations, including Brazil, which has its Christianity Today as spiritually rotten as the original.
I am glad that at last Christianity Today has been exposed by what it is now: Far left. And it was exposed by Franklin Graham, a man who has all authority to say what he said about the far-left magazine. I am glad also that Christianity Today, which aligns itself with left-wing politicians, has attacked Trump. This shows that Trump is in the right way.
Yet, I am sad that the same far-left Christianity Today that saw a lot of problems in my Christian stance against the homosexual ideology saw no problem with Trump’s stance on homosexuality.
Different from Christianity Today that criticized everything about Trump, except his stance on homosexuality, I praise his pro-life record, but I decry the insistence of his administration to keep pressing Christian nations in Africa to embrace sodomy.
Trump has been cowardly attacked by Christianity Today. As an evangelical who has also been cowardly treated by Christianity Today, I would like to offer my humble evangelical advice for Trump to change course on the gay ideology.
I would never offer advices to Obama and Lula, because in their socialism they would reject them. But, if given an opportunity, I would offer them to Trump, because he is not closed to evangelicals.
Or Trump could listen to Franklin Graham. In a cover story of Decision, the official magazine published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for passing a law protecting children and teens against homosexual propaganda. He also decried the efforts of Obama to attack Russian for its protective law.
If I could offer an advice to Trump, it would be exactly what Franklin said in defense of the Russian law protecting children and teens.
As to Christianity Today, I have no advice, but just a question: is it too late for it to get rid of the progressive virus?
With information from DailyMail.
Recommended Reading:

Monday, December 23, 2019

Trump blasts Christianity Today, evangelical magazine founded by evangelist Billy Graham, for saying that he should be removed from presidency. Trump said that Graham voted for him and that the magazine, which drifted away from Graham long ago, became far left and morally lost and confused.


Trump blasts Christianity Today, evangelical magazine founded by evangelist Billy Graham, for saying that he should be removed from presidency. Trump said that Graham voted for him and that the magazine, which drifted away from Graham long ago, became far left and morally lost and confused.

By Julio Severo
Donald Trump lashed out at a prominent evangelical Christian magazine on December 20, 2019 and praised the son of its founder, the legendary evangelist Billy Graham, for saying his father voted for the president before his death.
Trump said Christianity Today, founded in 1956, has become a far-left magazine. The magazine’s top editor wrote in an editorial published on December 19, 2019 that Trump should be removed from office.
“Thank you to Franklin Graham for stating that his father, the late great Billy Graham, voted for me in the 2016 Election. I know how pleased you are with the work we have all done together!” said Trump.
Billy Graham, the famed evangelical preacher, died in 2018. Franklin Graham disclosed his father’s pro-Trump vote in a Facebook post.
Trump noted that Christianity Today is no longer affiliated with the Graham ministries. He suggested the magazine is “looking for those of the socialist/communist bent, to guard their religion.” He also said that they “would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President.”
“The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!” he claimed.
Rev. Billy Graham was noted for counseling past presidents. He counseled both right-wing and left-wing presidents. His son wrote on Facebook that his father “knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.”
“For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable,” the younger Graham added, cataloging some of Trump’s policy achievements.
“The list of accomplishments is long, but for me as a Christian, the fact that he is the most pro-life president in modern history is extremely important — and Christianity Today wants us to ignore that, to say it doesn’t count?” he asked.
The attack from Christianity Today came one day after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against Trump. Democrats want to impeach Trump because he asked the Ukrainian president to investigate the corruption and money laundering of Democrats in Ukraine since the 2014 coup orchestrated by Barack Obama, George Soros and neocons that overthrew the pro-Russian president in Ukraine and replaced him with a president favorable to the corruption of Democrats.
The attack from Christianity Today is among the most public Trump condemnations from Christian media since the 2016 campaign.
The Pew Research Center reports that 77 percent of white evangelical Protestants approve of Trump’s presidency. Yet some actions of his administration have caused confusion among evangelicals. Even though he has been a pro-life champion — except in cases of babies conceived in rape —, Trump has not only appointed pro-homosexuality judges, but, just as Obama did, his administration has also meddled in foreign affairs and rebuked Christian nations that ban homosexuality.
However, Trump’s progressive stance on homosexuality is hardly a problem for Christianity Today, which has the same progressive stance.
Christianity Today mentioned many “problematic” issues of Trump, but strangely it mentioned nothing about homosexuality — probably because it saw no problem in this issue. It was the only issue where Christianity Today exempted Trump.
I was not so lucky. In 2009, Christianity Today, in its Brazilian edition called “Cristianismo Hoje,” published a long interview with me, and they saw a lot of problems in my Christian stance against the gay ideology.
My interview with the Brazilian version of Christianity Today was published in its printed magazine and on its website. You can, if you read Portuguese, see it here in Cristianismo Hoje. Because Christianity Today edited important points of my interview, you can also read it, in Portuguese, in full here in my Brazilian blog.
In one of the points of the interview, the Brazilian Christianity Today said,
Severo is one of those quixotic evangelicals, willing to fight mills that maybe only he can see. In his words, even the Brazilian government would be interested in asking for his deportation because of the criticism of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “The president makes an uncompromising defense of homosexuality and abortion. How much is left for us to consider Lula and his administration as possessed? It is destroying morality and honesty of society,” he says. The histrionic tone gives Julio Severo’s profile an incendiary outline that he makes a point of feeding, not just when he speaks of homosexuality. He defends, for example, the right of evangelical parents to homeschool their children (a practice prohibited by Brazilian law) as a way of keeping them safe from the school’s allegedly harmful influences.
Lula was the Brazilian counterpart of Obama and a friend of Obama. Even though Christianity Today portrayed me as a “quixotic” evangelical — a reference to Don Quixote, who saw imaginary threats —, the homosexualist threat is far away from being imaginary.
Fortunately, U.S. conservative evangelicals have shown more respect for my work. WND has published several interviews with me for over one decade and The Religion and Society Report, of the late theologian Harold Brown, published a long essay by me in 2006 titled “Behind The Homosexual Tsunami in Brazil,” detailing the non-imaginary threats of the Lula administration in Brazil.
Like the U.S. Christianity Today, the Brazilian Christianity Today sees only left-wing Protestants and non-Protestants as realistic, down-to-earth, practical and serious.
Originally, Billy Graham founded Christianity Today in the 1950s to counter left-wing Protestant magazines. But the progressive virus is so powerful that Christianity Today was infected. This infection has spread, through the U.S. Christianity Today, to other nations, including Brazil, which has its Christianity Today as spiritually rotten as the original.
I am glad that at last Christianity Today has been exposed by what it is now: Far left. And it was exposed by Franklin Graham, a man who has all authority to say what he said about the far-left magazine. I am glad also that Christianity Today, which aligns itself with left-wing politicians, has attacked Trump. This shows that Trump is in the right way.
Yet, I am sad that the same far-left Christianity Today that saw a lot of problems in my Christian stance against the homosexual ideology saw no problem with Trump’s stance on homosexuality.
Different from Christianity Today that criticized everything about Trump, except his stance on homosexuality, I praise his pro-life record, but I decry the insistence of his administration to keep pressing Christian nations in Africa to embrace sodomy.
Trump has been cowardly attacked by Christianity Today. As an evangelical who has also been cowardly treated by Christianity Today, I would like to offer my humble evangelical advice for Trump to change course on the gay ideology.
I would never offer advices to Obama and Lula, because in their socialism they would reject them. But, if given an opportunity, I would offer them to Trump, because he is not closed to evangelicals.
Or Trump could listen to Franklin Graham. In a cover story of Decision, the official magazine published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for passing a law protecting children and teens against homosexual propaganda. He also decried the efforts of Obama to attack Russian for its protective law.
If I could offer an advice to Trump, it would be exactly what Franklin said in defense of the Russian law protecting children and teens.
As to Christianity Today, I have no advice, but just a question: is it too late for it to get rid of the progressive virus?
With information from DailyMail.
Recommended Reading:

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Forbes’s Unprofessional Behavior: Six Years After Publishing Misinformation on Brazilian Televangelist Silas Malafaia Before Its U.S. and International Audience, Forbes Retracts — Only Before Its Brazilian Audience


Forbes’s Unprofessional Behavior: Six Years After Publishing Misinformation on Brazilian Televangelist Silas Malafaia Before Its U.S. and International Audience, Forbes Retracts — Only Before Its Brazilian Audience

By Julio Severo
Through its largest outlet, which reaches a massive U.S. and international audience, Forbes misrepresented a Brazilian televangelist in 2013. Then, 6 years later, realizing that its information on the minister was exaggerated and unfair, Forbes used its smaller Brazilian outlet, far away from the U.S. and international audiences, to apologize.
Silas Malafaia
The victim was Pastor Silas Malafaia.
Forbes’s small apology, translated by me from Portuguese, was:
CLARIFICATION NOTE
May 3, 2019
On January 18, 2013 a report was published on our website entitled “Bishop Edir Macedo is the richest pastor in Brazil with a fortune of $ 950 million — Leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is ahead of Valdomiro Santiago and Silas Malafaia.”
The mentioned report contained information that Pastor Silas Malafaia had estimated assets of US$ 150 million.
Thus, in the face of allegation that the publication of the report at the time would have caused displeasure in Pastor Silas Malafaia, since his patrimony in fact, according to him, allegedly corresponds to only 3% of the amount quoted in the article, according to official documents that he has allegedly voluntarily made available, FORBES, historically committed to ascertaining the truth of facts, regrets what happened and seizes the opportunity to offer excuses to Pastor Silas Malafaia.
Forbes’s apology referred to its Portuguese report and forgot mentioning that Forbes’s main misrepresentation was in English, in a 2013 report titled “The Richest Pastors In Brazil,” which said:
Religion has always been a profitable business. And if you happen to be a Brazilian evangelical preacher, chances of hitting a heavenly jackpot are actually pretty high these days. Even though Brazil remains the world’s largest Catholic country, with about 123.2 million of its population of approximately 191 million defining themselves as followers of the Vatican-based church, the latest census figures pointed to a strong decline among the ranks of Roman Catholics, who now account for 64.6% of the country’s population–down from 92% in 1970.
Meanwhile, the number of Protestant evangelicals has soared from 15.4% of Brazil’s population just a decade ago to 22.2%, or 42.3 million people. It’s likely that the downward trend for Catholicism will continue and it’s estimated that by 2030, Catholics will represent less than 50% of Brazilian churchgoers.
So why are evangelicals taking over Brazil’s religious scene?
One of the evangelicals’ most appealing qualities is their belief that material progress results from God’s favor. While Catholicism still preaches a very conservative look to an afterlife instead of earthly riches, evangelicals–especially the ‘neo-Pentecostal’ ones–are taught that it’s all right to be prosperous. This doctrine, known as ‘Prosperity Theology,’ is in the foundation of the most successful evangelical churches in Brazil.
The value of material progress in Brazil’s evangelicalism is explicit and actively promoted…
Then there’s Silas Malafaia, the former leader of the Brazilian arm of the Assembly of God, Brazil’s biggest Pentecostal church. The most outspoken of his colleagues, Malafaia parted ways with the institution in the late 1990s to start his own spin-off denomination, the Assembly of God-Victory In Christ Church. Malafaia is constantly involved in controversies related to the gay community in Brazil, of which he proudly declares himself to be the biggest nemesis. The supporter of a law that could classify homosexualism as a disease in Brazil, Malafaia is also a prominent figure on Twitter, where he is followed by more than 440,000 users. In 2011, Malafaia–who’s worth an estimated $150 million according to several Brazilian business publications–launched a campaign called “The One Million Souls Club,” that aims to raise $500 million (R$ 1 billion) for his church in order to create a global television network that would be broadcast in 137 countries. Those interested in contributing to the campaign can donate sums starting at $500 (R$ 1,000), that can be paid in installments. In exchange, donors will receive a book. Malafaia also owns one of the four biggest record companies in Brazil’s gospel segment, according to Billboard Brasil, and the country’s second largest gospel publishing company, Central Gospel, with sales of a reported $25 million (R$ 50 million) per year.
Forbes inaccurately published information that Malafaia had a fortune of about $150 million, when actually he has just 3% of that amount.
Only after many years Forbes accepted the truth, because according to Malafaia’s website Vitória em Cristo, “With official documents, Pr. Silas Malafaia proved, in court, that the value of his patrimony corresponds to 3% of the amount quoted in the article.” So it was judicially proven that Malafaia had just 3%. It is proven truth.
The problem is that Forbes apologized only in regard to its report in Portuguese, which had a smaller audience, not to its original English report, which had a massive audience.
For example, Christianity Today, in a 2013 report titled List of Richest Pastors in Brazil Prompts White House Petition,” mentioned Malafaia according to Forbers’s misinformation. Christianity Today, which is one of the leading Protestant magazines in the U.S., has never apologized to Malafaia and, considering that there is no English apology of Forbes available, it will be unlikely to apologize.
In Brazil, the consequence of the misinformation was also devastating. Coincidentally or not, the Brazilian version of Christianity Today, Cristianismo Hoje, targeted Malafaia in a long 2013 report titled “Malafaia: A quem ele representa?” (Malafaia: Whom does he represent?) immediately after the Forbes report, according to GospelMais, one of the most prominent Protestant websites in Brazil, in its 2013 report “Malafaia não me representa” (Malafaia Does Not Represent Me).
Brazilian Calvinist outlets exploited the Forbes report to increase their attacks on Malafaia. Calvinist Facebook page Bereanos launched a campaign that Malafaia does not represent Brazilian evangelicals.
Calvinist minister Renato Vargens, interviewed by Cristianismo Hoje on Malafaia, seized the opportunity to note: “This has contributed to an unnecessary belligerence between civil society and the Church. So his errors, unfortunately, eventually affect all evangelicals.” He meant Malafaia’s conservative activism, which includes open stances against abortion and the homosexual agenda. Malafaia has been the more forthright evangelical voice in Brazil defending pro-family and pro-life values, even in prominent TV shows.
Vargens and other Brazilian Calvinists consider Malafaia’s message “heretical.” In fact, Vargens said clearly in Cristianismo Hoje that Malafaia’s teaching is “heretical.”
Now that Forbes published an apology in Portuguese to Malafaia, will the Brazilian version of Christianity Today produce an equal long report apologizing to him?
Will Calvinists leaders and outlets that exploited the Forbes report to attack Malafaia publish their apologies?
Yet, Forbes should now publish an apology in English too, because its original report was in English.
After Forbes publishes its apology in English, will Christianity Today publish an apology in English too?
Forbes was unprofessional by publishing inaccurate information that eventually strengthened left-wing and Protestant voices that hate Malafaia’s message, values and stances. For a publication as Christianity Today, to redistribute such misinformation is not only unprofessional. It is unchristian too.
A retraction from the original source and its secular and Protestant redistributors is long overdue.
Recommended Reading on Silas Malafaia:

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Why Does The Christian Post Espouse Leftism in Brazil?


Why Does The Christian Post Espouse Leftism in Brazil?

By Julio Severo
The U.S. version of The Christian Post rightly addressed the recent World Vision flap on gay “marriage” by quoting prominent evangelical leaders. Their responses were mostly conservative. The first World Vision (WV) stance favoring this faux marriage was universally disapproved among conservative Christians. Its repentance was welcome.
In no way, the Christian Post condemned these conservative leaders and their views.
In a strange twist, the Brazilian version of The Christian Post decided not only to publish nothing from its U.S. version on the WV flap, but it also addressed it from a liberal viewpoint. The only article by the Brazilian Christian Post on this issue was “Obsessão evangélica sobre homossexualidade está fora de controle, relata autora” (Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control, Says Author), by Luciano Portela.
The author is Rachel Held Evans, who in a recent CNN article said, “I then felt betrayed when World Vision backtracked” on gay “marriage.”
In this article, she condemned conservative evangelicals as Albert Mohler and the Assemblies of God denomination for their opposition to the initial WV pro-gay “marriage” decision.
Evans’ liberalism is obvious. In her personal blog, she said, “As I advocated for the election (and re-election) of President Obama, I confess I grew somewhat embarrassed by the pro-life cause.” Of course, Obama is an avid advocate of gay “marriage” and abortion.
Evans is a columnist in the leftist The Huffington Post. She is scheduled to be a speaker at the Festival of Faith & Writing, April 10-12, 2014. The event, which purposes to train a new generation of Christian writers, will be held by the Calvin College, which is connected with the Christian Reformed Church.
Portela, the journalist of the Brazilian Christian Post, kept quiet about the endemic liberalism among many American Calvinists in his “Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control, Says Author.”
He also kept quiet about the church affiliation of Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. Stearns attends the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A (PCUSA).
Most Brazilian evangelicals, even Presbyterians, do not know that PCUSA is pro-sodomy, liberal, anti-Israel, pro-abortion, etc.
A time ago, a Presbyterian minister in Brazil told me that he did not know that PCUSA was so liberal.
If Portela did not quote prominent U.S. evangelical leaders and their views on the WV gay “marriage” flap because Brazilian readers are not familiar with them, so why did he choose an American liberal author who is less known?
Brazil has its own liberal problems among evangelicals, including the Brazilian branch of World Vision, whose director, Ariovaldo Ramos, said,
“Everybody who, in everyplace, fights against poverty, for the human liberation, for justice and rights available to everybody had, in Hugo Chávez, a reference of commitment to the poor and the oppressed.”
He also said,
“The best we could say of someone is that, because he lived here, the world became better! We can say this of Hugo Chávez!”
Apparently, some form of liberalism has hit the Brazilian Christian Post, which has published articles by Rev. Johnny Bernardo, who has a long history of affiliation with the Communist Party of Brazil and recently supported the decriminalization of marijuana in Brazil.
Portela’s article “Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control” is not a condemnation of a liberal American author and her radical agenda, but of conservative evangelicals who are fighting to preserve their churches of the deluge of progressive obsessions.
Cristianismo Hoje, the Brazilian version of Christianity Today, retweeted the article, increasing still more the doubts of readers who see its difficulty of clearly condemning the apostasy of those who call themselves Christian and support the so called gay “marriage.”
“This whole situation has left me feeling frustrated, heartbroken and lost. I don’t think I’ve ever been more angry at the Church, particularly the Evangelical culture in which I was raised and with which I for so long identified,” wrote Evans about evangelical leaders who opposed to the WV’s initial pro-gay “marriage” stance.
“I confess I had not realized the true extent of the disdain and stigmatization many Evangelicals have toward LGBT people, nor had I expected World Vision to yield to that disdain and stigmatization by reversing its decision under financial pressure. Honestly, it feels like a betrayal from every side.”
For a “Christian” author who is not frustrated and heartbroken over Obama and his pro-abortion and pro-sodomy agenda, it is natural for her to want World Vision to remain faithful to progressive principles, including gay “marriage.”
This is a betrayal of the true Gospel. But who said that progressives have this Gospel? Gay “marriage” will never be a betrayal of the progressive gospel.
Why is the Brazilian Christian Post siding with it?
Christian Post should do a necessary work of exposing U.S. Protestant liberalism among Brazilian audiences, and vice-versa.
Brazil needs less, not more, liberal evangelical examples.
Portuguese version of this article: Por que o Christian Post adota o esquerdismo no Brasil?
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