We are called to holiness more than to heterosexuality, and from Genesis to Revelation, from Moses to Jesus to Paul, the consistent witness of Scripture is that holiness can never be found in a homosexual union. No amount of Scripture twisting can make sexual relationships between two men or two women holy in God’s sight.

It is wonderful to read the account of Kirsten Powers’ conversion from atheism to Christianity. But that doesn’t make her into a Bible scholar or theologian, and Powers has made some grave errors in her recent article on Christianity’s new look on gays.

She begins by asking the question, “Could there be a future where most American Christians support same-sex relationships?”

The obvious answer is,

But that is not how she answers her question. Instead, she writes, “If so, it will be due to the emergence of conservative Christians who say orthodox believers can support life-long, monogamous gay relationships without undermining their commitment to biblical authority.”

This is a truly unfortunate statement, as riddled with self-contradictions as it with theological fallacies.

In short, the only way a professing Christian “can support life-long, monogamous gay relationships” is by ceasing to be a conservative Christian, ceasing to be an orthodox believer, and completely undermining their commitment to biblical authority.

Not surprisingly, Powers leans on the recent work of Matthew Vines (whom she wrongly calls evangelical) and Prof. James Brownson, claiming that both of them “hold a ‘high view’ of Scripture, meaning it is the final authority on all matters of faith and life.”

But that is patently false, since both Vines and Brownson know that the Bible never provides a single positive reference to homosexuality, that the Bible explicitly endorses heterosexual marriage alone, and that every reference to homosexual practice in the Bible is decidedly negative.

How then can they claim that the Bible is the final authority for them in matters of faith and life?

The fact is that they can’t. The highest authority for them is personal experience, which is why both Brownson and Vines start their books with their personal stories. In the case of Brownson, it is his own son coming out as gay. In the case of Vines, it is his realization that he was same-sex attracted.

That is the true starting point for both authors; based on which God’s Word is now reinterpreted in light of their experience.

This is the guaranteed path to deception.

Powers notes that Brownson says, “The issue of sexual orientation represents new data that the church needs to ask itself, ‘Should this change the way we look at this?'”

So, the “new data” that the church now has is the contemporary, post-sexual revolution understanding of “sexual orientation” (a tenuous concept indeed), and based on this, we are now supposed to throw out two-thousand years of biblical interpretation, not a syllable of which is challenged by this “new data.”

Clearly, the Bible is not the final authority for Vines and Brownson in matters of faith and life, and that’s why almost the vast majority of biblical scholars and theologians who embrace their position are liberal-leaning (or completely liberal) in their theology. In contrast, the vast majority of biblical scholars and theologians who reject their position are strongly conservative in their theology.

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