Sprinkle emphasized that he is not claiming Andy Stanley is affirming. Rather, Sprinkle is pointing out that Stanley is not using the “most precise wording to convey a historically Christian view of marriage.”
“That word ‘assumes’ is doing a lot there,” said Sprinkle, and Stanley is in fact presenting a “classic affirming argument.”
Those who affirm gay marriage will say that it is natural for biblical writers to assume marriage is between a man and a woman. That was their cultural context, and this assumption is simply one of many about sexual relationships that we no longer accept.
“The question is not, did the biblical writers describe marriages as between a man and a woman,” said Sprinkle, “but did they prescribe transculturally for all time and all place that sex difference is, and always will be, a part of what marriage is?”
Sprinkle then addressed comments Stanley made that some gay believers, in a desire to be faithful to Jesus, remain celibate and do not “have a family.”
“I’m assuming when he says, ‘not have a family,’ he means biological family, not the even greater reward of a spiritual family, according to Mark 10:29-30,” Sprinkle said.
Stanley said that sacrificing the option of having a family is “not sustainable” for many, so they choose to enter gay marriages, even though they know doing so is not biblical. “This, again, is, it’s a classic affirming line of reasoning,” said Sprinkle, commenting that it could be a quote from Matthew Vines. “I think there’s an anemic theology of singleness that is underlying Andy’s portrayal here.”
Moreover, Sprinkle added, this line of reasoning is “straight out of the handbooks of purity culture, that singleness is about being alone, it’s a drudgery of life that you just bear down and try to get through.”
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Sprinkle also believes that Stanley implied a “false dichotomy” between how people have traditionally parented LGBTQ+ kids in the past and the new view that North Point is presenting. There are, in fact, a host of other options, Sprinkle said.
Regarding the conference itself, Sprinkle said he appreciated its goal to care for the parents of LGBTQ+ children and observed that “this is a huge pastoral need in the church.” However, said Sprinkle, “If I was affirming, this is the exact kind of conference I would host for parents.”
