Billy Graham’s Crumbling Journalistic Legacy
Christianity Today (CT) was founded by Billy Graham in 1956, and Graham is the Chairman of its Board of Directors. CT is without doubt America’s bellwether Evangelical magazine.
The October 4 CT offers a forum on homosexuality chaired by Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. The panelists are Prof. David Jones of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Prof. Stephen Spencer of Dallas Theological Seminary, and Prof. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen of Eastern College in Pennsylvania. These folks are not marginal Evangelicals, and the institutions they’re affiliated with are highly regarded in the Evangelical world.
Now, guess what! All four participants agree that, in Mouw’s words, “there are no theological, biblical obstacles to advocating laws that permit the rights of domestic partners, from hospital visiting rights to sharing insurance plans and tax status,” which laws they all support.
Mouw raises the question of two lesbians who adopt a child. How should Evangelicals respond? Van Leeuwen says that such “unusual families always seem to work best if they attach themselves to a church…. We should help them….” She says, moreover, that practicing homosexuals should be encouraged to worship in Evangelical churches, adding that they should be informed that what’s important is that “we are together on the Nicene Creed,” even though “there are secondary principles on which we can and do legitimately disagree.”
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