The pastor of Willow Creek Chicago — the city campus of the 20,000-member evangelical megachurch Willow Creek Community Church — has resigned and admitted to “sexual impurity,” a church spokesman said.
The pastor, Rev. Steve Wu, could not be reached, and the church would specify what took place.
Wu, 43, moved from California’s Silicon Valley in early 2006, hired by senior pastor Rev. Bill Hybels to lead Willow Creek Chicago, the downtown branch of the South Barrington-based church.
Willow Creek encourages gay people to “change” or remain celibate. Meanwhile, this is the kind of sexual immorality that is going on at the church, while gay people are guilted into abandoning hopes of love, affection, sexual pleasure and a healthy relationship. It is time these hypocrites look in the mirror, instead of pointing fingers at others that they do not understand.
The primary sexual impurity at this church seems to lie in the church’s efforts to discourage honesty and responsibility among gay or bisexual family members and friends.
Another impurity is in its flimsy and ineffective “restoration process” which appears to throw new coats of paint over a rotten ideology.
Your photo attached to this article is not a photo of Willow Creek… it’s Joel Osteen’s church in Huston, TX.Also, ‘guilting’ isn’t a practice that’s used at Willow Creek. Most of us at the Chicago church actually had hopes of Pastor Steve coming back – there is a general consensus that he would have been welcomed back by the congregation. Rev. Wu honored his commitment to the Bible and it’s mandates for Christian Leadership. He’s taking time out to refocus his life.
Would ‘guilting’ him include the hundreds of e-mails sending words of love and encouragement that have been directed at him over the past few weeks?
I understand that you’re against Willow Creeks view of God’s will concerning Homosexuality, but please don’t cast a false light on the methods of the ministry. People are accepted where they are and no one is running behind them with a 30-day action plan for ‘change’. Resources are available for those who desire them.
So DC. Is your x pastor gay, bi or straight? I think you interpret an Eastern Book ( the Bible ) with your western mentality. Homosexuals do not change. Have you read my story on this site? I am just one in thousands of Gay Men in America duped by others who can not except the fact that a man or woman can be actually gay by God’s design and that God just does not condemn it at all in the Bible.
People are accepted where they are and no one is running behind them with a 30-day action plan for “change’. Resources are available for those who desire them. – says DC.
So, you mean for gay people who are taught to be ashamed, Willow Creek offers false science and the cherry picking of scriptures to compound the shame. Thanks, for letting me know that.
Your church does not “accept people where they are at.” I know a guy that went there and was shamed into joining ex-gay ministries. Willow Creek is slick and more subtle, but still preaches the same, anti-gay message that leads society to harm GLBT people. Willow Creek is part of the problem and ought to accept responsibility for the damage they are doing.
Sometimes I wonder if any of these churches’ leaders ever spend a session preaching on topics other than gay sex. What might the percentage of time spent on subjects be? 90 percent of sermon time spent preaching against gay people, and 10 percent about being good and truthful and feeding the poor and hungry? Religion is all about the sex. This MUST be stressed over and over so Americans begin to see how sex-obsessed religion is, and how little it truly offers, beyond membership in “us against them” clubs, which is what churches amount to anyway.
DaveTheWave:
What a load of crap! I’ve been attending Willow and other evangelical churches for over a decade. What happens in those “preaching sessions” is that we are taught to love people as Jesus loves them – completely and regardless of their condition. I’ve never heard a message against gay people, ever, EVER. But, as a Christ-follower, I read the Bible. From what God has revealed to me there, sex is reserved for a man and a wife within the confines of marriage. Period. We are all tempted to defy that – when we do, we sin. Sin gets you spiritual death and separation from God. Jesus came to save us from that. But you have to accept him as your savior. You’ll still be a sinner, but he’ll do some wonderful things in your life – I’m living proof of that!
Look at Willow’s website (www.willowcreek.org). Find one thing there that fits the 90% you describe, and I’ll publicly eat my words. Rather, I’ll bet you’ll find dozens of things that go along with goodness, truth, and feeding the hungry.
Wayne Besen said: “cherry picking of scriptures”
What Willow presents is the Bible, in its entirety. I read it. There is no question in my mind that God designed sex between one man and one woman in marriage. Anything else is sinful. No cherry picking here – that’s the consistent message.
Look, I’m no hypocrite – we all sin. What matters is how you react to that sin. ANY sin is unacceptable in the eyes of God. I believe that Christ is my only hope.
If you choose not to believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, or that what I have said is somehow taken out of context, then so be it. But as the saying goes, if you’re betting there is no God, you’d better be right.
LORDY, what a depressing religion. I’m thanking HaShem I’m Jewish. At least when WE look at the scriptures, we recognize that there could be different kinds of meanings. Even in the Orthodoxy. And never did I sit in Shul listening to anybody preach about sex.
…thank God I’m an atheist ;-)
JustBob clearly has never read the Bible, at least not much of it.
The Bible prescribes arranged marriages, not romantic marriages. The Bible allows for marriage between one man and multiple women. And the Bible takes for granted that slavery is AOK.
JustBob should spend less time listening to the religious right make up revisionist, out-of-context fantasies about the Bible, and spend more time reading the book that he claims to uphold.
But I doubt that JustBob will do that. He seems afraid to read the Bible — afraid of what the Bible really says.
Oh, I’ve read it, and I continue to study always praying that God will open my eyes and heart to the truth. And I study as much as I can about the history – that helps me understand the context.
You’re confusing what man has allowed (and the Bible’s historical reporting of it), with what God has designed.
The bottom line for me is this (and I probably haven’t done a good enough job saying this above): God’s love for (all of) us is incredible. I’ve experienced it, and it has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. I hope the same happens for all of you.
“You’re confusing what man has allowed (and the Bible’ historical reporting of it), with what God has designed.”
A good try, JustBob, but it doesn’t work.
Not only does the Old Testament never condemn the practice of polygamy; Deuteronomy clearly assumes that it will be quite the thing for a man to have more than one wife. See Deuteronomy 21:15, which is presented as a command of Yahweh.
JustBob, you make an astonishingly mighty claim, to intimately know God’s mind concerning our sleeping arrangements and sexual relationships. You say, he revealed something to you personally, which must mean you have a direct link to the Almighty. I can’t simply take your word for it, because the same claim has been made by so many people with totally incompatible belief systems, all around the world. What evidence do you have, to make me believe your particular claim more than any other?
You also claim to know how to determine which parts of the Bible can be dismissed as merely the reports of mortal men, and which are really God’s word. What are your sources for this?
I am no longer a Christian, and frankly think that any group which cannot accept and AFFIRM gay people and their relationships is to be avoided, irrespective of what else they have to say.
I think I am far better off without belief in an imaginary friend and am glad to be finally rid of its malign influence. I would encourage others to do the same.
Err, sorry, what? The charge of hypocrisy is a complete non-sequitur.
You want them to practise what they preach (if that’s what they preach- see the post below). Well- he’s just admitted sexual impurity and resigned. How much more practising of what they preach do you want? How is that hypocrisy? Yes, doing it was hypocrisy. Standing down when you realise it? Not hypocrisy.
I applaud them.
It is hypocrisy to declare that change of sexual orientation is possible and to mandate such change, when a church leader’s own life demonstrates that change of orientation may not be feasible.
Standing down is consistent with church policy, but the policy itself promotes sexual dishonesty and self-contradiction.
I have gone to Willow Creek for 15 years, and went to Willow Chicago for a short while (left because Steve Wu was a self-righteous, holier-than-thou jerk). I am a born again Christian and I love the messages at Willow Creek. I am also a political liberal and an advocate for gay rights and gay marriage. I believe that sexual orientation cannot be changed (imagine if homosexuality was the societal norm — I would not be able to all of a sudden make myself attracted to the same sex to fit that norm, would you?). I disagree with my church on their gay position. BUT, I have never heard the gay issue mentioned in a service and I have NEVER heard Pastor Hybels call for any sort of judgment on anyone. I know what their official position is, and I don’t like it, but it is a quiet official position. The general themes of the church are love of God, love of community, and compassion for others. I embrace these teachings as the foundation of my spritual center, but my beliefs on specific issues are between me and God… not everyone is a lemming to their church.
WTF is “sexual impurity”? Why can’t the church be more transparent these days? Either you tell the whole story or you shut up.
I know Steve personally and have seen how he grew up in our church – from being a youth counselor to becoming a minister, before starting the Cornerstone church in Fremont, CA.
I wonder if Willow Creek had done their due diligence before they hired him. It’s interesting that they always mentioned that he “started a church”, but never said its name (Cornerstone) or what happened to it? Did they know the whole story of why he “left” his church? This is like deja vu – he left (or should I say, was forced out) under similar circumstance involving sex, except at the time he was married and I don’t think the church offered any “restoration” (what a joke) process. That church was eventually closed down and left a lot of people with bitterness in their hearts. Steve went on to Crosswinds and then to Willow Creek. How he was able to become a pastor at Crosswinds still boggles my mind.
Yes, God does forgive our sins, past, present and future. But at least tell the whole story instead of hiding behind some semi-holy, self-righteous platitude. I just hope that this restoration process won’t be as shallow as Ted Haggard’s.
Steve a gay? I think not! (How did this even come up in the first place?)
Wu was, like so many antigay pastors, a hypocrite and, apparently, a repeat offender.
I’m glad to hear that (maybe) Willow Creek does not call gay people pedophiles worthy of being hate-crimed — as Focus on the Family and the American Family Association are currently doing.
Nevertheless, the church still condemns gay people of faith to a life of celibacy or ex-gay quack therapy. Good riddance to all such phony stadium “churches.” They are glorified pep rallies for self-satisfied bigots.
Hey I’ve been going to Willow Creek since I was a kid and I would like to say that they are extremely open and excepting to everybody including homosexuals. In fact, whenever I see a same sex couple openly holding hands in the cafeteria line or holding each other during worship I thank God that there is still some hope for Christianity and that I go to such a tolerant church. While it is true that many “Christian” churches are total hypocrites on many subjects including homosexuality, Willow is not the right church to use as an example.
Oh, and Emily K? Many Christians today have forgotten that Jesus was Jewish along with all of his disciples, that He told the disciples that salvation is “first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles”, and that Christianity was actually a sect of Judaism until the Romans started persecuting the Jewish people even more and the Christians started to distance themselves more and more from God’s People. (this is why the Sabbath is on Saturday but Christians celebrate it on Sunday.)
Ya it’s kind of a sore spot with me, sorry.
Bottom line: God is love. And if you can believe that he is able to forgive and love rapists, murderers, or child molesters, then why can’t he get over two guys getting married in Maine? Maybe you’re reading the Bible wrong…
Michael, arranged marriages were the cultural norm among the people in the book of Genesis. The Bible recognizes them but it does not prescribe them. Multiple wives were were also a cultural norm. Just because the Bible records something does not mean it is endorsing it.