The Christian Post is reporting that City Church, San Francisco’s largest evangelical megachurch, has lifted the requirement for gays and lesbians to first commit to a life of celibacy before being allowed to join their congregation.

Senior Pastor Fred Harrell Sr. posted a letter on the church website stating that it took the Elders nine months to reach this decision, and that two of these Elders had resigned. He assures that that the church’s core principles will remain the same. They will continue to receive members who show a “credible profession of faith,” and that the levels of “commitments represented in the membership vows” will also go unchanged.

What has changed? The letter reads:

We will no longer discriminate based on sexual orientation and demand lifelong celibacy as a precondition for joining. For all members, regardless of sexual orientation, we will continue to expect chastity in singleness until marriage. Please pray for our Board as we continue to discuss pastoral practices with our LGBT brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for our denomination, the Reformed Church in America, as it does the same.

Harrell goes on to state that “God is bringing LGBT Christians through the doors of City Church,” and that their past practice of demanding life-long celibacy, “by which we meant that for the rest of your life you would not engage your sexual orientation in any way, was causing obvious harm and has not led to human flourishing.” Nonetheless, City Church will still advocate the requirement of chastity for those who are not married regardless of sexual orientation.

I applaud these actions. I know for most of you, this is too little too late. I agree, but at least it is a step on the right direction.

In other news, The Christian Post is also reporting that Alan Robertson from “Duck Dynasty,” has declared that “God, by His design, has laid out the best way — mentally, physically and emotionally — to have a sexual relationship, and that doesn’t include homosexuality and gay marriage.”

Hey Jack, we still have a long way to go.

I know I sound like a broken record on this, but as I pointed out recently in my Pat Robertson piece, in twenty years LGBT acceptance will be the norm for most churches. They will do the exact same thing they did with slavery and women’s rights. The apologists will find new verses and reinterpret old ones to proclaim that God was always accepting of the LGBT community. This too will be too little too late, but if it ends a little more suffering, I’m all for it.

Brother Richard

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