Posted on 06/20/2006 4:14:32 PM PDT by RDTF
Very, very well said.
Can anybody confirm for this Catholic that today's Presbyterian Church has any such values?
Yes, because I love you.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has "studied" the issue for years. The ordination of homosexuals there has reached a fever pitch. Now they are itching for homosexual marriage services and everything else one would expect from such people. Finances and membership are both in the dumper.
When the Episcopal Church ordained Gene Robinson, I was faced with the issue of staying and fighting or leaving.
I chose to leave, even though it was an emotional wrench. I knew additional changes were coming even less acceptable than Robinson's ordination.
I expect those changes within ten years.
When you say "Lutheran", I hope you mean the ELCA. The Lutheran church Missouri Synod is more conservative.
I go to a PCUSA church but only because, contrary to the denomination as a whole, it was accepting of my conservative views. Like any denomination, at individual churches "your mileage may vary". With this sort of thing, though, I don't know how much longer I can keep my family at the church - many I know already have left...
Anyway, one of the leaders of the presbytery (a grouping of churches in an area - for you non-Presbyterians) came to our church to explain the whole issue you have been discussing. He said the media is spinning this as the PCUSA allowing leeway into ordination standards, but that the real story is that individual churches are being encouraged to inspect candidates more closely.
After reading the story after the fact (http://pcusa.org/ga217/newsandphotos/ga06097.htm), I'm not sure he was right.
The one good thing I saw in the article was the following paragraph:
In tandem with the authoritative interpretation — of G-6.0108 of the Book of Order — the Assembly voted to disapprove more than 20 proposals also pending before the Assembly to delete G-6.0106b of the church's Book of Order — which requires of church officers "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" — or an authoritative interpretation dating back to 1978 that undergirds it.
The bottom line is that it doesn't look good, but I don't think it's really as bad as it looks...I hope...
Ping!
This Richter person is rather unclear as to whether it's our 'mentaility' or 'reality' that changes.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)
As a Catholic, I look at news like this, and now more than ever, I say to those whose churches have turned their backs to them....come home. Please come home.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.