07AR12-24

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Apologia Report 12:24

June 21, 2007

Subject: Christianity Today article sympathetic to Mormonism

In this issue:

HOMOSEXUALITY - incendiary new book said to reveal history and influence of gay movement within Roman Catholic hierarchy

LOCAL CHURCH/LIVING STREAM - controversy over new allies

MORMONISM - will yet another attempt to bridge the gap between LDS and evangelicals assist Mitt Romney's presidential bid?

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PLEASE NOTE: Our office will be closed for the next two weeks. Consequently, the next issue of Apologia Report is scheduled for the week of July 8-14.

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HOMOSEXUALITY

The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, by Randy Engel [1] -- this heavily documented 1,200-page polemic details "the growing threat posed to the Church and State by the Homosexual Comintern," writes sympathetic reviewer Rosemary Fielding.

Engel "makes sure the reader understands homosexuality very well before embarking upon the sections on the Church [and] reveals what homosexual propagandists 'wisely stay away from ... preferring to dwell on homosexual 'rights' instead of homosexual 'acts.'" This involves "graphic details of a profoundly disturbing and vicious world of sexual perversion....

"Engel draws on medical, psychiatric, police, and sociological research done by specialists who know the practical workings of the homosexual lifestyle. She illustrates their findings with the writings of homosexuals, who, in their in-house publications, reveal all secrets."

Her objective is to document how "the homosexual world is historically and universally a world of violence and criminality [characterized by] pornography ... unabashed lust, rampant, almost unimaginable promiscuity, depravity and sterility."

Much of this, Engel demonstrates, is also predatory in nature, regarding pederasty and pedophilia. In this context, Fielding relates how Engel finds that the homosexual "Collective 'has had a difficult time shaking off the public's perception of the predatory homosexual as a hunter and seducer of young boys, especially as pederast apologists like David Thorstad are wont to remind the Homosexual Collective that pederasty has been the most enduring and universal form of homosexuality in the recorded history of mankind.

"'Tom Reeves, an avowed "faggot who loves boys" has called pederasty "a central feature of 'gay life,' as reflected in the many prominent pederastic institutions that characterized urban 'gay' communities such as the teenage meat-racks and youth-oriented fads and hangouts."

Engel describes a 1964 Toronto study which found that "Homosexual sex offenders of minor children had at least twice or more the number of victims as heterosexual pedophiles [and] had the highest rate of recidivism.

"Engel summarizes much of the research that has been done on the causes of homosexuality. Her starting point is that 'homosexuals are made, not born.' In other words, 'there is at present no scientific evidence to support the theory that homosexual drives and desires are biologically determined.'"

Engel addresses other central gay arguments. For example, "The secular, 'outed' Collective maintains ... that homosexuality was completely accepted in a highly advanced civilization exactly as it manifests itself today in the modern 'gay' world. Thus, the lifestyle of 'gays' today [is] exactly like that condoned in ancient Greece. ... One need only to examine the testimony given in the State of Colorado Supreme Court Case of Evans v. Romer to understand that what the ancients believed concerning the morality of homosexual acts is still of import today, writes Engel."

She concludes that as Robert P. George, Professor of Politics at Princeton University concluded: "the condemnation of homosexuality by Greek philosophers, as represented by Plato, is substantially in line with the Catholic tradition'....

"Engel emphasizes the fact that though the Collective serves many purposes for the individual homosexual, it operates primarily as a political force. [It] operates to make sure more and more youth are available for recruitment. 'Man-boy love relationships are ... a happy feature of the rebellion of youth and its irrepressible search for self-discovery. ... Most of us, given the opportunity and the assurance of safety, would no doubt choose to share our sexuality with someone under the age of consent,Õ Thorstad has repeatedly reminded his gay-lesbian audiences without fear of contradiction.Ó

The central concern presented by Engel, Fielding explains, is that "homosexuality has become intergenerational within the Holy Orders of the Catholic Church, including the bishops, and, therefore, the Collective wields tremendous institutional power in the Church. ('Intergenerational' plays itself out in that ordained homosexuals perform the 'rite of sodomy' on their youthful victims, and then - having corrupted them - invite them into the Collective of homosexual priests. More specifically, it means that homosexual bishops make sure their homosexual clerical lovers/friends/victims become bishops.

"Furthermore, the thesis proposes that this Homosexual Collective is one of the main agents, if not the main agent, of the revolution that has overthrown tradition, doctrine and liturgy, transforming the institutional Church into something more like an enemy of the true Church. ...

"Engel's book aims to help you to understand how and why the hypocrisy and duplicity of our priests, and bishops, their bureaucracy and their other allies have reached such incredible extremes."

A complex and thorough historical analysis of how homosexuality "infiltrated" the religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church constitutes about half the book, according to Fielding. A great deal of wealth coupled with its pursuant corruption is also said to be involved. She concludes that "The large number of known homosexual bishops and/or 'gay friendly' bishops (Engel's term) is scandalous and demoralizing. It is clear that many bishops put a higher priority on protecting a vice than preserving the Faith." This includes "allegations that 1) Paul VI was the first active homosexual to ascend to the Chair of Peter and 2) his homosexuality greatly influenced the course on which he chose to direct the Church, especially that which followed Vatican Council II." Further, Fielding notes that Engel "deals with what I think is an over-arching question: Where have the popes been in the deconstruction, betrayal and hollowing out of the Catholic Church since Vatican II?" Culture Wars, 26:6 - 2007, pp38-47, 21.

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LOCAL CHURCH/LIVING STREAM

"Local Churches Win Some Allies among Former Critics" by Douglas LeBlanc -- Though it appears in the News Watch section of the magazine, this is a truly curious piece of advocacy journalism. LeBlanc writes: "In the past two years, the local churches have made a few significant strides toward changing their reputation from 'See you in court' to 'To know us is to love us.'" Most notably, they have accomplished this through a series of meetings with representatives of the Christian Research Institute and Answers in Action. Anyone who reads the same magazine's news piece on the movement published just a decade ago ('Local Church' Update, July-September 1998, pp. 6-7, 47-48) will wonder what could have been said behind closed doors to so drastically change CRI's position.

LeBlanc gives the impression that the Local Churches' litigious image is based on just two cases - specifically, their well-known lawsuits against Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP) and Thomas Nelson. Unfortunately, the movement's punishing legal tactics in both cases go unmentioned. (The 1985 opinion by the judge against SCP is described as withering, but LeBlanc somehow omits the fact that the Local Churches had effectively bankrupted SCP prior to the trial, rendering it powerless to mount any defense in the courtroom.) References to ongoing litigation - in which the Local Churches and Living Stream seek a crushing $136 million in damages from Harvest House Publishers and authors John Ankerberg and John Weldon - are brief. No mention is made of the movement's Defense and Confirmation Project, of its legal struggles with dissident congregations in the U.S. and Canada, or of threatened litigation against other Christian publishers going back to the 1970s. And significantly, nothing is said about the successful effort by Local Church representatives in 2003 to acquire and suppress the research of their principal opponent on the Internet, Jim Moran and Light of Truth Ministry.

Though this article gives ample space to the Local Churches' defenders, it salvages a degree of credibility by citing former CRI researcher Calvin Beisner as an important (and unintimidated) critic of their theology. Mention is also made of the January 2007 open letter, now signed by some 70 scholars and ministry leaders, calling on the Local Churches and Living Stream to abandon unorthodox statements by their founder, Witness Lee <open-letter.org>. Christian Research Journal, 30:3 - 2007, pp6-8, 44.

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MORMONISM

Many print publications offer additional content online. Why some material never makes it to print is a matter of speculation, especially when it includes remarks such as: "Mormon beliefs are not as un-evangelical as most evangelicals think." And when such a remark comes from Christianity Today's editorial staff, is it any surprise that a digital stink results?

Beginning with speculation regarding the reaction of evangelicals to Mitt Romney's presidential bid, the context for the above remark about alleged evangelical/LDS similarities is the announcement of a book due in November which describes itself as an effort to "try to forge a new way for Evangelicals and Mormons." A new way for what? Perhaps the ultimate answer will be "political power." (More on that is expected for future issues of AR.)

But first, to anticipate your questions, the book is Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate, by Gerald R. McDermott and Robert L. Millet [2]. (More on this book will also surely follow in future issues of AR - but for now, see <http://tinyurl.com/yvwgjf>.) Second, the flap about the book was first noticed by us on CT's site here: <http://tinyurl.com/2rqdo6> (a Baker Publishing 230K PDF download).

Note the two examples given of supposed similarity between evangelicals and Mormons presented by CT's suspiciously unnamed authors: 1) "Unlike Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons hold firmly to the deity of Christ." Too bad that equivalency comparisons were omitted. LDS ideas supporting the probable deity of Joseph Smith come to mind. 2) "[T]he Book of Mormon contains passages that teach salvation by the merits and grace of Christ." The BoM also informs the reader that such grace comes "after" all you can do. It is telling to contrast the emphasis on "worthiness" within Mormonism to the security of the believer in traditional Christianity.

Besides the related discussion on CT's web site (at the second URL above), also consider <http://tinyurl.com/yo6c7x> (an Evidence Ministries blog segment) and begin with the entry for June 2.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, by Randy Engel (New Engel, 2006, paperback, 1282 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0977860132/apologiareport>

2 - Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate, by Gerald R. McDermott and Robert L. Millet (Brazos, November 2007, paperback, 224 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587432099/apologiareport>

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