This article is taken from a sermon I preached at City Hope Fellowship in Muncie, IN. You can find that audio for that sermon here or on your favorite podcast app.
A couple of years ago, I was asked to write an article defending the work of a former pastor in our denomination who had written a book about his same-sex attraction and what it looked like for him to live an obedient life with Jesus. Sadly, his faithful obedience made him the target of many leaders in my denomination who saw his example as something to be feared rather than commended. In defending his book, I knew I would likely attract similar attacks against what I was prepared to write. I was confident, however, that defending his book was the right thing to do.
Yet I still found myself surprised by the form in which those attacks came. I did not receive a single email or phone call from an individual who had concerns about what I had written. I did not receive any requests for a conversation to be better understood.
Instead, my character, intelligence, and reputation were maligned by pastors and elders behind the closed doors of a private Facebook group of which I was not a member. Screenshots were provided to me of how these men, who had all taken vows to uphold the peace and purity of the church, stalked me and posted information about me for all to see. These men called me childish; they said I was soft, poorly trained for ministry, and that I was not a serious thinker. My reputation was dragged through the mud, and I wasn’t there to defend it.