Rob Bell, author of the best-selling and controversial book Love Wins, which challenges the Christian teaching of Hell, came out in support of homosexual marriage on Sunday and called "narrow" Christians to repentance. During the question and answer period, Bell was asked about his beliefs regarding same-sex "marriage."
"I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it's a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man," he said. "I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs -- I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are."
Bell opined that many evangelicals can no longer be classified as conservatives because their beliefs have changed with the times.
"I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn't work," he asserted. "I think there is a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, evangelical subculture that was told 'we're gonna change the thing' and they haven't. And they actually have turned away lots of people."
"And I think that when you're in a part of a subculture that is dying, you make a lot more noise because it's very painful. You sort of die or you adapt," Bell continued. "And if you adapt, it means you have to come face to face with some of the ways we've talked about God, which don't actually shape people into more loving, compassionate people. And we have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we've done it in the name of God and we need to repent."
Leader Jane Shaw asked Bell during the discussion whether Christians can know truth for certain.
"I would say that the powerful, revolutionary thing about Jesus' message is that he says, 'What do you do with the people that aren't like you? What do you do with the other? What do you do with the person that's hardest to love?'" he replied. "That's the measure of a good religion, is you can love the people who are just like you; that's kind of easy. So what Jesus does is takes the question and talks about fruit. He's interested in what you actually produce. And that's a different discussion. How do we love the people in the world that are least like us?"
Editors Note....In this article we have a birdseye view of the apostsy that is moving into the Evangelical Church. Bell is way out in front of the main stream evangelicalism in his apostasy, but what has he left to forsake? Nothing! Bell is doing what always happens in a period of decline, someone leads the way.emboldening others to follow. Those who are on the slippery slope of departure will find it easier declare their apostasy.