From Gay to Gospel: The Fascinating Story of Becket Cook

The Public Square
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Despite being at TGC, this is a really good interview. It actually contradicts, in no uncertain terms, a lot of what they have been putting out on this topic.
Here’s some of it:

There are conversations today about whether one cn be a “gay Christian.” Is there a way to reconcile following Jesus with having a gay identity?
They are irreconcilable. It’s strange to me to see these attempts. I had such a clean break from it, and it was entirely God’s grace upon me to see that it was necessary. Would you call yourself a greedy Christian? Would you call yourself a tax-collector Christian? It seems strange to identify yourself with sin. It’s a square circle. Defining yourself as a “gay Christian,” even if you are celibate and not active in a homosexual relationship, is wildly misleading. And it’s almost like you’re stewing in your old sin, hanging onto your old self in a weird way. It’s not helpful to have that moniker over you and to continually identify as such. Why would you identify with your old self that has been crucified with Christ? So I flee from that term as far as I can. It’s not who I am at all.

When I was gay, I felt shame. Instinctively I knew it was wrong. But though I felt shame, over the years you harden your heart to it. I think the driving force behind these choices, like the rainbow flag and pride parades—the word pride , even—is to convince yourself that there’s nothing wrong with it, nothing to be ashamed of. You have to constantly tell yourself that and let the culture tell you that. Because there is shame attached to it, so hyper-emphasizing the “rightness” of it helps people embrace their “identity” more.

The whole interview is worth the read.

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New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:

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Floating a theory here: Solid teaching on homosexuality from Christians who struggled/struggle with homosexuality is rare. Frequently, they’re all bent out of shape and trying to make excuses for sin. Two notable exceptions (that I’m aware of) are Rosaria Butterfield and this guy.

You know what they have in common? They were both actually living the full-on gay lifestyle before coming to Christ. When I think of some of the bad, Christian “teachers” on homosexuality, names like Sam Allberry, Greg Johnson, Wesley Hill, etc. come to mind. You know what they frequently have in common? They grew up in the church and so never experienced the full-on, soul-crushing gay lifestyle.

So the theory: Cook and Butterfield understand “gayness” and “homosexuality” and everything it implies better, having been saved out of it. These church-raised “gay” people, however have only experienced a church-modulated form of these evil desires. Being tired of fighting them, they try to dress them up to make them look better or redeem them somehow. There are several reasons they try to do this, but I’m betting that a big one is that they really don’t understand what they’re trying to “redeem.” By contrast Cook and Butterfield do, and so their response to the question of “what parts of gay identity should we salvage?” is “Why would you want to?”. To quote Cook again on the concept of “gay Christians”:

They are irreconcilable. It’s strange to me to see these attempts.

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And just in case the above isn’t entirely clear, I’m just saying I suspect that only Christians all tied up in proverbial knots would have come up with something like Revoice. Christians saved from the ranks of practicing homosexuals probably know enough via the school of hard knocks to want to have nothing to do with such a theology.

I suppose this is a version of the “it takes a special kind of stupid…” line of argumentation.

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The Reformed church today too often inoculates souls against repentance.

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Would you all indulge me for a moment with a little contrarian viewpoint? And forgive me in advance for being a little crusty on this… So a good looking alpha-gay comes to a church and quickly gets into direct discipleship with the hipster pastor, something that your committed churchgoer could only dream about, and his level of change is abstinence with a side of occasional desire (and I get the sense the Pastor Bayly says this is not enough), which seems to make him pretty average for a sodomite coming to the church for repentance. What about the bald and plain looking dude who wanted the same attention from his pastor, but was rejected for his looks, but the football player gets the best seat. Or maybe the socially awkward guy is left in his sin because the hipster pastor doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. I have seen this story play out many times over the years, and not just with sodomy. I have ordered the book and maybe my view on all this will be different later. I want to know why his story is any different than the rest of us. I will say, though, that Cook’s firmness about the irreconcilability between sodomy and faith is unique, something you don’t hear often. I wonder if this is what sets him apart. By the way, I am not sure where, but Butterfield has her detractors too.

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Good exhortation. Don’t see it as pushback. At all. Love,

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So a good looking alpha-gay comes to a church and quickly gets into direct discipleship with the hipster pastor … What about the bald and plain looking dude who wanted the same attention from his pastor, but was rejected for his looks, but the football player gets the best seat. Or maybe the socially awkward guy is left in his sin because the hipster pastor doesn’t want to get his hands dirty.

Ouch. What I saw happen in one church was that the pastor gave a lot of attention to the twenty-somethings, on the basis that he wanted to see them ‘released in talents and ministry’. This was alongside someone, an older single man, who was a fairly needy individual. His pastoral situation was to all intents and purposes ignored, until one of the elders tried to help. Admittedly the man’s situation had no easy fixes, but the whole incident has sat with me as a sharp lesson in how not to do things.

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Yes, James warns against favoritism toward the rich, but favoritism is always a temptation and can happen based on any criteria, including age, race, sex, sexual orientation, etc.

We always have to be on guard against it.

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Yes, I’ve seen this tracking on a couple of UK Christian media sites. Interesting that he identifies as “single and celibate”, given some recent comments here. The full quote, in context:

In terms of so-called conversion therapy, I don’t think it’s something we should force. I still struggle with same-sex attraction (even though it has greatly diminished and no longer dominates my thought life like it did before God saved me). But he can do anything. He created the universe, so he can reorient our attractions. Sometimes I pray that God would heal the sexual brokenness in me, especially given that I was molested when I was a child by a friend’s father (which I think had a larger effect on my sexual development than I used to admit). Who knows—God may change my desires one day. We’ll see. But for now, I’m happy to just be single and celibate for the rest of my life. I’m happy to deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus.

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Well, I did order the book and read it over the the weekend, so this is a bit of a book review.

The book is roughly divided in two parts: a testimony, and then a gospel presentation. Mr. Cook has what might be called a miraculous conversion at the church of a group that he runs into at a cafe. Good for him. I think back at my own conversion, always hoping for the spirit to overwhelm my senses and confirm God’s power in an extraordinary way. Well, that has never happened, and I don’t think it happens that way for most people. My understanding of salvation is just the plain, ordinary kind.

We Christians want our heroes. I can think back to the 70s when some celebrity or sports figure became a Christian, and we would celebrate that someone famous joined our team. Mr. Cook’s testimony is sort of like that. After experiencing all the world has to offer, he has an epiphany at a party in Paris. For some of use, Paris is just Seattle or Minneapolis. We come to Christ with fewer tools in our toolbag, less time at the gym, fewer friends, and a pastor who ignores you. I will add, though, that Cook’s discipleship by his pastor is barely mentioned in the book, but appears in the interview referenced in Pastor Bayly’s OP.

The second part of the book is an outreach to his former community, a standard gospel presentation with questions on sexuality thrown in for good measure. In this, Mr. Cook would well be benefited by reading the organizing principals of a confession rather that reinventing one of his own. He includes no shortage of non sequitur scripture verses. He had a few nuggets which I appreciated, such as his treatment of Esau selling his birthright, which Mr. Cook connects to giving up heaven in exchange for temporal pleasures, but at one point Mr. Cook connects the story of Daniel 3 to how Jesus can go into the fire on your behalf, which I believe to be sloppy theology, or maybe a rush to publish.

Mr. Cook confesses that he still struggles with certain thoughts. He holds onto the framework of sexual orientation, and he never mentions moving in the direction of marriage. For him, this holding pattern is adequate for repentance, putting him barely beyond Side B. Maybe I’ll pen a new group to describe him, and me, and many of the rest of us: Side C. For all of us in Side C, may God have mercy on our souls and lead us into sanctification and true repentance.

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… Mr. Cook confesses that he still struggles with certain thoughts. He holds onto the framework of sexual orientation, and he never mentions moving in the direction of marriage. For him, this holding pattern is adequate for repentance, putting him barely beyond Side B. Maybe I’ll pen a new group to describe him, and me, and many of the rest of us: Side C

Yes, that is what I thought was the case. I suspect that whoever discipled him put him in the same boat as ‘straight’ Christian singles who for whatever reason can’t or don’t marry (bear with me, a separate issue I know). Or, he may have a particular charisma of celibacy. Still, he is work in progress … like the rest of us, as you acknowledge.

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I am sad to report that Becket Cook has cast his lot as a promoter of Greg Johnson’s new book Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality (Zondervan, 2021). The back of Johnson’s book is described like this:

Still Time to Care tells the untold story of the ‘ex-gay’ movement in the evangelical church, a 40-year failed experiment to cure homosexuality. It also provides a four-part postmortem and a path forward–a call to the Christian church to embrace their non-straight fellow believers who live lives of costly obedience.

The idea the book seeks to expound is this: “There is no on/off switch for being gay. But can the church shift from ‘cure’ to ‘care’?” Homosexuality must be the innate and immutable condition that secular psychologists now tell us it is, and Greg Johnson is there to assure us that we are fools to resist what the scientists and sociologists say. But much greater, he says, orthodox Christians are evil and unloving to not listen to the stories of “gay Christians” who say they are committed to Jesus yet also say their sexual attractions have “not shifted one iota” (as Johnson himself put it once).

Joining the chorus of praise from Nate Collins, Wesley Hill, Gregory Coles, Mark Yarhouse, Tish Harrison Warren, Bill Henson, David Bennett, and Ed Shaw (a veritable who’s who of the Side B movement), Becket Cook has joined in to sing Johnson’s praises. His endorsement of Still Time to Care says:

This fascinating book gives a thorough and enlightening account of how the evangelical church has historically mishandled and hurt gay and lesbian Christians. The damage done over the last forty years is eye opening. While defending the orthodox biblical sexual ethic, Greg Johnson lays out a healthy path forward for the church regarding the LGBTQ community that is both biblical and pastoral. Every Christian (especially leaders in the church) needs to read this book to better understand this nuanced and complex issue.

Here we have the official Revoice line. The church has hurt not only gay people but “gay and lesbian Christians.” Greg Johnson defends the “orthodox biblical sexual ethic.” He is “both biblical and pastoral” (implication: unlike the opponents of Revoice). We must read this book in order to understand this “nuanced and complex issue.” But don’t worry, it is a “fascinating book.”

In light of this endorsement, what happened to Cook’s statement from 2019 that “following Jesus and having a gay identity” are “irreconcilable”? Maybe it’s complicated. Or maybe, it’s confused. Or maybe he made a mistake he will regret in the coming days.

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POST SCRIPT:
I haven’t watched this new episode of Cook’s podcast “There’s No Such Thing as a Gay Person” (with Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan, posted January 20, 2022) but the statement that opens the show is from Butterfield who says, speaking of “gay identity” (as in calling yourself a “gay person”): “It’s a millstone. You do not need to wear whatever indwelling sin pattern you have—and people who say you do are, you know, they should be just run out of town.” Knowing her clearly stated opposition to Revoice and Greg Johnson, I have to assume she is thinking of Johnson specifically when she says the above quote. But will the interview actually break past the “we’re all on the same page here” niceness to dig into this fundamental problem or to mention Greg Johnson by name—or, will it all sit unaddressed the entire time? My guess would be the latter but I don’t know—I don’t feel like giving time to it at the moment.

If anyone decides to watch the interview, do report back and let us know.

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Coming back to this, nearly two and a half years later, and with some more water under the bridge:

  • We need to be more clear that someone who is homosexually inclined and celibate is not really in the same boat as someone who is straight, single and celibate.
  • It is not that being heterosexual means that one is godly. That would imply that any straight person is godly (!) Rather, while being heterosexual is not a sufficient condition of godliness, it is a necessary condition
  • I know that we want to see people come out of the gay lifestyle and go “in the direction of marriage”, as Denver put it above (to someone of the opposite sex, obviously!) But that simply may not be possible in many cases - and Heaven only knows how many long-term straight singles there are in our churches; for whom marriage is not an option, either any time soon or permanently.
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UPDATE: Becket Cook has retracted his endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book.

After thinking through all of this more carefully and more clearly, I can no longer in good conscience stand by my initial endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book because of its “Side B” underpinnings and faulty anthropology (and therefore faulty theology). I like Greg as a person, but I must officially retract my endorsement.

Of course, all of these faults should have been clear from a careful reading of the book. I could be cynical about it because he does seem to fit within the TGC lane. Still, I think it is good news and I don’t see these endorsement retractions very often. Hopefully he will be able to speak clearly to this issue in other ways going forward.

Cook’s public platform has grown very quickly. His videos on YouTube tend to get at least 20,000 views and many over 100k. There are lots of people listening to Cook so hopefully he will point people in the right direction and not lead them astray. We should pray for him as he faces many temptations from his public position as well as his past.

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