Anti-gay pastor informs followers of the “loving” thing to do if invited to same-sex wedding

A megachurch pastor with a huge following has warned his followers not to attend same-sex wedding ceremonies, even if it means rebuffing a beloved family member.

Another evangelical preacher, Alistair Begg, recently faced blowback after informing a woman it was OK to attend the wedding of her granddaughter to a trans person. She could even take a gift.

Begg, of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, had a radio show on American Family Radio. His show was subsequently dropped. He was also axed from appearing at a prominent evangelical conference.

Now, another big pastor has weighed in with his own opinion on how his followers should respond to a same-sex wedding invite.

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Grace Community Church Pastor John Macarthur, of Sun Valley, California, was asked about Begg’s comment at his church last week. He presides over one of the biggest Baptist churches in the country.

He said that despite knowing Begg for 45 years, he disagreed deeply. Macarthur suggested that if they really loved the person getting married, they would not attend.

“A believer should not go to a homosexual or transgender wedding, for a lot of reasons. But [Begg] was making the argument that you go out of compassion, rather than condemnation, you go to show love to them, as a means to reach them.

“My response to that is the most loving thing you could possibly do, would be not to go, and to condemn the relationship. That is loving.

“It’s not loving to help somebody celebrate stepping into the fury of God’s judgment. No transgender person, effeminate, homosexual will enter the kingdom of heaven. This is not a time for you to celebrate.”

Anti-queer record

Macarthur has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ comments. In 2017, he said gay people do not exist, merely people who commit the sin of homosexual behavior. He also had one of his sermons deleted by YouTube after it judged it to be hate speech. In the sermon, Macarthur suggested trans people are a “War on God.”

In September 2020, Macarthur defiantly continued to hold church services in defiance of lockdown advice. He called the lockdown measures introduced to fight the Covid pandemic “false science” akin to that embraced by Adolf Hitler Macarthur, his wife, and many of his congregants, later fell ill with Covid.

Related:

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