Stanley Family Pastors Clash: Anti-LGBT vs Acceptance

By Alison Lesley --
16 May 2015 --

Pastor Andy Stanley feels a Congregation should be the safest place on the planet for LGBTs, while his Pastor father is vehemently anti-gay.

In a (probably) pretty awkward turn of events, the child of Charles Stanley, the man known for his vehement anti-gay outbursts, has created an accepting, gay-safe environment among his congregation. Charles has made claims about the “destructive behavior of homosexuality”, from his bizarre ideal that it’s a choice to that there has been medical evidence that those who are attracted to the same-sex can just ignore it. His sermons are taught at the First Baptist Church Atlanta, and he has regularly announced that AIDS is the US’s punishment for homosexuality. Charles has, in the past, been offered the Jewish National Fund as an honor for his contributions. He declined, after a lot of resistance from the LGBT community.

Andy Stanley: Not So Much a Chip Off the Old Block

Andy, on the other hand, has glaringly different ideals in terms of his faith, and he feels that congregations are meant to be one of the “safest place[s] on planet for students to talk about anything, including same-sex attraction.” Andy urges Christians to “just decide from now on in our churches when a Middle School kid comes out to his small group leader or a high school young lady comes out to her parents, we just need to decide, regardless of what you think on this topic – no more students are going to feel like they have to leave the local church because they’re same-sex attracted or because they’re gay. That ends with us.”

Little Stanley has made waves throughout the Christian community, and likely his family as well. His words were delivered at a conference that is meant to prepare the younger generation of church leaders in being bold and different. He told them, “there is not a consensus in this room when it comes to same-sex attraction… we just can’t continue to look into the filter of our politics at our spirituality.Its got to be the other way around… and specifically when it comes to this issue.” In a discussion with USA Today, he spoke about the Kansas religious freedom bill in the Christian’s column. He finds it “offensive” that his fellow Christians have been seen “leverage[ing] faith to support the Kansas law.” He added that the whole point of Christianity is “serving people we don’t see eye to eye with”, and “Jesus died for a world with which he didn’t see eye to eye.”