Joe Thorn is a Mid Eva pastor who has been around the block, featured at various ministries, including The Gospel Coalition, For The Church, Ligonier, and Founder’s Ministries. He has been a champion of so-called confessionalism, a rebranding of a return to a more scholarly, traditional pursuit of knowledge and theology. Bob the Baptist, in his horrendous retelling of Evangelical history, glazed Joe Thorn as a champion of confessionalism and role model for Reformed men. And while Thorn’s wokeness is a known quantity, his embrace of homosexuality was previously not.
Protestia broke the bombshell story last Friday, revealing that Joe Thorn attended and celebrated his daughter getting married to a woman.
The courthouse wedding was attended by the Thorn family who celebrated and took wedding photos with what looks like the other family.
While Thorn declined to elaborate (at least on the record) his specific motivations and justifications for attending the wedding, he did tell us regarding his theology:
“My views haven’t changed since 1990. I believe marriage is, by God’s design, for one man and one woman. Same sex marriage isn’t biblical, and sex is designed to be experienced in the context of real marriage. This is my position and the position of our church.”
Joe Thorn claims to oppose gay marriage, but when push comes to shove, he waved the pride flag and celebrated his daughter’s gay marriage. His social media engagement provides additional evidence of this with regard to his daughter’s lesbian romance posts. This is the opposite of what a proper father figure would do, a point made worse by the other offspring emphatically celebrating the marriage. So while Joe Thorn may not approve of other gay marriages, his daughter is a different story.
As for confessionalism, this courthouse wedding took place last summer, and no one in Thorn’s camp held him accountable. The question remains as to whether the public exposure will cause his church, Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, IL, to take action or the broader Southern Baptist Convention to disfellowship the church for their refusal to do so. Joe Thorn has not only revealed himself a false teacher but a terrible father.
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3 Responses
Is this akin to Alistair Begg’s attempt at advice-giving to a grandmother whose grandchild was marrying a trans-identifying person…in the name of compassion as Alistair claimed?
Aren’t we supposed to love Christ more that any of our family? It looks like he chose family over Christ.
My brother-in-law got married to a fellow male back when gay marriage was first legalized.
When invited, I didn’t have a problem attending the ceremony, but avoided any official role. I figured God can sort it out, and enforce His rules, and didn’t want to further inflame family political tension.
I won’t attend another such ceremony. Breakdown of relationships was not avoided, as only full-throated support was tolerated. (If you aren’t with us, you’re against us.)