Apologist Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis commented this week on women’s speaker and author Jen Hatmaker’s recent podcast “in honor of Pride Month” in which she revealed that her daughter is lesbian, stating that she is “glad” her daughter is homosexual and that it is one of her “greatest regrets and sorrows” that she did not affirm same-sex relationships sooner.
“Hatmaker has abdicated her role as a Christian parent,” he wrote in a blog post on Monday. “Instead of training her child in the ways of the Lord, she is condoning her daughter doing whatever she wants with her sexuality, in direct conflict with what God’s Word teaches in places like Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:4–5, and Romans 1:24–27. She’s ultimately condoning sin.”
“Certainly, Hatmaker needs to love her daughter, but condoning her sin is not love,” Ham added. “Love also means you share the truth of God’s Word in pointing out sin, but do it with gentleness.”
As previously reported, on the June 26 episode of Hatmaker’s “For the Love” podcast, her daughter Sydney, a college student at the University of Texas at Austin, explained that she became “consciously aware of [her] sexuality” in the sixth or seventh grade and that she had “really intense friendships that were definitely crushes.”
She said that she was simultaneously a “Jesus freak,” and so she wondered around age 12 if she would go to Hell for being attracted to girls. Sydney recalled studying the Bible in private to learn for herself whether or not homosexuality is a sin, reading and listening to different perspectives on the issue — coming across one resource that cited her mother, who was at that time “loving but unaffirming.”
She began pondering how she would reveal her homosexuality to her family, afraid of doing so because she did not know of others in the Church who were affirming of same-sex relationships. She worried that she could not be able to have God and family and be lesbian at the same time, and she wanted all three.
Hatmaker, becoming tearful during the broadcast, told her daughter that it is one of her “greatest regrets and sorrows” that she did not affirm homosexuality sooner.
“When I think of you struggling through that by yourself, I could just sob,” she said, remarking again later, “I am so sorry and I am so sad. If I could go back, I would change it. I would shake myself to life before you were even born; shake some sense into me.”
Hatmaker also told Sydney at the end of the episode, “[W]e are so proud of who you are. I would not change one molecule of you, not one. I’m so glad you’re gay. I’m so proud that you are free. I love that that this is how you are made. I’m thrilled about your future. I’ve already told you the kind the wife I need you to marry and I hope you follow my rules.”
She also opined during the broadcast that it is “irresponsible” for pastors to “break [the] hearts” of youth who have homosexual feelings.
“It is not enough, Christians, to say, ‘Well, we love you anyway.’ I don’t want to be loved anyway,” stated Hatmaker, who came out in support of homosexuality in 2016. She asserted that “organized religion” is an “unsafe place” for homosexuals and that allies are needed in religious communities.
Hatmaker is known for books such as “For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards”, “Fierce, Free and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You”, “Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life”, “Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity” and “Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load”.
On Monday, Ham stated in a blog post that Sydney’s embrace of sin and her mother’s affirmation of it should “break the heart of Christians.”
“The admission that this young woman has embraced a sinful identity will only bring hurt, brokenness, and pain as she rebels against her Creator and his Word, but also distressing is that her mother — a professing believer — has decided this is something good, to be proud of, and to celebrate,” he wrote, citing Romans 1:32.
“[W]e do not know how much the gospel — the true gospel — was taught during Sydney’s formative years in her home, church, and the Christian resources she read. But that truth is what she needed,” Ham said.
He then outlined the gospel that Sydney, and others, needed to be told.
“She needed to know that, yes, our sin (any sin) condemns us to a life in eternity without Christ. We are all sinners — every last one of us — in desperate need of a Savior because we can’t save ourselves (Romans 3:10),” Ham explained.
“She needed to know that, yes, homosexual behavior is a sin against our Creator (Romans 1:24–27) who designed sexuality to be exclusively expressed in a marriage relationship between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-5).”
“She needed to know that Christ came and died on the cross in our place, taking the penalty of death that we deserve because of our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we repent and believe, we are welcomed into the family of God and clothed in the righteousness of Christ,” he continued.
“As believers, our sin was nailed to the cross of Christ, and God remembers it no more (Hebrews 8:12). If we are truly in Christ, there is no longer any condemnation (Romans 8:1) — even if we still struggle with sin, working to defeat it by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us.”
Ham noted that God’s grace doesn’t give us a license to sin but the supernatural power to break free from it and walk in holiness.
“She needed to know that the grace and mercy our Lord so lavishly bestows on us does not give us a license to sin (Romans 6:1–2). God doesn’t ‘wink’ at our sin; rather, He disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:6)!” he outlined. “She needed to know that the gospel and the indwelling of the Spirit in each believer give us new power and desire to defeat sin, live for Christ, and strive for holiness.”
“She needed to be pointed to the Word of God, which is our authority. Our feelings do not determine truth. Our desires do not determine truth. Our sin natures do not determine truth. Our culture does not determine truth. God determines truth, and he has revealed truth to us in his Word,” Ham said.
“We look to God’s Word for truth. And God’s Word teaches that ‘everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. But if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed’ (John 8:34–36).”
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