For Today Frontman To LGBT Community: Sorry Not Sorry

December 15th, 2013

Kriston McConnell

I’m sure you may have heard about the beliefs of For Today‘s frontman, Mattie Montgomery, on homosexuality and marriage. He recently made a rather lengthy statement in an effort to clarify his stance on marriage, and homosexuality. In short, he believes that there is a problem with the Church, and with Christians picking and choosing what they follow. He states that there is a fundamental misconception about people “marrying who they want,” and that you should marry who God tells you to marry. This, among other reasons I imagine, is his problem with the “homosexual agenda.” The LGBT community’s stance is that you can marry who you want, which is what the issue is; not that he is “a homophobe or bigot.”

You can read what he had to say by taking a look below the jump. It’s a long read, so you might want to take a seat beforehand!

Of all the political/religious hot-button issues polarizing our nation and evoking intensely emotional reactions from people of all different backgrounds, arguably the most widely discussed issue right now is that of gay marriage. With that said, I want you to know up front, my heart is not to offend or alienate anyone, but to accurately convey the much-too-frequently misrepresented heart of Christ, and to hopefully be able to offer a Word that will provide freedom and peace to an offended and accused homosexual community, as well as some divine perspective for a widely uneducated and misinformed Church.

Before I get started, you must understand, I am not a political voice. I am in no position to institute legislation regarding civil unions or “marriage.” I write from a religious perspective, as a proponent of spiritual revolution and awakening in our generation. Therefore, I will speak very little of my opinion about whether gay marriage should be legal or not—that is an issue for politicians, not preachers.

Now, on to the main point (yes, point; singular. I believe there really is only one point to be made on the subject). There is a very serious issue facing our nation right now. It is an issue of perversion and rebellion, self-worship and an extreme disregard for the Word of God. However—and this might surprise many of you–this issue is not confined to those who ascribe to a particular sexual persuasion, or even a particular religion.

I’ve read countless arguments both for and against homosexuality. Many people fight very passionately about this issue—and many of those people use scripture as their primary weapon. However, even within the church, this seems to have achieved very little real change. It has caused countless people to begin to view the Bible as irrelevant or outdated, and it has caused many religious people to write the LGBT community off altogether as “rebellious” and “perverse.” This, however, is where the danger lies. You see, in having become so acutely focused on the issue of homosexuality, we have ignored the greater issue—and that is, that our culture as a whole—both gay and straight, religious and secular—has sought to dethrone God from the area of marriage and relationships, and establish ourselves as the ultimate authority in this area.

While the church has not been shy about condemning the LGBT community; drawing battle lines and jumping headlong into an “us vs. them” mentality, they have tried desperately to bury a number of pretty staggering facts. For example, statistics show that, in spite of the condescending position of self-righteousness and moral superiority the church has adopted, divorce rates in Christian communities are outrageous! In fact, I’ve seen studies which have found that, on average, 1 of every 3 Christian adults has been through at least 1 divorce*! And, within the evangelical church, the rates of domestic violence and physical abuse are equal to those in secular marriages**!

As painful as it must be to face, the church has pretty clearly established that, as a whole, they have no authority to tell the world what marriage should be, because it’s become evident that, as things stand now, the church is no better off than the secular/unbelieving world. However, these staggering statistics demand that we consider one vital question: is this all because the Bible–which these Christians claim to live by–is irrelevant and powerless, or is the real issue that many Christians simply choose not to live by it?

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As I stated earlier, there is a very serious issue facing our nation right now, an issue of perversion and rebellion, self-worship and an extreme disregard for the Word of God. Many Christians have used the Bible to try to transform homosexual culture, without allowing it to transform their Christian culture! You see, a devastatingly vast number of Christians refuse to live according to the same Bible that they use to accuse homosexuals. And naturally, the homosexual community cannot take these accusations seriously; because they come from a group that has, by its actions, exposed itself as a bunch of liars and hypocrites!

However, I believe with all my heart that Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God is the standard of righteousness for all humanity. While the church is often filled with imperfect, broken people, Christ remains our perfect standard. I have not ever—nor should any Christian–claimed to be the standard people should strive to meet. That standard is Jesus. I am not the standard, but I will spend my life introducing people to Him!

With that said, let’s look at the standard Christ established for obedience (this stretches far beyond sexuality or marriage, by the way):

– “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

– “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21

– “You are my friends if you do what I command.” – John 15:14

You see, this One called Jesus of Nazareth, though He’s been portrayed as being soft and timid, not demanding or judgmental, was in fact very polarizing and controversial! To be His follower, it was required that you do what He commanded—and ONLY what He commanded! Anything else was considered treason against His eternal Kingdom, and put you in danger of losing your place with Him altogether!

This was something that His followers were acutely aware of. As many of them state things like:

– “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20

– “We must obey God rather than man!” – Acts 5:29

– “You see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” – James 2:24

– “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” – James 1:22

Hopefully by now it’s becoming clear. The standard to which God has called us is not just a standard of morality or ethical living. He does not demand of us that we be “good people,” but that we be obedient to His commands—that we hear and obey what He is saying, trusting in faith that His plan for us is better than our own.

Contrary to popular interpretation, this does not mean that we are to do our best to live according to the morals outlined in the Bible (while that is a part of it, that is far too generalized to be relevant or applicable to every person in every situation). In fact, Jesus said, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.” (John 5:30) Jesus understood that a sound judgment regarding whether something is right or wrong is not made just by reading a book, but by what we “hear.” He also knew that it is impossible to judge rightly unless we FIRST “seek not to please [ourselves] but Him who sent [us].”

Our ability to decipher right from wrong is fully contingent upon the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us, and teaching us the perfect will of the our righteous King for every situation.

(***If you do not have the Holy Spirit living inside you, teaching you the will of God for every situation, STOP READING NOW AND PRAY OUT LOUD that the Father would give you this wonderful Helper to make His will for you clear and His Truth accessible!***)

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Now, to apply this Truth to the issue at hand: The reason the church is suffering from such tragic failure in its marriage relationships is because we have failed to live by this particular revelation regarding obedience. We have said to God, “Lord, you can meet our financial needs, you can shape our views regarding religion and politics, but you are not allowed to take control of our love life. We have the ability and the right to decide who we should marry, so we don’t need you to intervene in that area of our life.”

However, in the midst of this great sexual revolution, the church has found a few Bible verses about homosexuality being an “abomination,” and fornicators going to hell, so as a result, we’ve been willing to concede a little bit of our sex lives to the will of God. So we’ve said to the world on behalf of the God we so poorly represent: “As long as you’re not gay, and you don’t have sex before marriage, God will be happy with you and you can marry whomever you want.” We have essentially decided that we don’t need to obey, as long as we don’t disobey. And this is perhaps one of the greatest failures the church has ever facilitated.

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I want to say clearly and loudly to the world, once and for all: You may NOT marry whomever you want! God, your Creator and the Judge of all nations, has a perfect plan for your life. It is specifically and uniquely tailored to who He made you to be; and it will bring glory and fame to Him in the earth. For anyone—straightor gay—to assume that they have the right to marry someone for ANY reason other than obedience to the command of God is an act of rebellion against the King of Creation; it is foolish and naïve, egocentric and ignorant.

I married my wife because God told me to. Yes, I think she’s beautiful. But she’s not the only beautiful woman in the world. Yes, she and I get along great! But, I get along with many other women who are just friends of mine. I choose to love my wife, not because she earned my love, but out of obedience to the Word of God spoken to me 5 years ago, in which He said, “Candice will be your wife. I’m calling you to marry her.”

So, with that said, I’d like to make my stance on homosexuality/homosexual marriage crystal clear: I cannot support the homosexual agenda in our nation. This is not because people call it an “abomination,” or because I’m some sort of homophobe or bigot, but because every argument in support of that act is based on one fundamental misconception; and that is the flawed idea that we should be able to marry whomever we want.

I have never heard a homosexual couple tell me that the reason they are together is because, out of a place of devotion to the Lord in prayer and scripture study, He commanded them to be together. And, until that happens, there really is no discussion to be had. They will receive the same response I would give to a straight couple that is together for carnal or selfish reasons: You are in disobedience to God, and you have made an idol out of yourself. Repent. Leave this relationship, and commit yourself to hear and obey the spoken Word of God.

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However, much of the violent polarization of right and left wing crusaders, both for and against homosexual relationships has come from major failure within the church. So, I’d like to address the homosexual community and their advocates on behalf of the Church once and for all:

To the LGBT community: I sincerely apologize that, with our actions, we have said that WE can marry whomever we want, but you cannot. Our wrong motives have been exposed by the staggeringly negative success rates of our marriages, and we have no right to demand that you live to a standard that we have not been willing to honor.

I refuse to lower the standard of perfect obedience to which scripture calls us to accommodate anyone for any reason. Therefore, I can advocate NO relationship that exists for the sake of self-gratification, be it heterosexual or otherwise. If it is not a direct result of the command of God, it is sin, and should have no legitimate place in human life.

Psalm 119:105 says, “your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (This was written by someone who didn’t have a Bible to read like you and me, by the way.) The truth remains, unless God has spoken a Word to us in season, we are aimless. We are in the dark, and we must wait on Him until He illuminates our path with the revealing of His perfect, unique plan for us. And trust me, it will be worth the wait.

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As I said near the beginning of this essay, I am in no position to institute legislation regarding civil unions or “marriage.” I exist as an oracle of the Kingdom of heaven, not the United States of America. And as such, in regard to the issue of marriage (gay OR straight), I can say only this: The spoken Word of God must remain paramount to us. If rebellion and self-centeredness continue to infect the minds of our culture (both Christian and secular), we will position ourselves for a painful judgment at the hand of Jesus–the One whose words we’ve twisted to coddle ourselves in our treason. Revival begins in the Church. So I beseech the Christian community: submit your thoughts and actions regarding marriage and sexuality to God. Become the righteous standard that the homosexual community has yet to see. Christ must be the Lord of ALL of your life, or He is truly the Lord of none of it. You may NOT marry whomever you want. But this is when “faith” gets real. Those who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

I bless you in the service of my Lord and King, Jesus Christ. He can turn this around! Let’s stand with Him while He does it!

Love radically. Live righteously.

Mattie Montgomery