The Gospel according to Sir Elton John: Christ Patronised

Despite the advancements in computer technology, newspapers continue to be an important aspect of everyday life. Though the printed newspaper has lost the time advantage, it continues to retain the ability to surprise the reader. Some are even unique in their ability to captivate us with nearly every story that graces their front page; in a nutshell, the front page is expected to have the most important story of the day.

The London Evening Standard and the Metro, regarded as quality news-based titles, fall in the category of what may be regarded in journalism parlance as 'commuter media'. And because both titles are distributed for free, they are highly regarded by advertisers who favour their latent targeting potential - this is the ‘freemium business model’.

When it was launched on the London Underground in March 1999, Metro was the original mobile product and since then, it has become the third largest national daily newspaper in the country, read by over 3.2 million people. In London, the newspaper is the most read national newspaper with about 1.9 million readers (Source: NRS Jan - Dec 2013 London ITV).

Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight 67 years ago, Sir Elton John is an English singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, etc. who has sold more than 300 million records (making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world). He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for 'services to music and charitable services' in 1998, after he had been named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996.

As part of Metro's delivered urbanite audience, I have my daily consumption - such as its Monday, June 30, 2014, edition with a front-page headline as follows: "Elton: Jesus would let gay clergy wed".

This piece attempts to examine extrapolations attributed to Sir Elton John by the newspaper and then proffer Biblical explanations to his assumptions.

That if Jesus Christ was alive today, he would allow same sex priests to marry: Jesus is alive, he is not dead (Luke 24); Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8). If Jesus did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, i.e. Old Testament (Matt 5:17), then he endorsed Lev 18:22-23 as well as Lev 20:13. Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen19)? What does Sodomy mean? According to dictionary reference.com, it is "copulation with a member of the same sex". Seriously, would Jesus promote sodomy, for which his father wiped out a whole city? In John 10:30, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." See also Matt15:19.

That Jesus was a Christian: Only believers in Jesus Christ could be Christians; Jesus was (and still is) the Messiah, the Christ. You are a Christian if you believe in Jesus and obey his commands; Jesus therefore, could not have been a Christian – see Matt 16:13-17

That Jesus was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together: This is true, but Sir John should read Luke 14:26; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:21; John 2: 13-22; John 6. For you to have an idea of what Jesus is about, Mark 3: 20 -21 has this to say: "Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5) is not particularly inviting, e.g., verse 28: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Praise for Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope: Sir John commends Welby and Francis respectively, for their work in trying to 'modernize their churches'. Matt 7:15-23 looks at what it means to enter the kingdom of heaven. Why did Jesus (Matt 15:1-9) quote Isaiah 29:13 (Old Testament) while addressing the Pharisees? If Sir Elton John’s idea of humanism is a softening of the Catholic Church’s stance on some issues, he needs to read Rev 21:8 and 22:18-19

That Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man: In 2010, Sir John told Parade magazine that he believes Jesus was a "compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems." Homophobia is defined by Merriam Webster dictionary as “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals”.

Perhaps, if Sir John had not brought Jesus Christ into the whole picture of homosexuality, I would not be writing this piece. And I have been careful so far not to give a personal opinion, but rather, to use the Bible to address issues raised by Sir John. This is how the same dictionary defines Blasphemy: “something said or done that is disrespectful to God or to something holy.” Is it not an irony that you are free to exercise your freedom of speech to blaspheme, but you are instantly homophobic when you exercise the same right in regards to what the Bible regards as sin? Sir Elton John should read: Mark 3:28-29 – “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” This is scary, because Jesus himself said these words. Verse 30 says, “He said this because they were saying, ‘He has an impure spirit.’

To therefore say Jesus was gay means his spirit is difficult to fathom; the Bible (Old and New Testaments) addresses homosexuality (Gen 19:5; Judges 19:22; Lev 18:21-22; Lev 20:13; Rom 1:26-27; 1Tim 1:8-10).

That gay priests should get married: Sir Elton John enthused that the Church would abolish its priests' vow of celibacy, which he called an "old and stupid" tradition. 1Tim 3: 1- 12 and Titus 1: 6-9, are clear about qualifications for Overseers, Elders, Bishops and Deacons, e.g., “…faithful to his wife… the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable…” Once again Sir Elton John calls God’s word ‘old and stupid’! When some Pharisees tested Jesus on divorce, why did he quote Gen 2:24? In Mark 10: 6-8, Jesus says, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.” This clearly shows that Jesus could not have advocated same sex relationships.

“One in 50 priests is a pervert, says Pope” – Metro Monday, July 14, 2014: Could this be a deliberate twist of fate? The same Pope Francis that Sir Elton John showered accolades on just a couple of weeks ago admitted in this week’s first Metro publication that the Catholic Church is riddled with thousands of paedophile priests - a trend, which Francis called “a leprosy in our house.” The publication goes further to state that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby - another individual openly praised by Elton John for his modernization of the Church of England – admitted more child abuses were likely to emerge from his denomination. According to Metro, data shows that one in 50 of the Catholic Church’s over 400,000 priests were paedophiles.

Conclusively, the two sampled Metro front-page headlines in this blog only amount to an affront to Christianity. In journalism fairness means there are usually two sides to most issues, and that those differing viewpoints should be given roughly equal space in any news story. How do true Christians hope to witness about Jesus to a London Metro audience of almost 2 million, who are daily bombarded by either direct negative reports about Christianity or sarcastic front-page headlines about Jesus Christ?

To deliver audiences to advertisers, must profit making become more important than journalistic quality? Should journalists become caught between balancing the use of space for advertising income and serious journalism? Metro's trivialization of news stories about Christianity simply shows that it is bereft of investigative journalism. In order to sell news, Metro opts for second hand stories and biased packaged news from spokespersons incompetent to speak about its prominent headlines.

May it be known unto Metro that there is a London remnant that will never worship the beast or its image and will refuse to receive its mark on their foreheads or their hands (Rev 20:4). May it be known also to Sir Elton John that it is meaningless if we gain the whole world and forfeit our souls (Mark 8:36-37; 1Tim 6:6-7; Eccl 5:15).

Originally published elsewhere in 2014.