Writing yesterday in the Christian Post, Rev. Mark Creech delved into the debate within the United Methodist Church over homosexuality by blasting LGBT-affirming reconciling congregations as a traitorous “fifth column” within the denomination.

Creech, who leads North Carolina’s American Family Association affiliate, the Christian Action League, said that such churches are participating in “the onslaughts of the Evil One” and “spiritual whoredom,” and urged anti-LGBT congregations to “to cordon off and separate from that ‘fifth column.’”

In 1939, near the end of the Spanish Civil War, outside the city of Madrid, the rebel General Mola was about to launch his attack. When asked which of his four columns of troops would first enter the city, Mola’s reply became legendary. He responded, “The fifth.” The General was referring to a band of rebel sympathizers behind Loyalist lines inside the city, a group that was already helping him. His coining of the term “fifth column” has been used for decades as a description of a traitor, someone who aids and assists the enemy from within.

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Romans chapter one indicates that societal support for homosexuality is consequential of a culture’s idolatry. I suggest the affirmation of the gay lifestyle by religious bodies is evident of their own spiritual whoredom.

I commend Methodists who see the need to separate from those in their own ranks who do not hold fast to sound doctrine. The apostle John admonished, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 10-11).

Some will probably deem these words to be too harsh and without Christian compassion. Others will say I have no right to judge who is or isn’t a Christian. I neither speak devoid of a broken heart, nor do I claim to know another man’s heart before the Lord. But I do know that apostasy is a matter of spiritual life or death for the church and the credibility of its witness. I do know God allows it to sort out true believers from unbelievers. And, I do know its occurrence can also work for good in awakening believers to a new energy and a greater commitment to the things of God.

Nevertheless, if the city of God set high on a hill is to withstand the onslaughts of the Evil One to destroy it and its power to change the world, something has to be done to cordon off and separate from that “fifth column.”