G.R.A.C.E. Recommends Pro LGBT Journalist’s Article Against BJU

Dr. James Ach
GRACE is supposedly a Christian agency that investigates abuse in Christian institutions (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), directed by grandson of Billy Graham, “Boz” Tchividjian. GRACE recently released a 300+ page report (which I plan on commenting on at a later time) that spelled out its conclusions and recommendations for Bob Jones University (BJU) after a lengthy investigation into claims of abuse and an inappropriate response to those claims for over several years.

I have written warnings before about GRACE and had a concern that they could not be objective in their views given some of the associations they have, and now I hate to sit back and say, “I told you so”, but…

…I TOLD YOU SO

On December 17, 2014, GRACE Tweeted the following link,

GRACE‏@netgrace_org

“Church Sex Scandals are Rooted in Theology” – Though [sic] provoking piece for all faith communities. READ: http://ow.ly/G3Rm3 

The article linked is titled, “Church Sex Scandals Are Rooted In Theology“. It is similar to the hit-piece written by Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek attacking the Bible, but this one attacks a specific group of fundamentalists, mainly BJU. We are going to respond to this article separately to address the theme: that religious beliefs of fundamentalists are the CAUSE of sexual abuse in fundamentalist colleges and churches. But, what we want to point out is that the article is written by Jay Michaelson, whose website offers the following information about him:

Dr. Jay Michaelson is the author of five booksand over three hundred articles on religion, sexuality, law, and contemplative practice. He is a columnist for The Daily Beast and the Forward newspaper, and has been a professional LGBT activist and Jewish activist for fifteen years.

Jay’s books include Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment, the bestselling God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, and the landmark report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign against Civil Rights. He founded two Jewish LGBT organizations, and has supported the work of LGBT activists worldwide at the Arcus Foundation, the Democracy Council, and his new project at the Daily Beast, Quorum: Global LGBT Voices. Jay’s activist work has been 

We attempted to contact GRACE and Boz for comment, but neither has responded. This is also not the first time we have confronted GRACE about questionable sources for their suggested articles. See, GRACE Promoting  Feminist Article

So much for GRACE being objective about their investigation and using a pro LGBT/ anti-Christian journalist as an alibi for their report on BJU. As much as I appreciate Michaelson’s zeal for the rights of the Jewish Community, his views are at great odds with the Christian, and I believe are a gross misrepresentation of fundamentalist theology.

It also does not help that director Boz Tchavidjian is thanking Rachel Held Evans for “shout-outs” on CNN.

Boz Tchividjian‏@BozT

@rachelheldevans Thank you for the shout out on @CNN. Very kind. http://ow.ly/H5zU1 

(Rachel Held Evans has been under scrutiny for quite some time by conservatives and fundamentalists for her acceptance and endorsement of so-called “Christian Gays”.)

If GRACE has changed their position on homosexuality, then of course, this becomes a different debate, although I’m sure that’s information that BJU and many other fundamentalist schools would like to have known prior to allowing GRACE to investigate and write recommendations, some of which included criticizing the theology of the subjects they investigated. Although one has to wonder whether GRACE was there to help with suggestions and recommendations on handling abuse (including legal proceedings and potential assistance in prosecutions for validated allegations of crimes), or to preach to BJU and fundamentalists about their doctrine, one certainly has to question where this apparent sentiment and cooperation is coming from with LGBT advocates.

To repeat what I said on SI to a question as to why this is a ‘big deal’:

I am not BJU’s biggest fan. But I don’t like seeing ANY fundamentalist (or professing fundamentalist) college having their community described in such a bias way by the LGBTs and anti-Christians. There was (and is) enough of that with the BJUnity and DRBJU nonsense. So yes, it is a big deal and a real controversy because it is articles like this that are allowing the gay community to write the book of public opinion on modern churches that they don’t believe are tolerant enough so now the only acceptable response is to change what you believe, because it is what you believe that is causing the “discrimination”. Furthermore, since the gay voice is being used as a *Daniel Trap against Christians, I would think the more unchecked say-so they are given to define fundamentalism the more dangerous they become.

I am convinced that groups like GRACE are going to be used as a tool to spy on fundamentalist colleges and churches as well as intimidate them into accepting the LBGT agenda and jettison their fundamentalist beliefs just as much as LGBT activist groups are doing from the outside of the churches, and churches need to take a stand NOW before these groups succeed in silencing them and making their views a crime in America.

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For more excellent articles on this topic, see David Cloud’s, The Emerging Church And Homosexuality, and What Rights Will Others Lose When Homosexuals Gain Their Rights? . And as much as it pains me to say this, James White and Michael Brown have challenged numerous LGBT advocates to moderated public debate, and they have raised several compelling issues as to why the debate needs to be had as well as identifying numerous key issues that demonstrate the fallacious nature of the LGBT presuppositions, particularly in regards to the question, can you be gay and be Christian? So far, no LGBT advocate has taken them up on their challenges.

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*Daniel Trap (from Daniel chapter 6) is when a particular party conspires against a person or community because of their beliefs, and seeks to change the laws in order to “catch” them violating those laws so they can then throw them to the lions. It’s a form of deliberate political entrapment.

And on a side note, this article was also retweeted by the Calvinist “Anons” (Christian Janeway or “Calvinist Janeway”) , of the “TAC ANONS” cyber-harassment group. Like she said, “Know Your Anons”. Yep, we sure do.