The Letter of Jude: a warning for followers of Jared Cramer and similar teachers
A must-read letter for all those who believe in God
If you are not Christian, or do not believe in God, much of this article does not apply to you. If, however, you are a Christian and believe the teachings of the Bible, this article will likely be of interest to you, especially to those of you who attend churches that place a high value on affirmation in the name of love.
The next to the last book of the New Testament, just before Revelation, is a short letter from Jude. It can be read rather quickly, and is extremely relevant today. In my opinion, the Letter of Jude could have been written about Jared Cramer, the Priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, as well as about some other local area pastors.
FUMC Holland
Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, while calling himself a servant of Jesus Christ and not identifying himself as his brother, warns of false teachers, who “pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Let's get the definition of licentiousness out of the way.
Licentiousness: lacking moral, especially sexual restraint (American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition), or “lacking legal or moral restraints, especially disregarding sexual restraints”.
Taking a look at the Reverend Jared Cramer’s blog, multiple articles make reference to LGBTQ activities which Reverend Cramer outright defends, celebrates, and advocates indulging in. In fact, he was a driving force behind organizing the Grand Haven “Pride Fest,” and he boasts of his church hosting the Lakeshore Gender, Sexuality, and Allies (GSA) youth group.
Why would a man of God support a group whose primary interest is in pleasures of the flesh? In Jude’s words, “immoral, unnatural lust”? It is a pattern in which Cramer and similar-minded friends routinely pervert the word of God into a defense of activities that are warned against in Jude.
Jude continues, “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones,” (Jude 1:7-8).
In Cramer’s November 2022 blog post, titled “Not all boys are boys; not all girls are girls”, he defends the idea that there are multiple genders, using typical tropes such as “.02 or as many as 1.7 percent of births” are intersex, which is no more conclusive than claiming that humans are not two-legged mammals because a tiny fraction of a percent may be born with only one leg.
He continues in the referenced article to completely manipulate and pervert God’s word, writing, “Because I believe our God delights in diversity. After all, God created animals that can change their gender identity (particularly common among fish). Some birds can have the biological characteristics of both genders. People want to force God’s creation into a box, insisting that everything should live how God made them - and I agree. After all, fish should swim and birds should fly, right? But our God is a God who created some fish to break the norm and fly into the air and some birds to dive into the water and swim.”
Let’s address each of these points thinking a little deeper than the flowery, simplistic statements provided.
“God delights in diversity.” Diversity is being held up as the gold (or God) standard. As a third of a “Holy Trinity”, so to speak. The other two of the trinity being of course, Equity and Inclusion. “Agnus DEI” strikes again.
“After all, God created animals that can change their gender identity (emphasis added).” Here we see the conflating of gender and sex, by the very same person that will claim they are two different and separate entities. Animals do not change their gender identity. Some, such as the Asian sheepshead, can change their sex from male to female, or female to male. Yet to hear gender ideologists tell it, sex and gender are different. By wording it as he did, Cramer is attempting to justify transgenderism as some sort of natural phenomenon, when nothing about the transition that transgender human beings go through is natural.
“Some birds can have the biological characteristics of both genders.” Yes, let’s get to the biology. Biologically, XY chromosomes equal a male, XX chromosomes equal a female. Regardless of what surgical and medical intervention is attempted, this biological fact will not change.
“People want to force God’s creation into a box, insisting that everything should live how God made them - and I agree.” Focusing on the bold text, how can Cramer support transgenderism without believing God made some people so incorrectly that it takes radical surgery to change perfectly functioning body parts (that God designed)? If Cramer believes that everyone should live how God made them, how can he support prescribing invasive medication that alters chemical makeup, stops natural progression of development, and even completely terminates a person’s ability to procreate (how God designed it)? It seems Cramer’s claim of “how God made them” conflicts with his beliefs on gender ideology.
“After all, fish should swim and birds should fly, right? But our God is a God who created some fish to break the norm and fly into the air and some birds to dive into the water and swim.” He’s correct, God created some fish and birds that break the norm. He also created some feminine men and masculine women. They break the norm in their gender roles while still fulfilling God’s purpose for them. Again, Cramer confuses God’s creation with science experiments and humanity’s tendency to follow earthly desires and pursuits rather than God’s will. Jude 1:12 compares those who have gone astray to “waterless clouds, carried along by the winds,” of the times. It did not take any intervention by humans for some fish to fly and for some birds to dive into the water and swim. That came naturally, from God. Nothing about transgenderism comes naturally, but through human intervention with medication and surgery.
Jared Cramer gets one thing right: members of the LGBTQ community deserve love and respect. Where he goes off the path is that he chooses to conflate that love and respect with affirmation. It is not loving to tell an alcoholic that his alcoholism is a noble. It is not loving to tell the adulterer that his adultery is acceptable. You can certainly love the alcoholic and the adulterer while despising the alcoholism and adultery, while simultaneously warning them of the dangers of those activities. In fact, it is more loving, if you believe in God, if you are a Christian, if you follow the word of the Bible, to want to see more people turn towards the word of God and away from earthly pleasures of the flesh and away from licentious practices that are explicitly warned about in the Bible.
Jude continues in 1:17-19, “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” Cramer and similar-minded clergy are following their own worldly, ungodly passions, scoffing at the teachings of the Bible, perverting it to fit their narratives and desires. Seeking worldly adulation and praise at the expense of their faith.
It is not my opinion on homosexuality, LGBTQ, or gender ideology that matters. For believers, it is the Word of God and salvation is at stake. Jared Cramer affirms and celebrates what Jude calls out as a perversion into licentiousness. Jude warns God’s followers of people exactly like Jared Cramer; people who infiltrate the church and influence the believers in the ways that are opposed to God’s will.
At the beginning of the article, I pointed out that Jude identified himself as a servant of Jesus Christ, rather than as his half-brother. His humility is in stark contrast to Cramer’s who flatters people, rather than leading them away from sin, by celebrating lifestyles that the Bible calls out as ungodly, and has exceeding pride in his “accomplishments.” Jude wrote, “These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.” Jude warned against false teachers who were leading believers astray. Some 2000 years later, his words speak as loudly as ever. If you are a Christian, and believe the teachings of the Bible, do not let the warnings of the book of Jude go unheeded.