The Nightmare Continues

Sadly, but unsurprisingly, we learn that Roy Clements has now set up a website which, he says, 'must now serve as both my confessional and my pulpit'. We recognise the danger of giving it the oxygen of publicity but ignoring it is a problem too. The home page begins by explaining that Dr Clements was for 20 years ' Senior Minister of a prominent church in Cambridge, England. Eden Baptist Church was well known for the quality of the biblical preaching found there. Many hundreds of university students were drawn to its pulpit week by week.'

It continues 'In the suimner of 1999 I made two big decisions. The first was to leave this very successful ministry. The second was to tell my wife and a few Christian friends for the very first time that I was gay. The consequences have been apocalyptic in every sense of the word. In an attempt to neutralise the damage I might do to the evangelical Christian cause, pre-emptive public statements 'outing' me were made to my church and to the media. A half page article ... appeared in the Times newspaper. My reputation within the Christian circles in which I was once lionised was shattered.'

The site currently has six further pages. Dr Clements appears to be standing by all he has previously written but with the addition of a 'pro-gay' line. He reveals that Christian Focus and Kingsway continue to make his books available but IVP refuses to, though he hopes to supply copies himself. He unfairly claims 'Christian bookshops stock an enormous amount of rubbish and heresy in my experience, but tell them an author is gay and everything he has ever written is removed from the shelves.' The website pages are vintage Roy Clements - forceful argument; persuasive style; contempt for fundamentalists and the browbeating of evangelical antagonists. What some have appreciated from his pen in the past will perhaps be read in a new light when it is seen how far he has now gone.

Open Letter

He has written an open letter to Brian Souter, the businessman campaigning against the repeal of Clause 28 in Scotland beginning 'I am a married man with three children, one of them still in secondary school. 1 am an evangelical Christian. 1 am also gay'.

It makes five points.

1. The family is important but civil legislation, even if it promotes homosexuality cannot strengthen or undermine it. - So why bother to comment on legislation?

2. 'It is the infidelities of heterosexual men and women that are principally responsible for the escalating divorce statistics.' - But not in Dr Clements' own case.

3. Children should be protected from sexual exploitation but keeping them ignorant does no good. - Can Dr Clements be ignorant of the sorts of materials the gay lobby plans to introduce once Clause 28 is repealed?

4. Legislation to seek to reduce homosexual practice is undesirable as the moral consensus has changed and most psychologists accept that homosexuality is usually a matter of nature rather than nurture. Thus suppression of these desires can only lead to harm. It is this myth that fuels much of what Dr Clements is now saying. There is no real reason to suppose some are 'born homosexuals'. If it were true the biblical way is still to do all we can to discourage homosexual practice. It is not the only sinful urge that needs suppressing.

5. It is folly to waste millions on this even if the Bible forbids homosexual practice. Stick to the gospel and forget about law, he says, ending bitterly and blasphemously 'Do you really think you will hear the Master's Well done for this investment of your 10 talents? I fear it is much more likely you will hear him say: I was a gay teenager, and you wouldn't let my teacher talk to me about it.' - To hear such pietistic antinomianism from such a man is very sad. For a professing evangelical to pervert the Lord's words in this way is shocking.

On the same page Dr Clements claims 'Singling out homosexuals for statutory negative treatment is not justice, it is discrimination. Christians have every right to challenge the morality of homosexuals if they wish. But in a secular state we have no right to try to reinforce those moral judgements by civil legislation unless we can prove that homosexual behaviour does harm to the community.'

Then follows a rant about the way evangelicals have destroyed all credibility they might have had with the gay lobby.

Living with our fallibility

The most substantial page on the website is the first part of an essay 'Living with our fallibility'. Cleverly written, its thesis is that having made mistakes in the past, Christians cannot be sure they are right about homosexuality now. With Arianism and transubstantiation he gives examples of professing Christians being woefully unbiblical. He then tackles cosmology, making the risible statement that 'The evolutionary emergence of the species over millions of years now rests on such a mountain of scientific evidence that the vast majority of Christians accept that the seven-day creation story of Genesis 1 cannot be taken literally any longer. Only the most blinkered of fundamentalists still adhere to a young-earth theory.'

Next he offers an equally distorted summary of changing thinking with regard to racism and slavery. This all leads up to two paragraphs concerning 'sexism and homophobia'. On the latter he says, disingenuously, 'The Christian attitude toward homosexuality has been transformed too from one of unconditional condemnation to qualified acceptance. This change remains extremely controversial but the parallels with earlier debates in which the Christian community was eventually forced to acknowledge they had erred is conspicuous. It is quite possible that within the next couple of decades those texts which are still widely quoted to prove the moral repugnance of homosexual relationships will be reinterpreted by the majority of Christians, just as texts have been in the case of slavery and the ordination of women.'

It has been this writer's opinion that in the past aspects of Roy Clements teaching were unbiblical and dangerous. Today this is more obvious than ever. His powerful intellect cannot be denied but he has been sadly misled and now seeks to mislead others. It is the sort of thing that the Bible warns us about and leads us to expect. We must be on our guard against all forms of error. Only the Lord can save us.

This article appeared in Grace Magazine in July 2000

What can we learn from this?

Most readers will be aware of a story that appeared in national newspapers recently regarding the former minister of Eden Chapel, Cambridge, a church well known to many subscribers. Far from believing everything we read in newspapers, we understand that the statements made are substantially accurate. From time to time ministers of the gospel do fall into open sin. It is not normally our policy to comment on such sad cases. However, in light of the fact that Mr Clements' leaving his wife is now so widely known, we felt it might be thought that Grace was somehow pretending the situation did not exist if we said nothing.

Our reaction is certainly to hide our heads from the world in shame. We do not say, as some may be tempted to say, "These things happen. It can't be helped'. No, it deeply grieves us that one who apparently held to the doctrines we love and delight in should fall in this sad and humiliating way. We extend our deepest sympathy to the family, the church and all who have been affected, directly or indirectly, by this tragedy. We earnestly pray for a swift and thoroughgoing repentance, painful as that may be and as incredibly difficult as restoration is.

Faced by such sad events, it is our duty before God to reflect soberly on what we may learn from this fall. One thought is, perhaps, that we place some on too high a pedestal so that if they do fall the consequences are so much the greater for the gospel. But no doubt it is inevitable that, for various reasons, some will have a higher profile than others. Another thought is that there seems to be a connection between pressure and falls of this kind but knowing so little about the case, one is unable to draw firm conclusions. With the five points below we feel on surer ground.

1. It is a reminder of our union in Christ

Our apparent lack of unity is something that often troubles believers. However, when something like this happens we are reminded of our essential union in Christ. In the past some of us have sought to distance ourselves from certain things Roy Clements has said - not because we believed he was not a believer but because we believed he was in error. Now, having stepped outside the pale in a way that no woe Christian can condone, the reaction of us all is one of horror, disbelief and pain. A twiner has fallen and if one part of the body suffers every other part suffers too. We niece for him, his family, his church, regardless of differences on other issues in the past

2. It is a reminder to take heed that we do not fall too

Perhaps this is the most obvious lesson. By nature we are all like tinder and the smallest spark could easily start a great conflagration that no man could put out. It is only God's grace that keeps us standing. With the 18th century Cambridge Strict Baptist Robert Robinson we say

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be.

Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to thee

We remind ourselves too that, even though he permed those words, Robinson himself fell into gross doctrinal error and is said to have longed in vain for the faith to return again to the 'Fount of every blessing'. Mere words are not enough to save any of us.

3. Let us not pretend that we are without similar sins

Sadly, this is far from being the first case of an evangelical minister breaking his marriage vows. Further, besides those who publicly fall, who is there who has not at some point, in deed, word or thought, also been guilty of unfaithfulness to such a solemn vow? It is sheer hypocrisy to pretend that we are the innocent ones and it is only one man who has let us all down. No, the tragedy of these particular events is the public nature of the sin and the apparent lack of repentance. God is very gracious and covers over our sins - often he chooses even to keep them from being publicly known. How very merciful he is. How many more of us would be disgraced, if he were not? Repentance too is his gift. Without it none of us could take even one step forward. Without it we are little different from other sinners.

4. Recognise the over-arching grace of God

One difficulty some believers have in situations like this is how a man can preach with such apparent power and yet be guilty of such gross sin. Should we bum the books and articles and tapes of one who has fallen? As with all men, we must exercise discernment, of course, and in this case we will find ourselves reassessing certain statements in a new light. However, we remind ourselves that no merely human author is infallible. It is only God's grace that enables any preacher to say what is good and true. In his grace, God does not wait for perfection before using a man. In an almost unbelievable way the highest and lowest thoughts find a home in the same mind all within a very short space of time. We say this to our shame but also to magnify the grace of God. Of course, we will be slow to recommend such books while there is no repentance but it does no good to pretend that there is nothing of merit in the writings of men who have fallen.

5. Believe in the restoration of sinners

It is very easy to write people off and assume that once a man falls he can be of no use to God. Who would have said God would use Samson again, after his hair was shorn, or Peter after his fall from grace? Yet God did. Restoration is usually a long, slow, painful process but in Christ's goodness it does happen. Let's pray for it for all who fall.

This article appeared in Grace Magazine in November 1999