Open doors await them (Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day)

Houston Chronicle ^ | 2.18.11 | JEANNIE KEVER

[trumandogz]

Ebie Hussey's first reaction when her son announced that he is gay was to offer unconditional love. Finding a new church was a close second. "His first question was, 'Am I going to hell?' " Hussey said of that conversation with her son, Jaxn. "Mainstream Christianity and fundamental Christianity really pushes that homosexuality is a sin, and he had caught on to that." Jaxn, now 15, knew his parents didn't think that. "But I had always heard people saying that kind of thing," he said. In an effort to counter the message, almost two dozen Houston-area churches have designated Sunday as Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day.

[aSeattleConservative]

Thanks for the reply. What are your thoughts on the 4 other “Wraths” mentioned in my link, especially the one about Natural Wrath?

So I take it you agree with the Wrath of Abandonment (of a nation) as well?

[hecticskeptic]

I saw your post earlier and wondered about the various means that ‘wrath’ were classified there but never got back to it. Whenever a particular word is considered for how it is used, it seems reasonable to do a word search so that they can all be grouped together. Hence I did a search for the word ‘wrath’ in the KJV version, and took a brief look through the references that came up. I didn’t study these in detail but some interesting things became apparent.... - Unless I have misinterpreted the meaning, it seems that virtually all the early references in scripture have to do with the ‘wrath of God as it pertains to nations (usually Israel) forsaking God and worshipping idols’ . - Then there would appear to be a number of references to the ‘wrath of God against those who are enemies of God’s people’. - There are a number of references to ‘eternal wrath’ which is otherwise known as Hell’. - There is one reference (Job 20:23) which perhaps could be characterized as the ‘wrath upon the representative wicked man’....and it appears to be a wrath visited upon the unrepentant and depraved individual while alive on earth as opposed to after death. - The word ‘wrath’ of course comes up in the Book of Revelations which has to do with God’s wrath as it pertains to the big picture rebellious nature of his creation... surprisingly, the word wrath does not show up with reference to the Flood of Noah or with any of the ‘more localized’ destructions such as Sodom and Gomorrah etc.

I’ve take the word ‘wrath’ to mean something quite different than say the word ‘anger’. Wrath has a judicial quality about it.... God’s wrath is calm and consequential and with outcomes that strictly have to do with separating right and wrong. The ‘wrath classifications’ you outline seem to fit in with what I’ve outlined above fairly well. With regards to the 5th one, I don’t disagree with the concept of ‘wrath of abandonment’ as it to falls under this concept of ‘judicial outcomes’....I just didn’t see a Bible verse that associates the word ‘wrath’ with it.

[aSeattleConservative]

Thanks once again for your reply.

[proudofthesouth]

They sound like my heterosexual son who refuses to submit to God’s will but who insists that he and God have an “understanding”.

[fwdude]

Few religious groups even make a serious attempt anymore to denounce divorce and fornication as serious sins.

In fact, virtually any pastor will marry a couple when one or both of them is divorced, and not divorced for any exigent, biblical reason. Even in denominations which say they won't do this, the RC Church finds a way through "annulment," merely divorce by another name.

You are correct, Sherman. We, as Christians corporately, have neglected biblical teaching as supreme for so long, that we are culpable for much of what we are seeing now. If the divorce rate in this country was virtually nil, as it was several generations ago, the sodomites would not have at least this foothold to advance their agenda.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks for the kind words.

It’s ever so much more fun to denounce those who participate in activities you find disgusting than to denounce those activities you find attractive, or quite often participate in personally.

A classic example is the change in the definition of the word “dating.” Decades ago it referred to a courtship process, with sexual activity, at least in the early stages, assumed to be minimal. Today it means sleeping around, as in the common question to a divorced person, “Have you started dating yet?”

[aSeattleConservative]

In fact, virtually any pastor will marry a couple when one or both of them is divorced, and not divorced for any exigent, biblical reason. Even in denominations which say they won't do this, the RC Church finds a way through "annulment," merely divorce by another name.

You are correct, Sherman. We, as Christians corporately, have neglected biblical teaching as supreme for so long, that we are culpable for much of what we are seeing now. If the divorce rate in this country was virtually nil, as it was several generations ago, the sodomites would not have at least this foothold to advance their agenda.

Sherman isn't correct about anything. He's attempts to deflect the war against the homosexual agenda by pointing out other "flaws" in our culture, instead of putting forth every effort to defeat the homosexual agenda, and THEN concentrate on returning to the things that made our country great. When told to fight those battles (being that he's not the least bit interested in fighting the battle against sodomite deviancy), he says that those battles are lost.

Sherman, you're a disgrace to our country and those of us that follow God's Word.

[Sherman Logan]

Well, I’ll just have to bear up under your disapproval. It will be difficult, but I think I will pull through.

[Future Snake Eater]

Unbelievable. Maybe this is the “harlot” that Revelation speaks of.

[aSeattleConservative]

Well, I’ll just have to bear up under your disapproval. It will be difficult, but I think I will pull through.

Your words speak for themselves, I'm just making those whose vision isn't as good as mine aware of the enenmy.

I'll be looking forward to reading future comments of yours Sherman and seeing if you're really contributing to this fight between good and evil, lightness and dark, decency and moral depravity.

[aSeattleConservative]

Well, I’ll just have to bear up under your disapproval. It will be difficult, but I think I will pull through.

Your words speak for themselves, I'm just making those whose vision isn't as good as mine aware of the enemy.

I'll be looking forward to reading future comments of yours Sherman and seeing if you're really contributing to this fight between good and evil, lightness and dark, decency and moral depravity.

[fwdude]

Yes, our modern language has accommodated every perverse practice under the guise of a euphemism.

I remember hearing Elizabeth Elliot, wife of the late missionary Jim Elliot, make the startling - to us anyway - statement that a civil, Christian society used to marry without what we would consider "dating" at all. The families would become involved, and in the process, the couple would become acquainted in the family/group setting. The almost-defunct custom of the bride and the groom not seeing each other before the wedding is a vestige of this once universally accepted norm. "Dating," as we've known it for a couple of generations, was virtually unknown.

Our maladies, or our continuance in them, mostly stem from our continued, eager consumption of popular culture, regardless of our words denouncing the values that permeate it. We voraciously consume television, virtually all of which is corrupt to the core - if not the programming, the lascivious commercials. And we are too blind, and much too proud, to admit that we are not immune to these influences.-

[fwdude]

You won't find a fiercer denouncer of homosexuality and its detrimental influence on society than this poster. But whatever else Sherman stands for, he's right that we are weak, pathetic hypocrites if we wallow in our "right" to divorce willy-nilly, for any reason, and espouse premarital sex and cohabitation, and not expect this to strengthen the sodomites' argument, although fatally flawed, for redefining marriage as deviancy. Weakening our own foundation strengthens theirs in effect.

Homosexual activism should be opposed forcefully at every turn, and I do so every chance I get. But a multi-pronged approach would be so much more effective. Strengthen our own marriages and holding our own Christian congregations to a much higher standard, that set by none other than God, would take this accusation out of the perverts' hands and go a long way toward rendering their argument more impotent.

[aSeattleConservative]

You won't find a fiercer denouncer of homosexuality and its detrimental influence on society than this poster.

I've always admired your posts and never questioned your commitment to God and our Christian based republic. However, as Sherman wisely noted, those other battles are lost (I'll add: "for now"). Before we can return to those battles we have to defeat the current one: the homosexual agenda, as if we don't, ALL will be lost.

By all means start holding up fellow Christians and our churches to higher standards, but don't get involved in too many battles, as the entire war will then be lost.

[Yaelle]

Then again, I suppose the reason all sinners seek comfort with their kind is so that we can try to ignore the ways we are offending Him.

Of course. Because everyone sins. Gossipers are akin to murderers in the Bible (Torah), because their damage can be similar, and definitely you find gossipers hanging out together.

G-d hates MY sins and EVERYONE'S sins, not just homosexuality. I think sometimes anti-homosexual FReepers think their sins don't stink.

[Yaelle]

Most dads would rather be told they have terminal cancer than have their son tell them he is gay, particularly if it is your only son. Coming out of the closet is a selfish act. It turns your problem into your family’s problem and forces everyone around you to live a lie. I have seen this destroy families. If you are gay, stay in the closet.

If the above is true, the father does not love his son unconditionally, or possibly even love his son at all. He only would love his son if he were straight. So he will lose his only son, with no real compassion for the son's life or troubles. He wants the son to lie to him, so the son will not seek connection with him at all.

"Son, if you do anything I wouldn't like, be gone with you."

[Yaelle]

A person who is struggling with the conflict doesn't care if the demon they are fighting has a name or not -- but to tell them that the demon doesn't exist leaves them even further from the solid ground they need, and dims the signal from the light that will guide them out of the dark.

Nicely put.

[fwdude]

Before we can return to those battles we have to defeat the current one: the homosexual agenda, as if we don't, ALL will be lost.

I'm in agreement with you. The homosexual deluge on society is the most insidious, destructive spirit attacking humanity today, although most FReepers here would deny it.

But we can walk and chew gum at the same time. To strengthen those other supports for what is good, our own marriages and our own sexual purity, we have to look, ironically, elsewhere - other than to our own marriages and sexual purity. We MUST stop consuming popular culture like water; it is deadly poison and we deceive ourselves if we think we can continue wallowing in it and emerge unscathed. My television has been "unplugged" for over a year, since the digital conversion, and I don't miss it one bit. In the off chance that I do see a t.v. broadcast somewhere, I am horrified by the content and presentation. And to think that most people spend hours of every day in front of this manure pile.

I haven't been to a movie in over a year and know I'm not missing anything. In that time, I've read several very good books that provoke some much-needed thinking - something that t.v. and movies virtually never do.

[fwdude]

I would suggest that wolfman means by "coming out of the closet" refers only to those who not only wholely accept, but celebrate the discovery of being homosexual, bringing along with it the evil militancy that that mindset entails. In such an instant, yes, a father feels that part of him is dying, that he has failed in some duty as a father, and that death would be preferable.

The converse is someone who humbly admits to their sexual weakness to those around them, their family members and friends, and relies on these supports to overcome and repudiate the inner weakness.

Night and day.

[golux]

At least there seems to be some hierarchy to sins.

It’s an awful thing, surely, to covet thy neighbor’s ass...

But how many of us here on this very site are guilty of willfully and joyously violating Commandment ONE?

How open is the First Commandmant to interpretation? How flexible and changeable is the Covenant? What happened at Sinai? How shall we divide the godhead? What does it mean to read that over and over again the Lord defines himself as ONE? With what measure of grace can we bow to the Triune? How many gods shall we worship, we who (of course) alone hold the the keys to the kingdom?

These are questions not worth asking.

The important thing is to let those buggers know they are going to Hell.