John Shore is a false teacher who has started a group perpetuating the false dichotomy that everyone claiming the name of Christ is in one of the following categories:
- Aligned with their pro-gay theology, where homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, etc. are gifts from God and it is sinful to say otherwise.
- Someone like Democrat Fred “God hates fags” Phelps and his Westboro “church”
That is transparently ridiculous, of course. There are countless Christians who believe the Bible and agree with God’s views yet can still reach out to gays with truth and love. The message is simple: We don’t have to make people straight before sharing the Good News with them. You can tell them that even if homosexual behavior wasn’t a sin they would all have plenty of other sins for which they need forgiveness, just like straight people. But if you really love them then you won’t lie about God’s truths and you won’t affirm them in physically, emotionally and spiritually destructive behavior.
Here is more about the NALT group:
(Notalllikethat.org) – The purpose of the NALT Christians Project is to give LGBT-affirming Christians a means of proclaiming to the world—and especially to young gay people—their belief and conviction that there is nothing anti-biblical or at all inherently sinful about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
It is a train wreck of bad theology, and to make things worse they “especially” target to young people. Something about millstones comes to mind.
The Bible couldn’t be more clear. Bible-believing Christians and even two out of the three types of pro-gay people* (religious or not) can see these truths:
- 100% of the verses addressing homosexual behavior describe it as sin in the clearest and strongest possible terms.
- 100% of the verses referring to God’s ideal for marriage involve one man and one woman.
- 100% of the verses referencing parenting involve moms and dads with unique roles (or at least a set of male and female parents guiding the children).planned
- 0% of 31,173 Bible verses refer to homosexual behavior in a positive or even benign way or even hint at the acceptability of homosexual unions of any kind.
The more you read about this group the creepier it gets. When John Shore plugs himself on Amazon, his top three quotes reveal what he is all about.
One is from Rob Bell, a false teacher. I can see why Shore would use him given Bell’s popularity, but Bell is still awful.
Then there is Shelby Spong, the fake Christian who always wears a clerical collar so people don’t confuse him with the head of the National Atheist Association. That’s how anti-biblical he is.
But the first reference Shore uses in every site I’ve seen is from Dan Savage, an on-the-record Christ-hating atheist bully, the guy who coined the phrase “Santorum” to describe a disgusting by-product of gay sex**.
Dan Savage (“Savage Love”; It Gets Better) calls John Shore “America’s preeminent non-douchey Christian.” Rob Bell (“Love Wins”) has declared Mr. Shore “awesome,” and “a brilliant writer.” “John Shore is a gadfly,” wrote famed theologian John Shelby Spong, “calling the Christian Church everywhere to act the way it says it believes about love and justice, which of course makes him an uncomfortable presence in those churches that do not like to be forced to face reality. So were the prophets of old. So was Jesus of Nazareth.”
If Dan Savage likes your theology then something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. That would be something to be ashamed of, not to be used as your top reference.
Not surprisingly, Spong compared Shore to the prophets and Jesus. But Jesus and the prophets were wildly unpopular with the world, while Shore is loved by the world and those who hate God and his word.
I can’t think of a single person who pushes pro-gay theology that isn’t off the rails on the essentials of the faith. Peel back the layers and you’ll find that if they are pro-gay then they deny most or all of the following: Jesus’ divinity, Jesus’ exclusivity for salvation, the authority of scripture, etc. They pretend to like the Bible while undermining it at every turn.
My favorite tactic with them is to point out how the Bible teaches over 100 times that Jesus is the only way to salvation, so of course it is a view that every Christian must hold. Then I ask if they agree with it. Of course, they don’t. That helps expose them for what they are.
You can comment on Shore’s NALT project here. Here is another good response to these frauds.
Run, don’t walk, from people who claim to follow Jesus yet talk like Shore, Bell and Spong. It is beyond parody that a Christian would consider an endorsement from Dan Savage to be a good thing. The only thing worse would be an endorsement from Satan himself.
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* The three general types of pro-gay theology people: 1. “The Bible says homosexuality is wrong but it isn’t the word of God” (obviously non-Christians) 2. “The Bible says it is wrong but God changed his mind and is only telling theological Liberals” (only about 10 things wrong with that) 3. “The Bible is the word of God but you are just misunderstanding it” (Uh, no, not really.)
** In a spectacular irony, Savage infamously led to the coining of the term “Santorum” to describe the disgusting byproducts of a gay sex act: “the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.”
He was trying to get back at former Senator Santorum for labeling homosexual acts as sinful, but Savage didn’t realize the net result of his name-calling. After all, it is Savage’s disgusting byproduct that is the problem. Assigning someone else’s name to your filthy output doesn’t demean them, it demeans you. What self-mockery!