Although some Protestant leaders are speaking out against abortion, gay lifestyle, LGBT issues and sin, a vast majority of them "seem to have lost their voice for the truth," laments the Rev. Thomas Parrish, the executive pastor of the Hope Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In an op-ed piece that appeared on LifeSite News, Parrish says the silence of these religious leaders reminds him of the chilling words spoken by Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany, who was martyred at the age of 39 for his outspoken convictions.
Bonhoeffer said then, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
Parrish notes that many of today's silent Protestant leaders were the "hippies" in the 60s who were protesting the Vietnam war and calling for a freer sexual lifestyle. "Sadly they have not gone away, they just have gotten older," he says.
These liberal Protestant leaders now claim that abortion is an issue of women's health. "They have turned a blind eye to the truth that the baby in the womb is a human baby, made in the image of God, from the moment of conception," Parrish says.
He reveals that some of these Protestant leaders have even managed to use church funds to finance transgendered assignment surgery. "Their compassion for those sexually confused is anything but compassion," Parrish says, adding that the surgery is a "mutilation of the human body."
He also notes that many of these Protestant leaders have embraced the gay lifestyle and gay "marriage," regarding them as a discrimination issue.
These Protestants have even invited leaders of the gay community to speak at Christian youth conventions.
Parrish warns that these "apostate Christian leaders ... will be held accountable for their actions when they are made to bow at the feet of Jesus Christ."
There is still time for them to repent though, he says. But if they insist on maintaining their "evil" silence, if they do not repent, "they will not find Jesus calling them home at the end of their lives," he warns.
What is truly tragic, Parrish says, is that these Protestant leaders are pushing their anti-biblical view in the name of Jesus Christ. "This makes these leaders one thousand times more guilty and accountable," he points out.
The Bible has a warning to these people. James 3:1 reads: "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment."
"Every Christian leader, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, should shudder before these words. If the Bible insists that we will be held accountable for 'every idle word' (Matthew 12:36), imagine how we will be held accountable for deliberately misusing the truth and the name of Jesus Christ," Parrish warns.
