Thanks to the outstanding investigative work of Mia Cathell at Townhall, the public got a glimpse into the heinous crimes committed by a radical LGBTQ+ activist couple against their two adopted children (9 and 11 years old now). A grand jury indicted William Dale Zulock, Jr. and Zachary Jacoby Zulock on charges including “incest, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, felony sexual exploitation of children, and felony prostitution of a minor.”
The two, explains Cathell, were “darlings of the LGBTQ media” who were “part of an anti-gay hate campaign promoting ‘# NOH8′” and whose pictures were featured several times on the largest LGBTQ+ monthly publication in the nation, Out magazine.
The alleged charges must suffice for our purposes; the investigation details are too upsetting (see Cathell’s entire series, being mindful of their content warning—it is hard to get through). We can simply say this is the worst type of abuse against children. These poor children were in third and fourth grades. Some abuse was allegedly filmed to satisfy the perverted desires of the men. And they even allegedly offered their children up to other men. All the while threatening them, saying things like, “Our business is our business. What happens in our home, stays in our home.”
To think of what these children have gone through is genuinely heartbreaking. So, you can imagine how my heart sank to discover that the adoption of these children, which opened the door to this unimaginable abuse, was facilitated by a “Christian special-needs adoption agency.” I’m sorry, what? Yes, Cathell didn’t specify at first but later revealed it was an agency called “All God’s Children, Inc.”
So, here is where I’d like to focus your attention as Christians for a moment and appeal to your sense of righteousness and zeal for the Name of our Lord. We simply cannot stand silent while so many Christians today celebrate and support sin in the name of Christ. It is heresy. Those who choose to identify themselves as Christians bear the name of Christ. They cannot condone and celebrate sin in any of its forms. Not within and not without.
As Christians, we are tacitly complicit in the worst types of abuses when we remain silent to the trampling of God’s loving standards for us in the name of tolerance or anything else. Put another way, we cannot violate the first commandment of Christ (to love God above all, with all our hearts, soul, and mind) to promote the world’s distortion of our Lord’s second command (to love our neighbors as ourselves). See Matthew 22:37-40.
When we manipulate God’s Word, we weaken the only good and perfect standard for any sort of sustainable moral order. If Christians agree with the world that there is no objective standard, that God’s law is relative to our personal preferences, then it is impossible to establish some arbitrary human-created line of morality further along because we believe, oh now, “that” is too far. Says who? That might be too far for you, but I have my own truth. Isn’t that what we say? Isn’t that what millions of Christians go along with every day here in America?
To be clear. The connection I want us to draw is not between sexual orientation and child abuse and pedophilia (see this recent encounter for other examples of this depravity). Instead, the connection is between moral apathy and moral corruption.
As Cathell investigated the now conveniently defunct agency, she found a post of “All God’s Children, Inc. at the First Presbyterian Church of Athens, GA.” The report does not go into more detail about the church, but I got curious.
Not surprisingly, a quick search of First Presbyterian Church of Athens, GA, reveals that it is hosting (just as I write this on January 26, 2023) an event alongside PFLAG, “the nation’s largest family and ally organization for LGBTQIA+ people.” Here is the description of the event:
In partnership with Athens Pride Queer Collective, Pflag Athens Area will host a discussion circle during the LGBTQ+ youth group meeting time. We will meet separately from the youth group to have a free and open conversation between family members, parents, and LGBTQ+ allies. Mask wearing at your discretion.
Now you can see how a “Christian” adoption agency, like All God’s Children, Inc., would be eager to place children in a pro-LGBTQ+ home when it is born out of their theology. To affirm LGBTQ+ relationships is to do the work of their god. It is a work of the heart. Forget the Word of God. This is love to them.
The many red flags in these prospective parents (including accusations of “alleged pedophilic behavior”) were really part of the stigma attached to them by a cruel society. It is something they needed to break through, not explore further, to be extra diligent in order to protect these children. We wouldn’t want to upset the prospective couple. Everyone was surprised at how fast they moved through the adoption process (#diversity!).
Liberal Christians are not like those other Christians. One of the perpetrators in this case was very public in his criticism of Rev. Billy Graham’s daughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, because she spoke in favor of protecting the religious freedom of Christian organizations that are constantly harassed by government to abandon their faith if they want to do charity work. Cathell quotes Zachary as saying in a Facebook post, “What about all the LGBTQ couples out there that have been stopped from adopting?! What about their rights?”
The church that helped them adopt would agree. So would many other Christians today— even famous pastors. Your local pastor may use some of the teaching materials from these churches.
Andy Stanley, who has been on the pro-LGBTQ+ line for many years and whose materials are used all over this country, was recently featured praising the faith of his LGBTQ+ friends over any of his other congregants. The church needs to learn from them. “I know the verses; I know the clobber passages,” he said.
But again, the authority of Christ is the issue. Belief in God’s Word (His standards) is the issue. Stanley actively advocates diminishing God’s Word, especially the Old Testament, to be more appealing to the world. Moral apathy will give you a better hearing.
But this new form of liberal Christianity is the theological force behind the moral corruption we are all witnessing. And we must ask whether we are part of the problem. Am I showing signs of moral apathy in my own life?
David describes the workers of iniquity as those “Who speak peace to their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts” (Psalm 28:3). He prays to God against their efforts because “they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands” (Psalm 28:5).
Are we doing the same? Are we showing so little regard for the Word of God that we are really promoting a false sense of peace? Again, we must ask, has my moral indifference given space to the moral corruption I see all around me?
If the answer is “yes,” we must repent. We must turn back to the God of Scripture – the whole of Scripture. We must proclaim His standards are best. Indeed, we must attest there is no other foundation for liberty and freedom known to man. True love protects.
There is only one way – the Jesus way.
