My support of the LGBTQ+ community is no secret. I’ve written about my trial and shared other articles about the culture of fear emerging in the Church of the Nazarene. The situation is not improving. Last month, the ecclesiastical machinery defrocked pastor Dee Kelley over the LGBTQ+ debate. Even as I write, they are moving toward filing charges against other pastors for similar reasons.
HAVE YOU NOTICED THE BLATANT HYPOCRISY IN WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Consider that the Articles of Faith (AOF) mention nothing about the LGBTQ+ community. But there is a clear Nazarene AOF about Scripture. Our view of Scripture isn’t casually mentioned or alluded to. It is specific and the entire AOF spells out how a Nazarene should view the Bible. See for yourself:
“We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.” (Manual 2017-2021, Church of the Nazarene)
Think of the phrase, …”inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation,” We believe the Bible is spot on when it comes to getting us to heaven. Our AOF regarding Scripture doesn’t teach that the Bible is a history book or science book. To say, “The Bible is either all true or it isn’t” is a statement contrary to the AOF.
In spite of this, many ordained Nazarene pastors teach and proclaim the doctrine of inerrancy. This is not news. These pastor who teach contrary to the AOF about Scripture go uncheck.
- They don’t worry about getting a certified letter from their District Superintendent informing them charges were filed against them.
- They don’t stay awake at night worried about getting fired.
- They don’t parse their words on Facebook for fear of screenshots being sent to their District Superintendent.
ZERO ordained elders who teach inerrancy have been charged with “teaching doctrine contrary to the Church of the Nazarene.” And yet, this is exactly what they are doing. Why are they given a pass?
For example, last week the subject of inerrancy was debated on a Facebook group devoted to Nazarene theology. An ordained elder on the Iowa District, who pastors a hispanic work, defended his belief in inerrancy. He added that he has taught this doctrine for twenty years. He went on to assert that his district superintendent and most pastors on the district share his view about Scripture. And yet, no one has brought charges against him. Odd, since he is in a teaching role and teaching contrary to an AOF.
Are you seeing the hypocrisy in our denomination and the leaders?
Our failure as a denomination isn’t that we still have LGBTQ+ affirming pastors. No. Our failure as a denomination is that we have failed to defend our position about AOF #4.
This failure is as devastating as the results of the Titanic hitting the iceberg. Unless the Board of General Superintendents correct this failure, our denomination may sink into the icy waters of oblivion.
If you think this is making an iceberg out of an icecube it can only mean you don’t get it. But I wish you would. I wish you could grasp that it isn’t the debate about affirming pastors we need to focus on. If we are going to bring charges against pastors and drag their butts through a church trial let it be for teaching doctrine contrary to AOF #4. This is where the battle for the heart and soul of our denomination should focus.
Why aren’t gatekeepers focused on the real problem in our church? I don’t understand. But I recognize hypocrisy when I see it.
Meanwhile, the band on the deck plays Holiness Unto the Lord while some gatekeeprs search for affirming pastors to put on trial.
I hope we’ve not taken on too much water and that the Church of the Nazarene can be saved.
I don’t think the “gatekeepers” are concerned about AOF #4. I think they are homophobes, hiding their hatred behind AOf #4
Well said.
Thank you.
Why you Affirming a lifestyle that is a sin? Are you counseling homosexuals to come to God or are you just telling them, it’s OK, you can’t help it.
The hypocrisy you highlight is hard to swallow. It shows in many forms, including the selective prosecution of clergy. I fear we have taken on too much water. Perhaps I will be wrong.
I fear we have passed the point of no return.
This is a great point, Randall, and I think it opens up a can of holy worms. Having not perused the Nazarene manual for a number of years, I looked it up online. It looks much different than when I was pastoring 30 years ago. We had “special rules.” Correct me if I am wrong, but these have now been eliminated?
The Special Rules were problematic to me and some church members raised a stink when I took into membership a large family which included several people who smoked. I brought this family into the church because I did a funeral for a family member. At the funeral, several family members marched in and out of the sanctuary for smoke breaks. Our good traditional Nazarene members complained about the cigarette butts on the sidewalk. How unholy is that! And even after I led them to Christ and took them into membership, several of them still struggled. I was reminded the Special Rules said we were to abstain from tobacco in all of its forms. The funeral reception was at their house (since our good Nazarene church had no kitchen or reception area, compliments of old-time Nazarenes who believed you didn’t do that in church), and several of them had beers. The Special Rules told us all about that, too.
I wonder why those Special Rules are now gone. Maybe it is because it’s been shown that Nazarenes have always been drinkers and smokers (and dancers, to mention another), and Nazarenes who went to movies, and the denomination finally admitted it. And Nazarenes who watch television programs based on violence, such as the National Football League, but if you have a Sunday night Super Bowl party at church with a short devotional at Half-Time, you can boast about that in your report at District Assembly.
If the General Superintendents at that time had pushed for the Special Rules to become part of the Articles of Faith, I would have had a District Supt., coming for my credentials for bringing someone addicted to tobacco and alcohol into the COTN. But no one did, maybe because it was hard to replace someone like me making $150 a week, but maybe it was also because everyone knew these things went on. Imagine if we had those Special Rules as AOF today. As my smoking new convert said to me as he described the power of addictions, “It’s funny how your manual doesn’t say anything about obesity.” I nodded and said how hypocritical it all was, as we both sat there with our pot bellies.
But the COTN figures there aren’t enough LGBTQIA+ persons in the denomination to be offended and leave, as there would be for smokers, drinkers, and dancers. They assume they will survive as the Southern Baptist Church survives despite treating women as inferior to men. The SBC survives on the stamina of sexist, homophobic white men, and so does the COTN.
Your innerrancy point is an accurate one. We have Nazarene ministers who are Fundamentalists, who preach little more than megachurch fluff, get excited about Left Behind and predicting dates, not realizing all of those things are contrary to Wesleyan theology. But they don’t know Wesleyan theology, anyway, since we pull illiterate itinerants off the street who couldn’t tell you anything about Wesley or Bresee (I know because I used to work with them), but no one has gone after their credentials. Meanwhile, pastors who explore the dynamic love of Wesleyan thought (written of by Wynkoop and others) are called “liberal seminary folk” “too Catholic” or “too intellectual.”
This is solely a political move by the COTN, afraid of losing their WASP membership in the fellowship of Homophobes, known as American Evangelicalism. There is no place for theological discourse, for even asking the questions can bring a kiss-ass DS knocking at your door. The Witch Trials continue.
“Called unto holiness,” Homo-phobes Unite,
Fighting free thinkers, this is your fight;
Called from re-search and its questions you flee,
Called to be pawns of the G-O-P.
“Holiness unto the Lord” is what you claim,
“Holiness unto the Lord” as you’re marching in shame;
Sing it, shout it, round the globe,
“Holiness unto the Lord,” If you’re a homo-phobe.
“Called unto holiness” children of fright,
Worried that gays will enter your sight;
Ignore them all, and call them in sin,
“They’re going to Hell” you proudly say with a grin.
“Called unto holiness,” bride of a sham,
Showing Christ’s love, you give not a damn;
Lower your heads, for the day draweth near,
When Christ returns, and welcomes the queer.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. ACTUALLY, the General and Special Rules still exist. They have been renamed to the Code of Christian Conduct and the Code of Christian Character. In a recent special “edict” from the Board of General Superintendents elevated these Codes to the same status as “doctrine.” It is a tragedy. The Articles of Faith before this change was recognized to be our doctrine. An elder couldn’t be “convicted” of teaching doctrine contrary to the church by being affirming of the LGBTQ+ community. But these two “Codes” do mention that marriage is between a man and a woman; thus making it a bit easier to defrock affirming pastors. It is sickening that this is what we’ve become as a denomination.
Wow. You are very much deceived. And you have made a mockery of holiness.
Why don’t you define holiness for us.
I believe the COTN has already sunken into the icy waters of irrelevance. The leadership just isn’t aware of it.
I think they do and that is why they are panicking. It’s the old adage, “When in a bad spot dig in deeper.” or “If the ship is sinking shoot more bullet holes into bottom of the boat to let the water out.”