The Fall of Matt Moore
I admit it; I was disappointed to hear about “ex-gay” Christian blogger and writer for the Christian Post, Matt Moore, being found on a dating site, called GRINDR. I have been reading Matt’s blog for a while, not just because he uses the same WordPress theme for his blog as I do, (which is awesome) but because of his honesty, his openness, and his proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The thing I appreciated was the fact that he readily admitted his struggles with homosexuality and his utter dependence on Jesus Christ. He did not deny that temptation still existed after years of being a Christian. He stated just prior to the “scandal”,
The power of my testimony is not limited to my road-to-damascus-like conversion experience, but is really found in my grace-enabled perseverance that points right back to the power, love, patience, faithfulness and goodness of Jesus Christ
I have no idea what his theology is, whether he is Reformed, Dispensational, Pentecostal etc. but I consider Matt as a kindred spirit and a brother in Christ; no I am not gay, but we both struggle with sins and temptations and we both trust in a God who is greater than both of us and our weakness. And we are both very public about all of it. As a fellow Christian Blogger, I can understand why he is taking a hiatus from the blogosphere.
Matt, my brother, yes you fell into sin, and you have openly confessed it to both God and the world. John 1:9 tells us:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And Psalm 103:10-12
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Romans 5:3-5 tells us,
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Our trials are a gift from God. This includes struggling against sexual immorality including homosexuality. No, God does not tempt us, let me be very clear about that, but he will place trials in our path. Why? For his glory and for our sanctification, that we one day will be perfected and made like the holy one, Jesus Christ. Perhaps one day my brothers and sisters who do struggle with these things will be able to declare that God has released them from this particular sin. If not then on the last day they may declare that God carried them through their weakness. And if we do fall into sin, as Matt did, God will be glorified in enabling repentance and restoring the sinner.
I am disappointed in Matt’s “fall” because of his high profile… and that weakens the reputation of Christ in the world. But let me ask you…How many of us are perfect? None of us. Daily we all sin. Daily we all need to repent. We all need a saviour. I need a saviour. You need a saviour. Matt needs a saviour. Everyone needs a saviour…we are ALL sinners. So turn to Christ. Repent and Believe.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
I don’t know what to say to you because I don’t really know you but I just hope you stop feeling this hate towards others. I know you think that being gay is a sin but is hating others or making them feel like less of a human being really what you want to do with you life. I respect the fact that you are such a firm believer of Christianity but I really hope you reconsider your opinion on this matter. There are so many teens and adults hating themselves and sometimes even killing themselves telling them that they are sinners will only make that worse.
I sincerely hope that you won’t just delete this comment and will at least try to understand my point of view as I have yours.
Marching to drums, I can understand why you perceive this to be hate. However, I have nothing but love for my many LGBT friends. And I do have a number of them. If you are not in the church, then it is not my place to judge you, but if you are in the church then according to Matthew 18 I have the responsibility to encourage and admonish my brothers and sisters in their faith. Matt Moore is a brother in the faith and this was an issue that fell outside the bounds of Christian Conduct. As for anyone outside of the church, I have no say in your lifestyle. I love you all as well, and I put much effort into sharing my faith with you and living a life of love and respect for all people, trying to shine the light of Jesus to all – I fail as well, and when I do, I confess my sins to my God and whom I sinned against and trust that I am forgiven in Jesus as he is revealed in the Bible.
While it is true that I do not agree with the LGBT lifestyle I do not attack those who live that lifestyle, that is not my place to do so. I believe that all people are created in the image of God, that is, we are all image bearers of the creator, and we are all sinful and in this broken world that image we bear has been marred – that is, nobody is perfect, not me, not you, no one. So, if I truly love you, I will care about your eternal soul, and not your temporal feelings, that means that i will present the gospel message to you in love – not hate.
While I still do not agree with your stance I am glad to hear that you are willing to live and let live. I am Christian though I am not a believer in certain aspects of what people teach. I didn’t mean to undermine your character, I guess I’m so used to people either hating or being completely accepting of LGBT community that I jumped to a conclusion. It was not my place to try and change your opinion and as long as you are trying to spread love it is really not my place to judge your beliefs. I am a bit disconcerted by Shawn comparing being gay to a drug addiction but that aside I have no further complaint.
Hi Marchingtodrums, In my analogy to addiction, I just mean that they are both struggles with something God calls sinful in His word. Both (drunkeness and homosexuality) are in the list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 which states:
“9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
I apologize if the analogy doesn’t relate perfectly (hardly any analogies are perfect).
I want to add that the beauty of the passage is verse 11. We can be washed, sanctified and justified of our sins by Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God.
Also, I’m a sinner, I’m a sin addict, and in constant need of forgiveness so I want to let you know I had no intention of offence or judging. I simply want God to be glorified and for the truth of His word to be spoken.
Marching, if you are a Christian, that is, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, all I ask is that you truly seek the him as he is revealed in scripture. Cry out to him and he will hear you. On that last day when we stand in glory, I want to stand next to you, so please heed the words of the Apostle in 2 Peter 1 and make your calling and election sure. At the end of the day this is of utmost importance. Peace and blessings to you my friend.
1 Peter 2:3-11:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
D
Don’t just like—LOVE!
Thanks AC!
Marchingtodrums, I believe that OneChristianDad is being honest and Biblical in his views here, and I believe that is, the most loving thing one can do. Telling people what they want to hear is not always what is best for them. Telling them what they need to hear on the other hand can be the most loving and caring thing you can do. Yes, you have to do it in a loving manor, which I believe OneChristianDad has done. If you have a family member who is addicted to drugs and his life is crashing before your eyes you don’t just say “keep doing it, I love you”. You tell them they need to stop, and you help them, you tell them they have the power to stop, and there is hope in being freed from their addiction. Is that also unloving – because you are not telling them what they want to hear.
He has not condemned anybody, he has said, “yes we sin, but we are forgiven by Jesus Christ’s death.” He included himself. Its reality, we all have sinned, and we all do need a Saviour. Jesus Christ is that Saviour. He can comfort us in our down times. He can be that friend when we are alone. We don’t have to hate ourselves because Jesus has forgiven us. All we have to do is accept Him. We can’t avoid the truth of the gospel, even though it does not always tell us what we want to hear.
Thanks for your comment Shawn. I can always count on you to back me up.
My partner and I are regular readers of this blog. We are gay. *.-*SHOCKING!*-.* Why would we read such a hate spewing brainwashed bigot? Cuz he isn’t hun. Ryan has never been anything but loving towards my partner and I. We do not see eye to eye when it comes to sexuality, duh, but he has never condemned me for it. He rarely brings it up. When we have coffee, Ryan is open about his own struggles and explains how his god loves him in spite of it and sent Jesus to cover him. When he prays with us it is comfortable, honest and loving. He has never asked his god to change our sexuality when praying, he only prays that his god would open our hearts to the gospel that he loves. When he speaks of “sweet Jesus” and “loving father” and the “indwelling of the holy spirit” he is either bat shit crazy or he is on to something. He is different from any other Christian I have met. The first one who did not back away or look scared or condemn me when he found out I was gay. He is the only genuinely loving and caring christian I have met. The only time I have seen him hate anything other than his own sin is when he tried a non fat soy green tea latte.
“he is either bat shit crazy or he is on to something” I’d go with he is on to something if I were you : )
LOL! I never thought I would see you comment here! Thanks for commenting and thanks for the defense of my character. Perhaps my prayers are working? And please never bring me one of those “coffees” ever again!
You self righteous ignorant hater. You stupid right wing nut job, right wing pig. This is the problem in america, and this site is the face of hate. You are so ignorant. You full of disrespect and loathing for people who are not like yourself, you only understand people who agree with your bogotry who say that gay people are gross and nasty and useless.
I can see that you are angry. I want to engage you here, however if you want to continue to post comments I ask that you refrain from name calling and personal attacks or I will remove your comments. If you feel disrespected because of what I wrote, please let me know exactly what it is that is upsetting you. There is no hate here.
The truth is I have struggled a lot with religion. I have a very religious parent and he is very disapproving and in complete denial of my sexuality. All my life people have used religion as a tool against me so it would be very hard to turn to something that calls one of my most basic traits a sin. I understand your wish for me to turn to God but can you in good conscience tell me to live a life in denial. If I did follow what you say and did deny my sexuality I could get married to a girl and my parents would be happy but I never would. It is not an addiction because it is not harming me (even- though you may not believe so) and I am a good person not despite it but because of it.
Being gay and seeing so much bigotry and being subjected to that everyday has had a profound effect on my life. Instead of being jaded and believing that I was mistake or that I was condemned to hell I tried to make myself a better person. Seeing all the bigotry from so many others inspired me to accept others even when I don’t understand them. Your stance is one that I am against but because I know what it’s like to be hated and to feel like people don’t understand I work to understand other people and if I cannot do that then I as long as they are not hurting anyone I will let them alone as I wish some others would do to me.
I really do appreciate your thoughts and the fact that you only want whats best for me but at least in this case our opinions will continue to differ. I wish you the best because both of us seem to have messages of love, just a little bit different from each other.