REVOICING THE FAITH FOR A FEW OR ATTACKING THE FAITH OF MILLIONS ?
The speaker line up for 2019 Revoice Conference has been made public.The new slogan for the event is “Fostering Peace. Honoring Dignity. Preserving Faith.” How is attacking historic Christian faith intended to accomplish any of the three?
Rev Thomas Littleton 3/1/2019
As the controversial Revoice Conference announces it’s speaker line up for 2019 the reality of it’s mainstream connections become more undeniable. Mark Yarhouse who is a regular on conservative Christian university and seminary campuses across the country and is the go to partner on all things LGBT for The Gospel Coalition of D A Carson and Tim Keller is now among the Revoice keynote speakers .
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/revoice19?epa=HASHTAG
(Photos from Revoice social media announcement)
Returning to the event will be Revoice Founder and Albert Mohler/ SBTS long time student and teacher Nate Collins along with 2018 speaker and Spiritual Friendship advocate Wesley Hill.
New Speakers include
Mark Yarhouse
Dr. Yarhouse is the leading voice in “LGBT+ Christianity” advocacy . He was named Senior Fellow with the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities. The CCCU and the NAE were just in the news for their disturbing decision to move ahead of the goals of the Equality Act by adding LGBT+ language into the non discrimination policies of their Christian organizations long before the dream legislation of the LGBT activist like the Human Rights Campaign becomes legally binding.
Yarhouse is best known for having been one of the early promoters of Revoice 2018 and for long time work with Revoice Founder Nate Collins with such groups as LOVEboldly and Exodus International since 2013 . However Yarhouse ties into the compromise by the mainstream of evangelicalism came in 2010 when TGC founder D A Carson commissioned Mark Yarhouse to develop the TGC Whitepaper providing the gold standard for TGC on human sexuality through Yarhouse- American Psychological Association /Interfaith -affirming LGBT work.
https://sexualidentityinstitute.org/sample-page/dr-mark-yarhouse/
” Dr. Yarhouse is currently the Chair of the task force on LGBT issues for Division 36 (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) of the American Psychological Association. He was recently invited to write the featured white paper on sexual identity for the Christ on Campus Initiative edited by Don A. Carson for The Gospel Coalition”
This means for 2019 the TGC ties to Revoice continue in evidence and are certainly more out in the open. The voice of TGC on LGBT+ and the speaker for Revoice ,Yarhouse , are one in the same.
YARHOUSE MOVING TO WHEATON COLLEGE IN SUMMER 2019
https://www.wheaton.edu/news/recent-news/2018/november/dr-mark-yarhouse-appointment/
“Wheaton College announced today that psychologist and researcher Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D. will join the College’s School of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy as the Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Chair in Psychology. Yarhouse will begin his appointment in July 2019.”
“Yarhouse currently serves as the Rosemarie S. Hughes Endowed Chair and Professor of Psychology at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he has been a core faculty member in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology since 1998. The appointment will be a homecoming for Yarhouse, who was in Wheaton College’s first graduating Psy.D. cohort in 1998.”
MORE SPEAKERS
Another speaker is Beka Mason of Chattanooga Tennessee
According to her biography in a Christianity Today
” Bekah Mason, ThM, is an adoptive mom of two, Christian school administrator, and doctoral student”
Beka is a member of the Pelican Project
https://thepelicanproject.com/about/
Beka researches and writes “in the areas of history, theology, education, and sexuality,”
Also speaking is Tyler Chernesky
Chernesky is the Associate Pastor at the Downtown Campus of Christ Community Church in Kansas City who has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where The Gospel Coalition is headquartered .
Revoice 2019 speaker Johanna Finegan of Princeton Johanna works and writes for Spiritual Friendship who promoted the Revoice 2018 Pre-conference event at PCA’s South City Church
She also worked for a now defunct website begun by PFLAG founder
http://www.comingout4christians.net/define-bridges-across-the-divide.html
Bridges Across the Divide
“Bridges Across the Divide is a (no longer available) website and forum that was originally founded by a PFLAG forum moderator. She worked together with others to develop unique terminology and principles to facilitate talking about this .. at times .. very divisive topic. Their purpose was:
A cyberspace initiative providing models and resources for building respectful relationships among those who disagree about moral issues surrounding homosexuality, bisexuality and gender variance.
Though they are no longer active you can still view some of their pages through the web archive. Here are links to some of their pages..”
“WORKSHOPS TBA”
We do not yet see the Workshops / topics or speakers for them but -as in the case of the 2018 event – the most controversial topics and language may be held in reserve until closer to the event .
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE CONSIDERATION
The one thing that the presence and open participation of Mark Yarhouse in the 2019 Revoic Conference proves is that the heart of the conservative Christian institutions and organizations like our Christian colleges,universities and seminaries ,as well as organizations like The Gospel Coalition ALL share a central voice of influence in Mark Yarhouse and his interfaith work with the American Psychological Association .That influence is not reserved for endorsement of celibate or those who claim adherence to Christian sexual ethic but is equally given to the full range of views on LGBT from – fully affirming to gay but celibate and “everything in between”
The one thing Revoice and Mark Yarhouse do not affirm is that people involved in LGBT lifestyle can Change which is the opposite message of the Gospel and of God’s Voice and of faithful believers who have experienced total transformation by the POWER of Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like to see/hear THAT message in living color go to God’s Voice Resources and hear testimonies to the Glory of God and that offer real hope of real change through the real Gospel .
