Controversy about Alistair Begg and Gay Weddings?

Last week, Alistair Begg got himself into hot water.  His ministry, Truth for Life, posted a video which included his advice to a grandmother concerned for a grandchild trapped in the transgender lifestyle.  Moreover, this grandchild is getting married and has hopefully invited the grandmother to the wedding.

Begg the grandmother two questions.  He asked her if she had expressed her disapproval of the lifestyle, and he asked if she had expressed disapproval about the wedding.  The grandmother said she had on both accounts.  His advice, therefore, stunned the grandmother: He told her to attend the wedding with a gift in hand!

We can all sympathize with the drive to be as loving as possible, but let’s back up and consider a few points.  Christians look at Scripture and see biblical prohibitions against practically every expression on the current LGBTQ+ spectrum.  From both the Old Testament and the New, passages condemn such behaviors as deviations from normal creation.  Moreover, we have seen marriage as creation of God — right from the beginning with Adam and Eve, with each wedding reflecting a male-female relationship.*   As such, we have typically seen attending a same-sex wedding goes against biblical teachings.

(* That is not to say that every marriage found in Scripture is approved by God.  There were instances of polygamy which God condemned, as well as marriages with pagan unbelievers.  The Lord commands marriage to reflect that original relationship in the garden, simply a man and woman under God, equally yoked.)

However, because the world has decided to embrace an ever-evolving definition of marriage, Christians have typically chosen not to sanction such relationships.  This includes not performing such “weddings” within the church, and there is growing concern that the United States may force ministers to perform such ceremonies nonetheless (as is happening in other countries).  This also includes individual Christians abstaining from attending such ceremonies and their receptions, as our attendance might be misconstrued as affirmation and tacitly promote the normalization of such events.

Still, with the exponential growth of LGBTQ+ identifying individuals in the younger generations, many Christian parents and grandparents are struggling to know the best way to respond.  We must always see individuals within any deceptive movement, and so, we try to walk the line between speaking truth and expressing love.  We also understand that the act of speaking truth is an act of love, and that what the world perceives as love is not always the best expression of love.  In that vein, I can greatly sympathize with the grandmother Begg addressed and his own desire as a pastor to help her navigate the situation.

However, he gave poor advice.  Nothing can be gained by attending such a ceremony, and everything can be lost.  The couple in question are not looking for love as the grandmother would understand it; they are looking for affirmation, which her attendance would supply.  Consider this: If she is to attend, the grandmother must, by necessity, try to control her facial expressions and body language as the ceremony proceeded, lest she be seen as a disruptive influence, a pox on the event.  With her sitting there, smiling with gift in hand, she would appear to everyone to be recanting and affirming the relationship.  It's worth repeating that such affirmation is not love from a biblical perspective, but she would appear to be obeying the worldly dictates of love.

Sadly, even though Begg has received considerable pushback on this advice, he has chosen to double and triple down on the error.  When American Family Radio (AFR) contacted his ministry for clarification, his representatives informed them that he had no intention of backtracking on his statements.  This led AFR to drop Truth for Life from its lineup. AFR aired a special program in the timeslot to explain its decision, which you can listen to here.

Even though this may have seemed premature, as AFR had only spoken to Begg’s representatives and not to him, Begg preceded to preach a message to show his determination.  His message is titled “Compassion vs. Condemnation” (which you can watch on YouTube) and it is truly disappointing.  Begg preached, among other things, from Luke 15 on the story of the prodigal son. He compared the grace that the grandmother would be showing by attending the ceremony to the grace that the father showed toward the wayward son.  He further compared the backlash he was receiving to the ungracious attitude of the brother, implying that it is fundamentalism and pharisaical.  He further said he would rather err on the side of compassion.

Of course, this is just a twisting of Scripture. The notable feature of the prodigal son is his repentance!  The father did not pursue the son into the world, choosing to sit inside the brothels or to dine with him from the pig slop, for instance.  Instead, the father waited (and likely prayed), and was understandably thrilled to see his son returning both to his home and to his senses. The brother’s problem was that he saw no cause to rejoice over the repentance of the prodigal.  There is nothing in this account that would justify going to celebrate an unrepentant people participating in an unholy union.

There is a better biblical account that would fit with this scenario. That would be in 1 Corinthians 5, where a young man is engaged in fornication with his stepmother.  The church surprisingly refused to confront the issue.  Why?  Because it wished to show “grace” to the man. However, Paul told them that their decision was not gracious, and that they needed instead to practice church discipline. While I'm not saying that we need to practice church discipline against Alistair Begg, his comments calling for grace and compassion are far more fitting with the Corinthian error.

Now, to be charitable, it's important to note two points.  First, Begg was explicit in that sermon that he was not recommending Christians attend gay weddings as a general rule — this was only advice for this particular grandmother.  Second, he seems to be unwavering in his affirmation that homosexuality is a sin, and he continues to preach with that conviction.  As such, the issue before us is simply bad pastoral counsel with poor exegesis to support that counsel.

I do want to show grace, so I don’t believe it is necessary to throw away any book that you have from Alistair Begg or to even stop listening to him altogether.  He is a brother in Christ.  He is also a grandfather who likely sympathized with the grandmother (perhaps with unbelievers in his own family), explaining his softer approach in his advice.  That alone is not caused for cutting someone off from our lives.

However, since he’s demonstrated poor interpretation and application of Scripture to justify his very poor advice without any current sign of repentance, if you continue to listen to Truth for Life, you will have to do so with greatly increased caution.