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These are difficult days and they are only likely to get more difficult, said an evangelical leader whose recent comments on homosexuality drew wide criticism.
A day after a sit-in that resulted in the arrests of 12 gay rights activists, the Rev. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told students and faculty members to pray for the people who staged the protest.
Twenty-two members of a homosexual activist group called Soulforce protested outside Mohler's office on Monday, demanding an apology from the Southern Baptist president for his March 2 blog post on homosexuality and genetic origin.
Gay rights activists were outraged by Mohler's article that stated homosexuality is a sin even if a biological basis for sexual orientation was ever to be found. Such a discovery would not change the Bible's moral verdict on homosexual behavior, he stated.
Aware of Mohler's "tremendous influence" in the evangelical community, the Soulforce group took a detour to the Louisville, Ky., campus during their national tour protesting on campuses of conservative religious schools.
Noting that the protest was purposefully orchestrated to gain media attention, Mohler said in a chapel sermon on Tuesday, "We are given every once in a while a foretaste of what is likely to come.
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“I can only say that I believe any ministry that stands upon biblical authority and actually applies the whole counsel of God to all of life is going to confront moments like these," he stated, according to Baptist Press.
Despite the difficult moments, Mohler encouraged the students and faculty to continue to speak the Christian truth.
"We should always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us," he said. "We should always be ready to speak on behalf of Christian truth, on behalf of the truth of God's Word. We should always, above all things, be ready to speak about the Gospel."
Just as he urged evangelical Christians in his blog to show compassion to those struggling with homosexuality, Mohler encouraged the Baptist students and faculty to pray for Soulforce. He said they need to pray not only for their "salvation from homosexuality" but also for "their salvation from sin and death."
The chapel attendants were reminded that all were born sinners and that they have "a salvation from sin equally as ugly, equally as deadly."
Mohler was not on campus when Soulforce staged the sit-in. The 12 protestors who remained on campus were arrested on charges of criminal trespassing.
