(Tim: this is third in a series of posts [one, two, three, four, five, six, seven] responding to to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's promotion of sodomy at a Indiana University campus forum they sponsored the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011.)
Here is the doctoral student's account of the evening. (John Doe) is a member of ClearNote Church of Bloomington. Given the personal nature of the ending of his account, we've decided to reserve his name for non-internet distribution.
The account is accurate, there's a real man who is a gentleman, intelligent, and articulate who wrote it--a man who loves God, the Church of Jesus Christ, and souls tempted to sin. And it's probably helpful for the reader to know (John Doe) is an African American. He understood those souls needed to be warned and, from his love for them and Jesus Christ, he warned them. A second Indiana University student who is a Christian man attended the event with (John Doe) and is able to corroborate the facts given here.
* * *
This week, the Indiana University undergraduate and grad/faculty chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship are sponsoring a series of forums entitled "Jesus and the end of..." The topics to be addressed are:
-Homophobia
-The Immigration War
-Religion
-Environmental Degradation
-Racism
On Monday night, IV presented a forum called "Jesus and the End of Homophobia." For this particular evening, IV partnered with a LGBTQ campus advocacy group called SAGE and Christian Student Fellowship. The speaker was William Campbell, a former InterVarsity staff worker (he left staff last October) at the University of Illinois—Chicago and current member of Chicago's LaSalle Street Church.
There were around seventy-five people in the room, most of them undergraduates. Many of them—as I would later find out—were there for real answers. For example, afterwards I met (Jane Doe), an undergrad studying the sciences. She told me she came because she saw the signs for a biblical discussion of what "Jesus really thought" about these issues. She's been thinking about becoming a Christian for the past several months and was looking for answers.
Campbell began the evening by giving his credentials and a brief overview of his topic. Then he began his talk by answering what he claimed was the "question that (is) on everyone's mind." With a mixture of pride and glee he announced "I'm gay! And yes, I am a Christian." He stated that he believes in Jesus...
and that he believes the Bible.
Campbell then proceeded to define homophobia as anything that resembled intolerance of the LGBTQ community. From the outset he asserted that the Bible was the wrong starting point for such a discussion. Real people with real lives must be the starting point for any discussion concerning the relationship between the gay community and the Christian community, he said. Mr. Campbell was loyal to his premise, never once quoting Scripture during the course of the evening—although he did occasionally (maybe twice) make an allusion to "stories" where Jesus "loved others."
Instead of Scripture, the starting (and ending) place for Mr. Campbell was a series of emotional stories from his youth—stories about growing up without the love and care of a father, stories about being neglected and isolated, confused and alone; and ultimately, being ostracized as a budding homosexual teen and struggling to find his identity. Worse, he didn't feel like he could talk to his family or anyone in his church without feeling judged. The great, defining moment of his life came when he heard a man speak about a friend who died of AIDS. This was a transformative event and led Campbell to seek out this particular man as a mentor.
Having softened us all up with his own personal stories—and he was an extremely moving story-teller—Campbell then went on to assert the need for bridging the gap between the gay community and Christian community. Gay people are just like everyone else, he asserted. They want to work, to live freely, to fit in, and to worship God. The only difference is that they, like him, just want to go out and "get their flame on" every once in awhile—a crowd-pleasing phrase he reiterated at least two or three times throughout the evening.
Having fully transitioned into advocacy mode, Campbell began criticizing the "traditional church" and her "tradition" of excluding gays from the community of believers. When Campbell wanted to be critical of the people of God, he spoke of them as "the church" or the "traditional church." When he wanted to speak about how Christians and the gay community should interact at present, or in the future, he spoke of "the Christian community." This allowed him to affect the posture of a victim without implicating anyone in the room. We, after all, aren't the "Traditional Church."
The oppressor/victim motif continued. He spoke at length about how poorly homosexuals have been treated by "the Church" throughout history, drawing halting comparisons to racism in America. He concluded by suggesting quite pathetically (in every sense of the word), that perhaps, in order for the gay community to worship God without fear, they would need their own special haven apart from the rest of the Christian community.
Immediately following Mr. Campbell's lecture, the meeting transitioned into a Q&A format moderated by one of IV's undergraduate student leaders. Questions were to be written down on notecards and screened. I did not submit any questions for the Q&A.
The first question asked if Mr. Campbell agreed that the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin. Mr. Campbell dodged this question by appealing to the ground rules of the forum established by InterVarsity and SAGE. Apparently, he wasn't permitted to speak on any matter of "theology."
The second question asked if Mr. Campbell saw himself primarily as a Christian or primarily as a homosexual. Homosexuality, said Mr. Campbell, is intrinsic to his identity. He can't be separated from it. He is not more or less one or the other. He is a homosexual Christian.
At this point I was compelled to speak up. I admit that I was out of order, but it had become perfectly clear to me that he was not going to give a real answer to a good question. And I had felt a growing sense of urgency on behalf of the students who showed up with real questions and real temptations and were instead being given license to give themselves over to sin.
The evening, after all, had been advertised and promoted by InterVarsity as a biblical explanation of what "Jesus actually thought." Yet, Mr. Campbell had not only refused to use Scripture in his talk, but had contradicted it. More than that, it was now clear that Scripture was to be excluded from the meeting from the outset—and this was policy implemented by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Students with real questions and real temptations had come for biblical answers and it was clear that they were not going to receive them. In fact, they were being led astray into eternal ruin.
So I spoke up. I introduced myself and asked Mr. Campbell how it was possible for him to address this subject without opening his Bible. And how could a Christian start anywhere on this subject except with the Bible? He reasserted the policy that he was instructed not to engage in a theological discussion. I asserted that this was nonsense. The whole evening was theological. They were presenting a false god and a false gospel.
His—and InterVarsity's—goal was absolutely clear. They wanted to gain the approval of the homosexual community by presenting a far more tolerant "god" than the God of the Bible. Everything Mr. Campbell said was a lie calculated to achieve this end. He was teaching that men could be practicing homosexuals and Christians. He never spoke of homosexuality as sin. He never spoke of repentance or faith. He never mentioned forgiveness or even suggested there was a need for it. He never spoke of the cross or of Christ's work on behalf of sinners.
As I was engaging with Mr. Campbell during the Q&A, Bob Hunter, a man who describes himself as a "Diversity and Justice Consultant at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship" is on the national leadership team for IV's Black campus ministry, and is himself African-American, came from the back of the room with a sense of urgency, interrupting the Q&A by instructing the moderators to forbid and ignore audible questions. At this point, Campbell insisted on answering my question. He gave an oblique, but very emotional response to the reception of roaring applause. He then fielded two more questions and the evening was adjourned. This was probably about 9:15pm.
I spent the rest of my evening (until roughly 12am) in the room engaging with undergraduates who were there. Many of them were angry with me and demanded that I apologize publicly to everyone in the room, and privately to Mr. Campbell. Others, however, were interested in hearing more. Like I mentioned earlier, there were people there who were confused and appeared earnest in their desire to understand what the Bible says. There were men and women there who are tempted by homosexual sin.
I went to this meeting because I knew there would be souls there tempted by sin. I spent the afternoon in prayer. I'm a doctoral student and I'm intimately acquainted with the spiritual needs of the gay community. In fact, I am a Christian who once was engaged in homosexual sin. I've walked where these students have walked. But by God's grace, I've been washed, I've been sanctified, I've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1Corinthians 6:11).
When I was an undergrad and burdened under the weight of this sin, the last thing I needed was this "forum." And I tremble to think how my life might have turned out if I would have attended it. Fortunately, rather than sending me men who wanted to tell me how wonderful being a gay Christian could be, God sent me men who loved me enough to call me to repentance, to warn me of the wrath to come, and to extend to me the promise of the Gospel for forgiveness, cleansing, and power to overcome my sin, comforming to the Image of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I did not have high hopes for the meeting, but it was far, far worse than I imagined. It was an abomination. William Campbell is a wicked, false teacher who took great delight in placing stumbling blocks before the weak, tempted, and struggling students who attended. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and those students, faculty, and staff that sponsored and promoted this event have blood on their hands. The very practices that Scripture says will certainly place a man's soul in hell were not only validated, but promoted.
May God be merciful to them on the Day of Judgment, and may He protect the many who were led into sin through the wickedness of this forum.
