Sky News host Rowan Dean has accused a Christian Minister of making “satanist” statements after he said gay, transgender and disabled people were all a reflection of God’s image.

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The foray into theological discussion on the Sunday morning current affairs and news program may have left some viewers wondering if they’d switched over to Mass at Home or Hour of Power.

Playing a clip of a sermon from Reverend Caleb J Lines, who is the Senior Minister of University Christian Church in San Diego, the Outsiders host said the religious leader was a “clown” who was twisting the words of God.

“God is gay” Reverend Lines says in the short clip. “God is a lesbian, God is trans, God is gender non-binary, God is straight, God is cis-gender.”

He then goes to list a wide range of attributes.

“God is black, God White, God is Middle Eastern, God is Asian, God is differently abled, mentally and physically, God is able-bodied. God is you, and you are God, because you are a reflection of God’s divine image.”  Reverend Lines said.

The sermon was given at the church, which welcomes LGBTIQA+ people, as part of their Pride celebrations last July.

Dean said from a theological point of view Lines was pulling a “sleight of hand” trick.

“My understanding of the Bible, the Jewish bible, and the Tora is that man was made in the image of God.” Dean said, with co-host James Morrow calling out “Bingo!” in agreement.

“The sleight of hand there that this clown has pulled is that he’s twisted it round and gone that God is made in the image of man, or woman, or trans, or this, or that, or whatever else, and therefore any human behaviour is Godlike.

‘That to me from a theological point of view…is satanic, it’s satanism, it’s the flipside of what the Christian and Jewish religions are about.” Dean said.

Cohost James Morrow said Reverend Lines comments were heresy.

“It’s not satanic so much as it’s heresy.” Morrow said, saying churches had fought long battles to stop people projecting the issues of the day on the deity.

“The whole point of God is that he is he eternal and transcendent” Morrow said.

“The idea that you go and reflect all of the present-day obsessions onto the deity, on to God, and then use that to reflect back whatever you’re doing as somehow God-like, this is a heresy in the extreme. I’m sorry but there are eternal truths.” Morrow said.

Dean went on to explain why be believed, from a theological view, Reverend Lines comments were satanic.

“In theology the devil was cast out of heaven on the pretense of offering an alternative religion, and alternative God. The idea…that whatever man does is, because man is a reflection of God, makes man God-like, is a complete inversion of the basic idea of religion.

“God is perfect and man has inherent foibles.” Dean said outlining his understanding of religion. “It is the struggle of man and woman to overcome those foibles that makes them religious and better.”

Morrow went on to encourage churches to retain the traditional views saying evidence had shown it was very popular with young people. While Rita Panahi said churches needed to show strength by not changing their practices due to pressure from activists.

“If your most fundamental practices are able to be bent into whatever shape the activists want, then you’re not going to have people devoted to this religion because they can see just how surface level it is.” Panahi said.

Despite Panahi and Morrow claiming that progressive attitudes will lead to death of churches, the majority Reverend Lines sermon from which the clip was lifted from, was about how his church has become hugely popular since they adopted “a welcoming and affirming” approach thirty years ago.

“We are people whose hearts and minds are open to new people, to new ideas and new information.” Reverend Lines said later in his sermon.

Reverend Lines said that while his church now understood that both sexuality and gender identity was not a binary situation but occurred on a spectrum, he understood that not all churches felt that same.

“Jesus did not say one single word about sexual orientation or gender identity.” Reverend Lines said.

Update: 26-02-2023 23:00 Reverend Lines has responded to the comments on Sky News. 

OIP Staff. 

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