Megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress: ‘We have lost the war over gay marriage’

While the culture wars likely won’t be ending any time soon, one evangelical leader is admitting defeat on one major front, namely same-sex marriage.

Robert Jeffress is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and has been a prominent voice in support of President Trump. Jeffress isn’t exactly a voice of reason when it comes to social issues. In 2016, the Dallas Observer compiled a list of “10 things” Jeffress believes, which includes: his belief that abortion caused 9/11; President Obama was the precursor to the Antichrist (it’s interesting to note who came after Obama); the Fifty Shades of Grey movie may have been a signifier of the End Times.

So with this kind of nonsense swimming around in his head, it’s astounding that he’s able to see a fight he holds dear to his heart for what it is: over.

Speaking to the Christian news outlet One News Now, Jeffress said that while gays, such as presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, should repent, the battle to keep traditional marriage as a staple of American culture has been lost.

“I think a proper reading of culture right now is to understand that we have lost the war over ‘gay marriage,’ at least in the culture,” Jeffress said. “There is no reason to refight that war [or] to think that somehow we’re going to make gay marriage illegal.”

When asked if in accepting this loss should the church go scorched earth and take a “repent or stand condemned” approach to the gay rights movement, Jeffress said not just yet.

“I think we need to certainly be conviction-driven, but we also need to be compassion-driven in what we say,” he replied. “We’re not trying to win an argument – we’re trying to win another person.”

As One News Now points out, another Christian leader acknowledge that the fight against gay marriage had been lost five years before Jeffress made his statement.

“When I say that the battle’s been lost culturally, I think that what we’re recognizing is we have a to do a better job inside the church before the church starts trying to speak again to the culture at large on this issue,” religious liberty advocate Carmen Fowler LaBerge told the Washington Examiner in 2014.

This doesn’t mean Jeffress will have nothing to do. Abortion and the War on Christmas will give him plenty of time to keep busy.

H/T JoeMyGod

Featured image: screen grab/YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.