{"id":4685,"date":"2011-11-04T22:42:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T02:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=4685"},"modified":"2011-11-04T22:42:03","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T02:42:03","slug":"encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Encountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality \u2014 \u201cdedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.\u201d Earlier this week, LaBarbera published an open letter<\/a> to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, calling on the psychology professor to repent and apologize for refusing to pretend that \u201cex-gay ministries\u201d actually succeed in praying away the gay.<\/p>\n

LaBarbera also nastily suggested that Throckmorton\u2019s refusal to lie about the effects of such \u201cministries\u201d casts suspicion on his claim to be a Christian:<\/p>\n

You should either publicly apologize for undermining Scriptural (and observable) Truth \u2014 or renounce your claims to be faithful to historic Christian sexual teachings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peter LaBarbera should publicly apologize for being Peter LaBarbera. And if I were in Throckmorton\u2019s shoes, I\u2019d have informed the sniveling LaBarbera that I was referring him to Johnny Cash for the appropriate response his open letter deserves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Dr. Throckmorton is far more patient than I am and his elegantly gentle response \u2014 \u201cA new test of orthodoxy<\/a>\u201d \u2014 takes pains to explain why it would be dishonest, inaccurate and unjust for him or anyone else to agree to what LaBarbera is suggesting. Here is Throckmorton:<\/p>\n

As I understand this argument, I am wrong to claim to be an evangelical because I believe that categorical change in sexual attractions, especially for men, is rare. \u2026<\/p>\n

Here we have a test of orthodoxy \u2013 something that must be believed in order to be considered a Christian. In my tradition, faith in the redeeming mission of Christ is the test of faith. However, in the new orthodoxy of some in the Christian right, one must believe certain things about gays in order to be consider a Christian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep. And not only do these self-appointed popes of the One True Church of Homophobia say that must one believe \u201ccertain things about gays\u201d in order to be considered a Christian, but they say that one must believe \u201ccertain things about gays\u201d that are not true.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is what pisses me off about constantly being told I\u2019m \u201cnot really<\/em> an evangelical.\u201d The basis for this judgment is my unwillingness to bear false witness against my neighbors.<\/p>\n

The increasing prevalence of this nonsense pushes people like me in one of two directions. One path would be to surrender, granting them the papal power they have arrogated to themselves to define who is and who is not \u201creally<\/em>\u201d a member of our faith community and accepting that I no longer belong in or to that community, thereafter opting to refer to myself by some other designation, such as \u201cpost-evangelical\u201d or some such.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one option.<\/p>\n

The second option, and the one I prefer, is to argue that I do not recognize their authority to make such a determination and that I do not accept as legitimate the claim that one must bear malicious false witness against one\u2019s neighbors in order to be a member in good standing of the evangelical Christian community to which I have always belonged.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, I\u2019m not always able to muster the patience to say this quite so clearly or in so many words.<\/p>\n

This tends to compound the dispute. The self-proclaimed arbiters of orthodoxy go from saying, \u201cHe claims<\/em> to be an evangelical Christian, but he deviates from the official positions on gays and abortion,\u201d to saying, \u201cHe claims<\/em> to be an evangelical Christian, but he deviates from the official positions on gays and abortion and<\/em> he just told me to go f*** myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in my defense, they really, really, really had it coming.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality \u2014 \u201cdedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.\u201d Earlier this week, LaBarbera published an open letter to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, calling on the psychology professor to repent and apologize for refusing to pretend that \u201cex-gay ministries\u201d actually succeed in praying away the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[237],"class_list":["post-4685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-evangelicals"],"yoast_head":"\nEncountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality -- "dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Encountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality -- "dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-05T02:42:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/\",\"name\":\"Encountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-05T02:42:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-05T02:42:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality -- \\\"dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/04\/encountering-the-self-proclaimed-popes-of-evangelicalism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Encountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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