By Ian M. GiattiChristian Post Reporter Sunday, February 04, 2024

Pastor, author and Christian radio personality Alistair Begg continues to face fallout from comments he made on a podcast last year about advice for Christians and same-sex marriage.

The biography of Begg was removed from the website of the Shepherd's Conference, a ministry of Grace Community Church led by Rev. John MacArthur, following controversy over Begg's advice for a grandmother about attending her LGBT-identified grandson's wedding.

An archived version of the website from November shows Begg listed as one of the speakers after MacArthur and Desiring God founder John Piper.

The theme of this year's Shepherd's Conference scheduled for March 6-8 is “True Triumphs.”

It was not clear who made the decision for Begg not to participate. The Christian Post reached out to Grace Community Church for comment but did not receive a response.

Begg is also a guest lecturer for the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master's Seminary, which is run in partnership with Grace Community Church and where MacArthur serves as chancellor. It is unknown whether Begg's role at the seminary was also affected by the decision to drop him from the Shepherd's Conference.

The move is the latest in a backlash against the 71-year-old Begg, the senior pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, who is also the voice behind the “Truth For Life” radio ministry, carried on nearly 1,800 radio stations nationwide.

In recently resurfaced comments Begg made in a a podcast for “Truth For Life” in September, in which he discussed his new book, The Christian Manifestoand touched on a specific question that he said a grandmother asked him about her grandson, who she said was “marrying a transgender person,” and whether she should attend the wedding.

Despite the podcast being nearly three months old, Begg's advice resurfaced on social media, causing a controversy that ultimately led to American Family Radio (AFR), the radio ministry of the American Family Association, making the decision to 'no longer broadcast'”. Truth For Life” after more than a decade.

After initially refusing to comment, Begg addressed the issue in front of his congregation during his Sunday sermon at Parkside Church last week.

In the messagetaken from Luke 15, titled “Mercy versus Condemnation,” Begg warned of our “tendency to Pharisaism” which is “alive and well in all our hearts.”

“In that conversation with that grandmother, I was concerned about the well-being of their relationship more than anything else,” he explained. “Hence my advice. Don't misunderstand that at all.

“If I were on the receiving end of another question about another situation from another person at another time, I might answer completely differently, but in that case, I answered this way, and I wouldn't answer any other way, no matter what. anyone says on the internet.”

In his message, Begg also acknowledged that the controversy threatened the popularity of his ministry and said that if that was the case, he would much rather “fall on the side of mercy”.

“If I have to go down on the side of one or the other, I will go down on this side. I will go on the side of mercy, with people actually accusing me of mere weakness, rather than come down on the side of condemnation, which closes any doors of opportunity for future engagement with those who know exactly what we believe about the Bible. and about Jesus,” Begg said.