Rev John Dickinson: Presbyterian Church should say sorry for barring full membership to sodomites

Rev John Dickinson, minister of Carnmoney Presbyterian Church in the greater north Belfast area, has further demonstrated his alignment with the LGBT agenda by claiming the Presbyterian Church should apologise for its decision last year to block sodomites from becoming full communicant members.

This is the same man who, last year, endorsed the utterly ungodly stance of so-called ‘gay Christian’, Vicky Beeching, a former leading light in the Contemporary Christian Music scene, and expressed his excitement at reading her unambiguously titled book, ‘Undivided: Coming Out, Becoming Whole, And Living Free From Shame’.

And, speaking at the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly earlier this month, John Dickinson stated that there are “quite a few” in his church who are either sodomites themselves, or whose family members are sodomites.

And he says they found it “devastating” that the Presbyterian Church should seek to prohibit sodomites from full communicant membership and children in the care of two homosexuals being baptised.

He stated that the Presbyterian Church should be apologising for these decisions.

A report was brought to the General Assembly by the General Council and was discussed on the first full day of the Assembly, the Tuesday.

Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, is the convener of the Implementation Task Group set up last year to look at how best to implement the so-called “controversial” decisions made last year.

One would have thought it was fairly simple but the weakness of this once great denomination shone through again as they try now to backtrack or at least put a nice, world-pleasing gloss on these rather mild measures introduced last year.

We described it last year as the Presbyterian Church ambling a yard back down the road of apostasy it has travelled when it needs to run a marathon, and that remains our view.

Speaking at the General Assembly, Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop referred to a meeting a month or so earlier he and the other members of the task group had held with someone who identifies as a “gay Christian” and two other individuals who are parents of people who identify as “gay Christians”.

He said: “I couldn’t help but be impressed by the honesty and courage of all three as they bared their souls and expressed the frustrations and tensions they feel about the church’s approach to this subject.

“If we have any fellow feeling at all, we surely must pay more attention to the angst that some of our fellow Christians go through.”

Where is the courage in seeking the church to accept and bless their sinful notions or lifestyle or that of their children?

A “gay Christian” is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.

When we are saved there is a dramatic change in our condition and in our outlook.

2 Corinthians 5:17 clearly demonstrates this. It says: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Do we continue to identify with any other type of sin after we are saved? Who would brag of being an adulterer Christian, a fornicating Christian, a liar Christian, a thieving Christian, a murdering Christian?

It is self-evidently ludicrous, yet why does this sin of sodomy look for special status and why are church leaders seeking to afford it special status?

It surely has something to do with the fact that sodomy is the fashionable sin of the age and is very much de rigueur. One must not find themselves on the wrong side of the current trend, after all. How frightfully embarrassing that would be!

Their cry and reassurance to all present at the General Assembly ought to have been that of 1 John 3:13: “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”

However, this is an apostate church and Rev Dr (Ig)Noble McNeely (pictured, below – see his Popish pandering here), in introducing this report of the General Council to the General Assembly which Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop seconded, brought with him a dossier of newspaper clippings to highlight the negative coverage the Presbyterian Church received last year.

Apparently it was just terrible that the ungodly world was critical of their taking a (very mild) stance against sodomy.

They should have taken it as an encouragement and ignored the flailing and squawking of the ungodly world around them, not as a prompt to backtrack.

Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop then said the church ought to be a loving community, which of course is a fairly uncontentious point, but it is certainly not love to refuse to point out sin where we see it.

And, having made the point about the loving community, he said: “Our public discourse, whether from the pulpit or on social media, in Presbytery or here in General Assembly, must reflect these values in tone and language.”

It would certainly appear that Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop is warning ministers against speaking out on the matter of sodomy.

We will remind Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop what the Bible has to say on the matter.

2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

Those first three words are enough – “preach the word”.

God’s Word teaches us that sodomy is wrong.

This is something we have been obliged to point out on so many occasions but we believe it vital to consistently repeat it.

The words of Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, demonstrate this when he writes in Philippians 3:1: “To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”

Every time another church leader or public figure tries to say sodomy is ok or tries to lessen it as an offence against God in His eyes, we will, with God’s help and in His will, repeat the Bible’s cry against such unrighteousness.

Leviticus 18:22 calls homosexuality an “abomination” and describes it as “vile” and “against nature” in Romans 1:26.

The wrath of God is further revealed against sodomy in 1 Corinthians 6:9 when it is stated that the “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with mankind” will “not inherit the kingdom of God”.

But Rev Dr Alastair Dunlop certainly appears to be warning against denouncing it as a sin.

And the fact his comments were then welcomed by the crowd surfer and “LGBT Christian” endorser Rev John Dickinson, would certainly lead you to assume that’s what he took from it as well.

Speaking at the General Assembly, crowd-surfing cleric Rev John Dickinson said: “I want to welcome what Alastair Dunlop said. Some of the people whom Alastair referred to who he met at that meeting he was at are members of my congregation.

“What the General Assembly did last year came as, quote, it’s not my words, their words, a hammer blow.

“It came as devastating to people who had been Presbyterian all their lives, raised their families through Sunday School, Boys’ Brigade, Girls’ Brigade, Youth Fellowship, Christian Endeavour, to adulthood and always thought that there would be a place for them in the life of the church.

“Suddenly to discover that because their son was gay or their daughter was lesbian that might now no longer be the case has been totally devastating to families and individuals.

“And whilst it is really, really… and I am convinced, I only know the numbers that come to my congregation, there are quite a few of them but I am convinced there are hundreds and hundreds of these people throughout our church.

“Whilst it is really, really good that this report reflects on how some of our officers went above and beyond the call of duty, it would have been helpful if the report had have also said sorry to those whom we so deeply hurt.”

This is a truly shocking statement for a minister who professes to be claiming the truth of God’s Word to make.

Rev John Dickinson is clearly stating that it is wrong for the Presbyterian Church to prevent sodomites from being full communicant members of the church.

He is also clearly recording his view that it is wrong to prevent children in the care of sodomites from being baptised by the church.

However, what is wrong is allowing the church to give its endorsement to same sex relationships by giving its blessing to children being in the care of those in such partnerships.

As already referenced above, it is clearly identified in God’s Word that sodomites cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

If someone identifies with the sin which brought God’s judgment down on Sodom and Gomorrah, then they are forbidden from entering heaven.

However, we are told there is salvation available to the sodomite, but it requires a turning away from such unnatural desires.

1 Corinthians 6:11 says: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Sodomites were saved in Corinth and their sinful actions were now behind them, they were no longer associating with that sin because they were saved.

Communicant membership is for those who are saved.

1 Corinthians 11:27 points this out. It says: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”

The Communion table is for those who are saved and those openly identifying as a sodomite cannot also be a true child of God and cannot truly serve God.

Whether it is as a minister or as an elder, a children’s worker or in the recording studio of a church, such service in the church is for those who are saved and walking with the Lord.

You cannot be walking with the Lord if you are living in a relationship which God has cursed.

This curse is further demonstrated in Jude v 7, which says: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Rev John Dickinson is recording it publicly that there are people identifying as “gay Christians” in his church.

What does he say to them about this?

Does he tell them it’s ok? Does he condone any relationships they engage in? Does he allow them to partake of the Lord’s table?

Has Rev John Dickinson abided by the resolution of the church last year? He says there are “members of my congregation” who are “gay Christians”. Has he taken them from the membership roll? Has he carried out any baptisms of children who may be in the care of some of these “quite a few” homosexuals in his congregation? Would he do so?

It would perhaps help to explain the outcry last year when we dared to highlight the ungodliness of Rev John Dickinson’s endorsing of Vicky Beeching as members of his congregation united to attack this page.

If sodomy is something that is openly catered for within the pews and allowed to be considered an appropriate part of the church, that could well be part of the reason why our previous speaking out against Rev John Dickinson prompted such a backlash.

However, the situation remains the same.

Just because the guy in the pulpit says something, it doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t mean it is something which God said.

Rev John Dickinson says the church should say sorry for taking (mild and inadequate) steps to limit the level of influence of sodomy in the church.

God says sodomy is an “abomination”, “vile” and “against nature” and such will “not inherit the kingdom of God”.

On whose side are you?

We trust that everyone reading this will line up with the Almighty God of heaven, the One Who created all things and the One Who is the architect of our salvation, rather than line up with any minister who seeks to deny or twist God’s Word.

Let us even have the same resolve and spirit as Joshua did, which he expressed in Joshua 24:15: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”