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W.A. Criswell and his use of the term Sodomy There is a W.A. Criswell Sermon Library online. https://wacriswell.com/ At the library you can both listen to it and read a transcript. So, what do we find if we do a word search using the term “sodomy?” https://wacriswell.com/search/?wpv_post_search=Sodomy We find the arrogant attitudes of a person with vicious opinions about Lesbians and Gays. These are some excerpts from his sermons. All boldface is added by myself. Not all the sermons found using the search term are in reference to the present. I provide a list of links at the end of this essay. The quotes are somewhat longer than I would like, but I don’t want to hear whining that Criswell’s words were taken out of context. Also, in some cases, the full meaning isn’t clear without the context. I am including three quotes to show that I am not selectively choosing his sermons using the term, nor that one sermon was a fluke. In a June 27, 1977 sermon, “The Smiting of God’s Glory, this is what W.A. Criswell had to say: https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1977/the-smiting-of-god-s-glory/ In God’s sight and in the Christian faith, a thing is right or it is wrong. I cannot but be amused, almost, at the effort of these coming out of the wood termites, called sodomites, lesbians, and they are organizing for their rights and their privileges and their status before the law. And we have been caught up in reading about it in all of our magazines and of our newspapers. Does the Christian faith have anything to say about that? Just so long as the judgment of God fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah [Genesis 19:24-29], and just so long as the first chapter of the Book of Romans is in the Bible [Romans 1:17-32], just so long will the sodomite and the lesbian be an affront to God and a disgrace to the human race and an affront to the nation. Why don’t all of these murderers get together, and all of these thieves get together, and all of these violates who have violated the law, get together and say, “We demand status. And we demand our rights before the law.” [Boldface added.] Christianity, as long as there is a Christian faith, says that some things are right and some things are wrong. And God says sodomy is wrong! It always will be— always has been and always will be—until the Lord Jesus comes again. Now that is the Christian faith.
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In an Oct. 2, 1983 sermon, “We Begin our Fortieth Year,” this is what W.A. Criswell had to say: https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1983/we-begin-our-fortieth-year/ … There is advancement and progress also in the evil of sodomy. When I began this ministry here, I never heard of a sodomonic community. And yet in the city of San Francisco they’ll have two hundred fifty thousand members of that community. They have a Sodom community in Dallas, and they clamor for recognition on the campus of the great Christian Southern Methodist University here in our city. I never heard of herpes. I never heard of AIDS. There is advancement and progress in evil. [Boldface added.] https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1986/my-country1/ In a June 29, 1986 sermon, “My Country,” this is what W.A. Criswell had to say: Whether we live or die lies in the judgment of Almighty God. And I do not think America can live in drunkenness, and in debauchery, and in desecration. We have an increasing floodtide of drugs to tear our bodies apart. We have immoral, promiscuous TVs and movies to tear our families apart. We have an increasing abortion to tear the very wombs of our mothers apart. We have crime and terror on our streets to tear our cities apart. We have secular humanism to tear our schools apart. We have sodomy and an epidemic of AIDS to tear the very moral fiber of our people apart. We have cults, weird and strange, to tear our churches apart. Where shall we find strength and deliverance? It will be found only in the Lord God Almighty, and a great turning of our people to Him. There is no other way. Whether we live or die lies in our turning to the Lord as a people, as a nation. [Boldface added.]
Other Sermons in which Criswell is referencing Lesbians and Gays in the present. https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1985/jesus-speaks-to-us-about-purposelessness In this sermon he uses the term “sodomite.” https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1984/the-last-judgment Sermons found with the term “homosexual” and not previously listed. In these sermons he recounts how he exploited Gays who were downcast because they had AIDS. https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1987/the-work-awaiting-us https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1987/jesus-the-light-of-the-world
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This is why we need to change the name of Ervay St. to Harvey Milk St.