Tuesday, March 25, 2014

World Vision Proves Me Right (Again)

In my younger days, I supported World Vision.  Being naïve and idealistic, I was confident that this organization that all my young evangelical friends liked was surely all about feeding the hungry in Jesus’ name, and I was all about that. 

But then I noticed that there was a ministry philosophy about which held that effective ministry to the poor and hungry need not include a clear sharing of the good news about Jesus Christ.  So I looked closely at what World Vision said about their ministry, and I saw very little about actually sharing the Gospel.  Being a hard man even back then, I did not think assisting people in going to Hell well fed was particularly meritorious.  Therefore, sometime in the 1980’s, I decided to give my world relief donations elsewhere.  (The Anglican Relief and Development Fund is my favorite such organization now.)

Now some thirty years later, World Vision itself has proven me right in perceiving something was wrong in its DNA.  Its U.S. branch has decided to hire purported Christians in same-sex “marriages”.

The explanation given by World Vision President Richard Stearns is fatuous.  He claims World Vision is remaining neutral on the issue of same-sex “marriage”.  No, World Vision’s policy for employees was celibacy for singles and monogamy for the married.  By deciding that gay sex inside of same-sex “marriage” meets that requirement for employees, World Vision is most definitely taking sides.

He says, "This is also not about compromising the authority of Scripture."  Yeah, right.  Scripture is very clear about what God thinks about gay sex.  This decision has compromising the authority of Scripture all over it.

More from Stearns:

Stearns said World Vision's board has faced a new question in recent years: "What do we do about someone who applies for a job at World Vision who is in a legal same-sex marriage that may have been sanctioned and performed by their church? Do we deny them employment?

"Under our old conduct policy, that would have been a violation," said Stearns. "The new policy will not exclude someone from employment if they are in a legal same-sex marriage."

Stearns said the new policy reflects World Vision's parachurch and multi-denominational nature.

"Denominations disagree on many, many things: on divorce and remarriage, modes of baptism, women in leadership roles in the church, beliefs on evolution, etc.," he said. "So our practice has always been to defer to the authority and autonomy of local churches and denominational bodies on matters of doctrine that go beyond the Apostles' Creed and our statement of faith. We unite around our [Trinitarian beliefs], and we have always deferred to the local church on these other matters."

This is a cover for partnership with apostate denominations and letting them call the shots.  The United Church of Christ holds to the faith of the creeds?  Really?  As long as libchurchers can cross their fingers and mouth a creed, Stearns is just fine with partnering with them and letting them set, nay, abolish Christian moral standards for employees.  And that in the name of a unity which really destroys genuine Christian unity.

This serves as yet another object lesson for the orthodox.  Partnering with false teachers who claim to be Christian never ends well.  Unity-minded weak orthodox Christians greatly contributed to the downfall of most mainline denominations by such partnering, and now World Vision is and will be greatly weakened by partnering with apostates and the compromise that brings.

It is not for nothing that Scripture and the fathers again and again oppose partnering with false teachers who blaspheme by using the name of Christ as cover for their “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).  Partnering with them partners with their unfaithfulness and only leads to an increase in unfaithfulness. 


This sad World Vision news is not so much my being proven right as it is the Word of God being proven right yet again.

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