Posted on 02/28/2011 9:26:48 AM PST by ironwill
COLORADO SPRINGS - The security guard who saved lives by shooting a gunman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs has apparently been asked to leave.
In December 2007, Jeanne Assam - working as a volunteer security guard - shot Matthew Murray after he killed two people outside the church. He killed two others the night before at a training center for Christian missionaries in Arvada.
Assam was honored for her quick action. Murray likely would’ve killed more people at the church if she had not shot him repeatedly then pinned him down.
Assam says last year when she told church leaders she is gay, she was asked to leave the church.
New Life pastor Brady Boyd told the Colorado Springs Gazette the report is untrue. "We would never tell someone to leave because of their sexual orientation," Boyd says. "Jeanne will always be a hero at New Life."
Assam gave a speech on Saturday, February 19 at the Pride Center’s annual masquerade ball, a fundraiser for the gay community in Colorado Springs.
The Gazette reports she spoke of the pressures society places on gay people.
New Life Church was in the national spotlight in 2006 when Pastor Ted Haggard left after admitting he had had a relationship with a male escort in Denver.
But Christ himself said that he didn't come to abolish the law and that not one jot or tittle would be changed until all is fulfilled. Galatians is talking about relying on works of the flesh (including the law) for salvation. It is not, IMO, teaching that the law is bad for you and has been abolished.
The fact that keeping the law is not a condition of your salvation doesn't mean that keeping the law and tithing isn't a good thing to do. After all, sin is simply 'missing the mark' and there are sins of commission and sins of omission.
Do you think that, at the judgment, God will tell those who tithed, "Well, that was nice but since it wasn't a NT requirement it doesn't count."? Since you spend a large part of your life earning a living, when you tithe you are giving part of your life to God.
"However, I can't think of a single Christian sin that isn't enumerated in the NT."
It does seem that you are looking for a new set of laws to keep in the NT. Perhaps Galatians does apply here, albeit in an unintended way.
That's your bias talking.
Remember first off, that this is a woman who quite literally put her life on the line for New Life Church. Theirs is not a "normal" relationship to begin with.
And she went to the church leaders with her problem -- she told them about it -- and as a result of that meeting something happened that caused her to leave.
That's not the usual context for "unrepentant militancy."
Rather, it suggests that she was very upset by New Life's response to what she told them; and as upset people often do, she ran over to the other side; and thus she went to the "Pride Center" to tell the story of "how she was wronged." It doesn't make her actions right -- but it's a more plausible explanation than yours.
And yet Paul circumcised Timothy to spread the gospel. Was Paul 'sinning' when he did that? Does it occur to you that it may have been a sin NOT to circumcise Timothy in that situation?
Likewise, could it not also be a sin NOT to tithe if God calls a believer to do so to spread the gospel?
He who has ears let him hear.
Seems a bit angry. Or stingy.
I do tithe. And more. Not bragging, I give God the glory that I can.
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Yes, poor Godzilla. I'm sure he's learning a lot about Christianity from your posts.
Publicly - Thank you trisham for that. There is a lot of bashing that happens here at times. And being human, I can stumble too.
I could have done better with that. The fact rmains that tithing is part of Christianity. Those tithes support the church you attend (You mean they have electrical bills and such?), support the Pastor (some have full time Pastors), support missionaries, support the church’s elderly, and such.
Those that reject tithing reject what God has asked as well the blessings of helping others within the church and the blessings of helping to spread the Gospel.
Thanks again.
You say she lied in the past, so she must be lying now -- very Christian of you. "New Life" is just a slogan for you, eh?
I shot your argument down
No, actually, you did not -- you didn't even address it except to repeat your previous, and flawed, argument.
and now you are smearing me as a sin sniffer.
Hm. I'm suggesting that you're awfully quick to cast stones. No possibility in your mind that she's telling at least part of the truth, or that Pastor Boyd might be obscuring or leaving out some of the truth. I would think that a New Lifer like you, given your church's history, would take just a little more care about how you consider these sorts of situations.
Maybe r9etb, just maybe, you shouldn't be so judgmental...
Or maybe, fatez, just maybe, I'm trying to persuade you to be a little less judgmental, and maybe to open your eyes a little.
By all accounts Pastor Boyd is an OK guy -- but he's human, and he's not perfect, and he's trying to put the best face he can on a story that's not the best sort of publicity for a church like New Life. And that means, he's capable of bending the truth, just like everybody else.
There's a hole in Boyd's story -- can you spot it?
Thank you for your explanation.
Right you can sin your ass off.. You are free to do whatever you want.. except for the repercussions..
Sounds like we are singing the same song here. My response was a ‘tongue in cheek’ to your post.
I discern nothing righteous in a report from a GLBT Masquerade Ball press presentation, which accuses a reported church.
I’m not defending either, but the openly homosexual promoting group is unrighteous.
Oh great mind reader how do you know what I give. Could be 10%, could be more. But I know my salvation is based upon Christ, not my checkbook, nor my devotion to Him. Do you tithe in every detail as the law requires - then good - so did the pharasees.
No. It doesn't. Tithing was JUDAIC law. We live under grace. The Temple veil was torn. Do you still observe sacrificing animals? Dietary laws? There are no Levites in Christianity. You are following a formula and not the Word.
You may proceed Godzilla.
You are reaching. She claimed to be a new Christian when she shot the killer. Then last year she tells them that she has decided to embrace her homosexuality. She cannot do that and be born again. Look at post 77. I doubt VERY much that she was asked to leave. She was probably told that she cannot be a practicing homosexual and claim to be a Christian.
Another person that doesn’t believe in giving God His due by supporting the church that Jesus died for.
But in another article, where she said she felt "unwelcomed", she had to admit that they never said she was unwelcome. And if they never actually SAID she was unwelcome, they obviously didn't tell her to leave.
So at best, she felt like she was being pushed out. But feeling unwelcome, or feeling like you are being asked to leave, is not the same as being asked to leave.
I won't say she was lying, because the words "asked to leave" are not in quotes, so it could be the reporter is giving more information than she did.
On the other hand, maybe she DID use those words, and the reporter simply was too lazy to get the exact wording.
If a person is trying to fund-raise with a gay rights group, and is dissing her former church in the process, and she and the pastor are arguing over who is telling the truth, I feel pretty confident that the pastor is telling the truth.
Her agenda is evil, and we know that evil people will lie for their purposes.
We’re not obligated to tithe, but we are expected to contribute and support the Church as we are able. I don’t know about other Christians.
The original report apparently came from Barry Noreen, an advocacy columnist from the local rag, the Gazette. As I noted above, one cannot rule out that he has spun the story a particular way. Aside from the “asked to leave” part, nobody seems to be disputing the other details of Assam’s story.
Her agenda is evil, and we know that evil people will lie for their purposes.
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Agreed. We also know that she has lied in the past.
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