Southeastern Seminary Highlights Paper on Marriage from "Same-Sex Attracted Disciple of Christ"

The Dissenter has published information before about Rachel Gilson, who says she is attracted to other women, from Campus Crusade (CRU) who has been teaching a pro-homosexual message to children in CRU. Gilson is heavily platformed by The Gospel Coalition as well as John Piper’s Desiring God ministry. Rachel Gilson, who works for CRU as a Director of Theological Development Northeast, said in an uncovered video that, even in the context of “gay marriage,” God hates divorce and said that it’s okay for gay couples, after they come to Christ, to remain legally married so long as they remain celibate.

Echoing the sentiments of “pronoun hospitality” by Southern Baptist president, J.D. Greear, Gilson is continuing her unbiblical push for gay tolerance in the Church by insisting that using the “preferred pronouns” of transgender people is a “matter of conscience.”

In 2019, in a now-deleted Vimeo video, Gilson remarked during a sermon that gay married couples who come to Christ can stay together because God hates divorce. Speaking on the topic of homosexuals coming to Christ, after a bit of build-up, Gilson said, “It’s not like if someone in a same-sex marriage comes to know the Lord, it’s like, ‘Okay, what we’ve got to deal with first is your same-sex marriage’…”

“I’ve known some couples where one person came to Christ and to honor the Lord, he needed to be celibate [remaining married] and his husband decided to leave him. Paul talks about this reality in 1 Corinthians 7, sometimes if a spouse comes to know the Lord, the other spouse can’t abide it leaves and that person is free,” Gilson continued.

Gilson then went on to lament the “divorce” of gay couples who are “married” saying, “God hates divorce, he does. It breaks that image of marriage just as surely as anything else.”

Gilson has also been closely aligned with another former Cru leader, Grant Hartley, who converted to Roman Catholicism several years ago and earlier this year, bragged about how he was dancing at a gay bar and to him, it seemed like "heaven." In 2019, Hartley quote-tweeted the following from Rachel Gilson, who was preaching a sermon at Cru:

Needless to say, Gilson's advice led Hartley to the following just three years later:

Now, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is presided over by Danny Akin, is highlighting Rachel Gilson's paper on marriage. According to a press release on Southeastern's website,

Several of Southeastern’s current advanced degree students are presenting papers at this year’s annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in Denver, CO, on November 15-17. As an institution committed to rigorous scholarship and a robust Great Commission vision, Southeastern celebrates the academic contributions of its advanced degree students who are participating in the 2022 ETS meeting.

After scrolling down, you can see Gilson, who self-describes as a "same-sex attracted disciple of Christ," says that she "cast[s] a positive vision for why Christian marriage is male and female and not any other arrangement of gender" and that she is "concerned that the Church’s default response to same-sex marriages is mostly to look at the ways in which the Bible says “no.” It is a needed reminder that God is saying “yes” to something and not just “no” to something."

This is the typical softened stance on homosexual marriage that seeks to define marriage as a Christian ordinance rather than a creation ordinance and concocts the notion that God really doesn't have anything to say about marriage outside of Christianity. While Gilson does at least acknowledge that marriage is limited a man and a woman, her perspective paints a picture that echoes the sentiments of Christopher Yuan that God is less concerned about your sexuality and more concerned about your holiness, as though the two could be separated. This is how Gilson goes on to describe herself when asked what motivated her to do the research for this paper:

As a same-sex-attracted disciple of Christ, the questions were first personal and then ministerial as I became a campus worker for Cru. I realized we need better — more biblical — answers not only for same-sex-attracted people who are trying to be faithful but also for straight people who need to be reminded of God’s design concerning marriage.

Gilson also believes that one should not feel “shame” for desiring to have sex with people of the same sex.

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This is who SEBTS is highlighting as an authority on biblical sexual ethics. “We fight our temptation, but we shouldn’t experience shame about our sexual attractions.”

Is there really any surprise that this is going on at a Southern Baptist seminary? No, it really isn't. We've been sounding the alarm for years that the Southern Baptist Convention is softening its approach to LGBTQ issues. The naivety among Southern Baptist pastors and leaders who are embracing these self-described "same-sex attracted" "Christians" who are creeping in unawares and perverting the grace of Christ with man-centered doctrines that water down the doctrine of repentance is appalling. Yet, it's happening—even to those whom you've trusted.