Yesterday Landon Schott commented on a blog post I made a year ago about why I believe that the debate around LGBTQ+ self identification among Christians is frivolous and can result in misrepresentation of the gospel. Here is what happened.

Mega Church lead pastor of multisite church, Mercy Culture Landon posted on his instagram a series of slides going along with his sermon series entitled “abominations”. The first slide had a bold statement without much backing or explanation. “Can you be a gay Christian? No, you cannot!”

Conversations around LGBTQ+ persons who identify as Christians is something I am particularly passionate about, and I am not very fond of wholesale statements that eliminate the possibility of gay people receiving the gift of the gospel (or wholesale discrimination of anyone from being able to follow Jesus for that matter).

I commented on the post asking for further clarification from the pastor,

“What exactly do you propose gay people do who want to be Christian if you state on this instagram post that they cant be a Christian? I don’t really see anywhere in scripture where Christ says that sexual orientation is a barrier to the gospel. In fact, I think the book of Romans has some pretty clear things to say about nothing seperating people from the love of God. I don’t think the cross is nullified because of someone’s attractions.”

Schott responded to my comment by saying

“the same that everyone does. Deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow JESUS!”

Following his response, he went to my account and fond a blog post on the topic and started a debate in the comment section. His initial comment was what I shared yesterday, “No one scripture supports this statement… NOT ONE!”

It is unclear if he has actually read my blog post and just chose not to engage with the interpretation of scripture I proposed, or if he did not actually read the blog post and felt a need to comment because he felt so strongly that I must be wrong.

Landon is no stranger to this controversial topic among Christians. He has gained a following online due in part to his stark criticism of the LGBTQ community and has even written a book entitled “Gay Awareness”

Some of the claims in his book speak to the ethos of his arguments around faith and sexuality.

On page 116 of his book he claims “The ‘gay Christian’ lifestyle aligns better with the Church of Satan’ teachings than biblical teachings of Christianity.” failing to take into account the diversity of “lifestyles” among LGBTQ+ christians. His assertion that all gay people, especially those who self proclaim Christian values are living in overt sexual sin and rejecting biblical teachings of christianity is both reductionistic and ignorant of the experience of many faithful believers who have LGBTQ experiences and in one way or another identify with the queer community.

On page 173, he states “I have not met one individual who self-describes as gay or struggling with SSA who hasn’t been sexually abused or had an absent/distant/strained/abusive relationship with his or her father. This cannot be ignored.” This statement is rooted in the pseudoscience that has been rejected by every major medical and psychology organization as both false, and harmful. I do not want to discredit any one LGBTQ person’s experience with sexual abuse or difficult relationships with parents, but to be frank Landon needs to make friends with more LGBTQ people and he will realize that they are not a monolith. While the data is still unclear and mixed, the origins of sexual orientation are not clear but many people who experience same-sex orientation have great relationships with their parents and have never experienced sexual abuse.

On page 199, he makes the argument that ongoing attractions to the same sex are a sign of potentially millions of demons that have possessed the individual “There is not just one spirit of homosexuality, SSA, immorality, perversion, and more. No person knows how many. But we can give a biblical guess the there are tens of thousands, possibly millions. There are a lot. So when you have the similar temptations or feeling, the devil immediately says, ‘See, you’re not really delivered. You’re still gay. You’ll always be gay.’ The truth is, you were delivered. You defeated that demonic spirit and temptation. . . . There isn’t just one spirit of same-sex temptation or of lust. There are many. The devil wants you to be discouraged by your feelings of temptation when you should be encouraged. God delivered you from the previous temptation. He will deliver you from the next temptation.” Aside from the fact that this is a bit of a stretch theologically, this type of messaging is dangerous because it tells people that things out of their control, like their attractions or sexual orientation, is caused by demonic possession and you simply need another exorcism. I am curious if this messaging also applies to straight Christians? Does he believe he needs an exorcism every time he finds a woman who isn’t his wife attractive? This type of message can lead people to feeling hopeless and depressed, believing they are not loved enough for God to deliver them from their “demons”.

Given his beliefs espoused in his book, it is unsurprising that he would be post unbacked blanketed statements on his social media that seem to suggest that gay people can’t be Christians unless they are somehow delivered of the millions of gay demons possessing their bodies.

I do not understand however, why he would spend his weeknight looking through a twenty-five year old’s instagram and criticizing his blog posts calling for the Church to better love the LGBTQ community without even suggesting they must compromise the historic sexual ethic.

In response to a comment on my post, Landon made a dig at a particular group of people who hold to what is known as “side b theology”. He said “(I am)very familiar with side B. It’s nonsense. We follow Jesus. That’s it. Dedicated Christ followers or pretend Luke-warm.” It is unclear what specifically he takes issue with about the side b community, as they hold to a traditional sexual ethic, believing that marriage is reserved to be between a man and a woman, and that sex outside of that marriage union is prohibited. I asked if he believed there was a faithful way for a gay person to live as a Christian if he even saw those committed to celibacy as “pretend lukewarm” christians. He has yet to respond to this question.

Questions of sexual ethics are important ones, especially in a polarizing society. These questions have been debated in the church in many ways for years, recently to the point of major denominational splits and pain across the globe. The majority of the Christian world, along with the majority of Christian history holds to strict interpretations of sexual morality. Including marriage being between a man and a woman, any sexual activity outside of marriage is forbidden, and that all forms of contraception are prohibited. While the traditional sexual ethic is still the one held by the majority of the Christian world, many denominations and nondenominational churches interpret scripture to allow for variations from the traditional views. It is worth noting that to my knowledge, Landon Schott has not taken a strong stance for or against the use of contraceptives or family planning, while he does believe that scripture is clear on the issue of marriage being between a man and woman.

I fear however, that this is not merely just an issue of sexual ethics for Landon and others like him. To assert that there is no possible way that a certain category of person is able to be a Christian, even if they submit to the ethic you propose, is an exclusionary gospel.

For Landon, the issues seems to be rooted more in homophobia and prejudice than in any real attempts to love and win the LGBTQ community to Christ. If he truly desired for gay people to know Christ, he would offer them hope that God desires them in their entirety. He would not need to compromise a traditional sexual ethic to do so, seeing as many Christians believe that Christmas died for the broken nature of every person’s sexuality, gay or straight. There are many Christians who would claim that gay and lesbian people can in fact be faithful Christians if they chose to be celibate or to enter into mixed orientation marriages. For Landon, it seems that is a “lukewarm” lifestyle and those who are choosing it are “pretend Christians”. I wonder what then he would propose gay people do to live a life for Christ that is not lukewarm.

Seeing as Landon has stopped responding to me, instead he has made further posts responding to “people who are claiming his posts are hate speech”, and has turned off comments. I have tried to message him on instagram but his DM’s are closed, and I could not find an email to him on his church website. I wanted to write this to publicly ask, how does he suppose that someone who is gay follows Christ? Does he believe that someone can only be a Christian if they are delivered from their same-sex attractions? Is this simply a use of language issue? Does a use of a queer-identifying language exclude someone from the gospel? If so, what specifically does he take issue with in my original blog post on queer identification? What are his objections?

Perhaps more pertinent, what does Christ offer sexual minorities and how is the gospel good news for those who’s sexual attractions or experiences with gender seem to be unchanging? If he believes in a traditional sexual ethic, how can gender and sexual minorities thrive as followers of Christ?

If you would like to read the original blog post Landon responded to, or other ones I have written on the topic they are linked below.

• A Womanist Reading of the Sins of David
• Landon Schott & the LGBTQ community.
• From Death to Life
• Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
• Justice shall be mixed with mercy; lament and hope for a divided Church.

A Case for Queer Identification among Christians

Jesus died for LGBTQ+ people too.