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Saturday, June 24, 2023

LCG’s Wallace Smith: Business as usual in the LGBTQ Community!

In a co-worker letter dated June 16, 2023, Wallace Smith took those nasty LGBTQ folks to task for flaunting their “Pride Month” in everybody’s face. He wrote: “While this observance celebrating LGBTQ culture and ‘values’ has its origin in the United States, it has spread to many corners of the world—probably including yours. Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom each have their own incarnations of Pride Month. Even Israel has Tel Aviv Gay Pride Week in June—a celebration so popular that the website TouristIsrael.com highlights it as Tel Aviv’s attempt to prove it is ‘the Gay Capital of the Middle East.’” Leave it to those Israelites to pave the way to sin for the rest of the world! And it’s not just Manasseh and Ephraim that are rolling around in the muck, the Jews are doing it too! Also, did you notice that not too subtle jab at the notion that LGBTQ folks could have anything akin to “values”?

Bless his heart, Wallace does go on to acknowledge that “Advocates for these celebrations argue that they represent tolerance, acceptance, and love.” Nevertheless, according to Mr. Smith, that argument is quickly dispensed with when we consider what these folks are actually parading before the public. He went on to say that “Each year ‘Pride Parades’ turn the streets of our major cities into public stages for some of the most sexually explicit and provocative behavior imaginable, normally kept behind closed doors: public nudity, simulated sex acts, and strange fetishes—all in full view of families and children. In fact, many organizers encourage young children to attend and witness for themselves!” And please don’t bother Wallace with those assertions that gay folks are merely demonstrating that it is acceptable to live life as “one’s authentic self.” No, sir! Mr. Smith believes that LGBTQ folks should resist and change their natures.

Unfortunately, as with too many other ACOG leaders, Wallace sees anything sexual outside of a marriage between “one man and one woman” as SIN. For Wallace (and many of his associates in LCG), all other sexual acts are perverse/deviant/nasty/wicked/evil/abominable. The notion that an LGBTQ person could: love God, accept Jesus Christ, truly love someone and be faithful to that person, be kind, compassionate, truthful, etc. is anathema! In other words, for him and his allies, it is inconceivable that someone who is gay or transgender could be a moral person - a Christian!

They ignore the fact that Jesus NEVER condemned sinners or sought to publicly shame them, and that he always seemed to place himself among the folks whom everyone else regarded as the dregs of society. For instance, in the Gospel of John, we read a story about an adulterous woman who was surrounded by an angry mob who was ready to stone her. What did Jesus do? We are told that he knelt down and began to write something in the dirt (probably a list of sins), and then said that “the one who is without sin should cast the first stone.” Please notice that he did NOT say, “You dirty, adulterous, nasty, little slut! I should let this crowd take you out and throw you off of the cliff!” Notice too, that although Jesus WAS sinless, he didn’t pick up a stone and throw it at the woman. However, Jesus did say on one occasion that it was the sick who needed a doctor, not those who are healthy! Hence, even if one regards these folks as sick or “sinners,” the appropriate response is NOT derision or condemnation!

No, what Mr. Smith and his allies fail to recognize is that gay “pride” is not a manifestation of arrogance – it is a reaction to being shamed for being who they are. LGBTQ folks do NOT choose to be the way they are – it is, simply, their NATURE! Take just a moment to think about this – just a moment, that’s all that I’m asking of you. Did you have to decide at some point in the past to be attracted to the opposite sex? OR Did that attraction just come naturally to you? Did you ever have to make a decision about whether breasts or pecs were more attractive to you? Did you ever have to decide to exhibit masculine or feminine traits? Haven’t you always felt like a male or a female? And, if you all answered those questions the way that I think that you did, doesn’t that suggest something to you about the NATURE of LGBTQ folks? After all, isn’t it illogical to assume that anyone would ever make a conscious decision to be different, shamed or ostracized from society?

Not surprisingly, Mr. Smith went on to chastise President Biden for having the audacity to recognize Pride Month. He wrote: “Just days ago, on June 10, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration held what it described as the largest ‘Pride event’ ever hosted by the White House, which included a giant, so-called ‘Progress Pride’ flag hanging from the balcony of the White House—flanked on right and left (that is, in the lesser positions) by two American flags.” In other words, how dare the POTUS acknowledge the contributions of this disgusting minority to American society!

Wallace and his allies believe that they have a special commission by Almighty God to castigate these people (and those who support and love them) for their sins! In the end, for them, it all comes back to their conviction that the English-speaking peoples of the earth are the modern descendants of God’s chosen people, Israel. He wrote: “Speaking out against sexual sins, fornication, and adultery—and speaking up for the eternal laws of God—is not popular with many, and it attracts enemies who seek to silence you. As many of you know, our stand for the truth has caused us to be kicked off many a television station. But God’s command leaves no room for cowardice! ‘Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins’ (Isaiah 58:1).” Sorry, Mr. Smith, Britain and the United States are NOT Ephraim and Manasseh, and you are NOT Isaiah! Since you claim to be a “True Christian,” maybe you should be proclaiming the GOOD news which Christ commissioned HIS disciples to preach!

In other words, if you really want to be “an unapologetic source of truth,” you should be proclaiming the source and personification of truth, Jesus Christ. Moreover, like him, instead of actively condemning and excluding people, you should be actively seeking that which was lost and seeking to make whole those whom you believe are sick! That is the work of a TRUE Christian, and the TRUE Church of God!


4 comments:

  1. As reported by several main street media sites, there was plenty of flaunting in New York city at a Pride event on June 25.

    "We're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children" was the chant!

    This manifestation of arrogance was not quite the expression of tolerance, acceptance, and love the advocates promised!

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    1. That chant was a manifestation of arrogance - the queer equivalent of "owning" the conservative Christians in the crowd (intentionally provocative). Unfortunately, just as there are evil heterosexuals, there are evil homosexuals as well. There are good and bad in every crowd - a feature of being human in this present age. I agree with you that the chant you quoted was NOT a manifestation of love, tolerance or acceptance.

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  2. As you know, I am a member of UCG and live in accordance with its teachings. I agree with you that "... what Mr. Smith and his allies fail to recognize is that gay “pride” is not a manifestation of arrogance – it is a reaction to being shamed for being who they are. LGBTQ folks do NOT choose to be the way they are – it is, simply, their NATURE!"

    It is true that the founders of the Gay Pride back in the 70s, intended it to convey to the larger heterosexual public a declaration of our human worth, as also being God's children, created in His image. Gay people who are worthy and deserving of loving and being loved.

    However, sadly - Pride is not what it once was intended to be. What Mr. Smith said about the vulgar excess of some of Pride participants is sadly true. I know that many gay people (including me) find this type of behavior highly inappropriate and damaging to the public's perception of the wider LGBT community.

    Media across the globe has highlighted some of these bad examples from the 2023 Pride events. Decent people, both gay and straight, should be dismayed at this kind of behavior.

    With that said, although I choose to belong to one of the ACOG's that you seem to dislike so much, I certainly do understand the sentiment in your comments (I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with it. I'm saying that I understand your view).

    I have friends (including you) who have left the various ACOG fellowships. I understand the human side of "why" that happens. I've worked for years to try and educate the WCG and UCG ministry about the human side of homosexuality. Many in the ministry do understand that we did not "choose" our homosexual orientation. However, they truly believe that God intends sexual intimacy to be only in marriage between a man and a woman. I believe that their preaching and teaching is not borne out of hate or bigotry (speaking of UCG, not necessarily other fellowships). I believe that they feel that have a moral and spiritual responsibility to preach what they believe. I don't criticize or fault them for that.

    UCG has come a long way from the hostile culture of the old WCG. In my 28 years with UCG, I don't recall hearing a single joke about gays. It has not been easy to live a celibate life in the WCG/UCG. But that is what I choose to do. I have a good relationship with several men in the UCG ministry and am treated with respect.

    Sincerely,
    Dean

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    1. Dean,

      Thank you for sharing your perspective on this issue. I hope that it will help someone else in your circumstances. As I have told you privately, I appreciate and applaud your efforts to make UCG better in their behavior toward LGBTQ folks. Also, as I said to BP8, there are bad actors among the LGBTQ community - just as there are in any group. To be clear, I do NOT condone lewd or profane public behavior.

      Finally, there are many folks within the ACOG community whom I still love and respect (you're one of them). My beef is NOT with them - it is with many of the teachings of Herbert Armstrong. Having been a part of that community for many years, I understand that most of us were motivated by a sincere desire to please God and live within His will. I believe, however, that some of those teachings have presented a flawed/distorted view of God and His will and have done real harm to the folks who have accepted them.

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