When the Wicked Seize a City by Chuck and Donna McIlhenny and Frank York, Huntington House Publishers: Lafayette, Louisiana 70505, 1993. Reviewed by Thomas Vanden Heuvel
Chuck and Donna McIlhenny pastor the First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in San Francisco; Frank York is a writer and editor in the Public Policy Department with Focus on the Family.
Dr. Jay E. Adams writes in the foreword: “If you want to know all about the homosexual movement—even more than you may wish to know and how you, as a Christian relate to it, this is the book for you.” Chuck and Donna pastor a small OPC congregation in a very large city. This city is captured and controlled by gay activists. This book is the story of how an orthodox pastor and his family, who are faithful to the Lord and His Word, suffer at the hands of ruthless gay activists. Their church was threatened with fire-bombing, their children were threatened with harm and violence, they were assailed with law suits and many other attacks. Was their response bitterness? Not at all. In fact they exhibited a Christ-like attitude of love and compassion, while maintaining a steadfast abhorrence for compromise with sin.
Chuck was challenged by the question: “What distinction do you make between someone who is constitutionally homosexual, but who doesn’t practice it, and someone who practices homosexual behavior?” “My reply was that the Bible doesn’t make a distinction between one who is a homosexual and one who engages in homosexual acts. It does, however, specifically condemn all sexual deviation from God’s infallible standard. I certainly believe that a person who is struggling against homosexual tendencies and temptations is not necessarily engaging in sin. The Scriptures do not call one a murderer or thief or fornicator because he or she struggles with such temptations; we all have temptations, but it’s when we give in to them in thought as well as deed that we’re guilty of sin. It is the practice of homosexual behavior, whether in the private recesses of the heart or outwardly, that is forbidden in the Word of God” (p.62).
The McIlhennys confronted the gay political movement head-on. They write: “The gay political movement is not going to go away on its own. It is not going to respect the church/state boundaries. The gay rights movement is as totalitarian in its belief as is Christianity. They will accept no peaceful coexistence between themselves and Christians that take seriously the commandments or God’s Word. They know that in order to survive, they must silence the Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church, and those individual Christians who dare to criticize them. They are aggressively promoting their agenda on junior high and high school campuses through explicit sex education, AIDS education, Project 10-type programs, and off-campus ‘raps’ groups” (p.231).
The McIlhennys say: “In San Francisco, we have seen first hand what happens when the wicked seize the reins of power—starting in the individual human heart and spreading through all the community and culminating in the legislative halls of our cities and counties. The clearheaded Christian, one who is well taught in the Scriptures, is our only hope to slow down, halt and reverse such a demonic trend. These two conflicting belief systems cannot remain within the same community. One has got to go; one will prevail. For the Christian, it is the law or God that must, and ultimately will, prevail in our society” (p. 231).
This book is a captivating account of how a young pastor and his family survived while being faithful to the Lord and His Word.
The subject or homosexuality is one about which all of us must become more aware.
We want to commend our brother and sister and their family in their courageous stand for the Lord. They are on the battlefield and in the trenches. This book shows how the Word ofGod truly believed and confessed is the sword of the Spirit and the shield and defense against the enemy.