The Rev. Louie Giglio: A Missed Opportunity

The Rev. Louie Giglio, of Atlanta, was slated to give the benediction at President Obama's inauguration, but has suddenly backed out after getting criticized by the gay leaning media for a sermon he gave in the 90s. Since then, he admitted that homosexuality has not been a subject that he often returns to. For that reason, he decided to suddenly bow-out, lest his presence fuel further controversy. In my point of view, this is too bad. For it is precisely at this time, that the Nation needs to continually discuss this issue with gay marriage ever looming closer on the horizon. The excerpts of his sermon (below,) that I gleaned from a homosexual agenda-pushing news-site; they oddly found these passages some of the most egregious. On the contrary, I see them as rather benign, and also particularly charitable. Nowhere does he preach hate, actually the opposite. He asks Christians to reach out to their gay brothers and sisters. As for calling homosexual acts a sin; that’s not hate, it's just what Christ taught. Like myself, he also sees the ultimate redemption for those trapped in the gay lifestyle. Sadly, this issue will go away. The Reverend missed an opportunity: a teaching moment. His quick exit looks like a shameful retreat.

First Corinthians, Chapter 6. In verses nine and 10, it talks about the things that prevent people from entering the Kingdom of God. It talks about all kinds of immoral behavior. And right in the midst of that passage, right in the middle of that verse it says “and those who are homosexual.” It’s clear.

As the church of Jesus Christ, we cannot sit on the sidelines, we cannot sit back inside our churches, but we must reach out and we must aggressively move toward the homosexual community because we have a message and we’ve got something to say…our message is we know Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is powerful enough to do anything and to do everything. And the only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been engrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus. We’ve got to say 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.

We must lovingly but firmly respond to the aggressive agenda of not all, but of many in the homosexual community…Underneath this issue is a very powerful and aggressive moment. That movement is not a benevolent movement, it is a movement to seize by any means necessary the feeling and the mood of the day, to the point where the homosexual lifestyle becomes accepted as a norm in our society and is given full standing as any other lifestyle, as it relates to family.

Men, women, I can’t say anything other to you tonight than this, that if you look at the counsel of the word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, you come quickly to the conclusion that homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle… homosexuality is not just a sexual preference homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is sin. It is sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin according to the word of God. You come to only one conclusion: homosexuality is less than God’s best for his creation. It is less than God’s best for us and everything in our lives that is less than God’s best for us and his plan for us and his design for us, is sin. That’s God’s voice. If you want to hear God’s voice, that is his voice to this issue of homosexuality. It is not ambiguous and unclear. It is very clear.

I would refer you maybe just to the article “Born gay?” by Joe Dallas, who is the president of a ministry that helps with homosexuals in “recovery.” It was found in Christianity Today in June of 1992. It really unfolds for us that the evidence that they say is there, that the media wants to tell us is there really isn’t there at all. But I want to tell you this tonight. Even if it was there… How do you respond to that? How do you respond to the news reports that we’re hearing in the last few months that there is a genetic tendency to be an over-eater and it’s been supposedly proved by the scientists? That there is a genetic tendency to addictive behavior. Alcoholics by and large have a genetic tendency to addictive behavior. I predict in our lifetimes and not a very long period of time from now, scientists and geneticists will have found a way to prove a gene theory for every malfunction in sinful society. And do you know why? We talked about it the very first week—because we do not want responsibility for our choices.