A couple brothers call out Sam on Twitter, and surprisingly get a some good interaction: https://twitter.com/DrOakley1689/status/1109125766908788738
I’d take some screenshots if I had more time, but at one point Sam says:
“As a male elder I will disciple men. I’ll need to be aware of any potential for temptation and have clear accountability. But I want to take my behavioral cue from my sex as a man rather than from sexual feelings.”
And,
“In as much as the Bible has a category for me of sexual identity, it is in being male. So I want my conduct to be shaped by my biology rather than particular sexual feelings.”
Seems like I’ve heard that somewhere else.
But this just goes to show how insidious false teaching is. Sam seems to be sending different messages to different audiences. But does he even realize he’s doing that? We see in scripture that self-deception is a powerful thing. Self-deception can allow a person to make mutually-exclusive statements, both with complete sincerity.
Earlier up the thread he says:
“Yes — we plan to review all our articles in the light of how some are being misunderstood. There are some genuine differences between how they’re read on different sides of the pond.”
The naive read would be to take him at his word–to write this off as Americans not understanding the diffidence of British Anglicanism.
The cynical read would be to translate this as: “Yes – We plan to review all our articles in light of how easy it is to spot the false teaching. We need to hide it better for you Americans who lack the manners to ignore things in plain sight.”
I’m not 100% sure what to think of all this, but I think a non-cynical, non-naive read of his comments are what I said above: He is giving different messages to different audiences (or at least different emphases) and he might not even realize it.
We’ll see what changes come in his teaching and LivingOut as more folks push them toward clarity. He might surprise us, but I’m not holding my breath.