Kirsten Powers: “The intolerant left claims another scalp”

I read the other day that Pastor Louie Giglio had been invited to give the benediction at Obama’s second inauguration. Now I don’t know anything about Giglio and apparently the left didn’t either. So they started digging and found that he preached against homosexuality back in the mid-90s and considering Obama’s newfound love for gay marriage during last year’s election cycle, the left has created a scandal out of it – so much so that Giglio has now withdrawn from the inauguration.

I was alerted to this when I noticed Kirsten Powers tweeting this:

Kudos to Powers for calling them out.

Here’s Huffpo’s writeup on it:

The Rev. Louie Giglio, the Atlanta pastor scheduled to deliver the benediction at President Barack Obama’s second-term inauguration, said Thursday he is withdrawing from the ceremony amid questions about an anti-gay sermon he gave in the mid-1990s.

The sermon, in which he spoke against the “aggressive agenda” of the gay rights movement, would make his inaugural prayer “dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration,” Giglio said in a statement. “Neither I, nor our team, feel it best serves the core message and goals we are seeking to accomplish to be in a fight on an issue not of our choosing.”

The sermon that caused the controversy, “In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality,” is posted on Discipleship Library, a Christian website that archives sermons. In it, Giglio tells listeners that being gay is a sinful choice and that gay people will be prevented from “entering the Kingdom of God.”

The “only way out of a homosexual lifestyle … is through the healing power of Jesus,” he says in the sermon. “We’ve got to say to the homosexuals, the same thing that I say to you and that you would say to me … it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change.”

I disagree with little in Huffpo’s characterization of Giglio’s speech. He’s right about most of it and it’s simply the truth that the world needs to hear. People absolutely can change and there are homosexuals who have changed and can testify to it.

But even if one disagrees with Giglio’s words, as I would imagine Powers does, she’s still okay with letting bygons be bygons without creating a scandal over it. After all, even Giglio admits that this was one sermon years ago and isn’t the focus of his ministry.

“Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.”

Here’s Giglio’s full statement:

I am honored to be invited by the President to give the benediction at the upcoming inaugural on January 21. Though the President and I do not agree on every issue, we have fashioned a friendship around common goals and ideals, most notably, ending slavery in all its forms.

Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration. Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.

Neither I, nor our team, feel it best serves the core message and goals we are seeking to accomplish to be in a fight on an issue not of our choosing, thus I respectfully withdraw my acceptance of the President’s invitation. I will continue to pray regularly for the President, and urge the nation to do so. I will most certainly pray for him on Inauguration Day.

Our nation is deeply divided and hurting, and more than ever need God’s grace and mercy in our time of need.


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