Posted on 04/28/2011 5:55:29 AM PDT by ZGuy
Being gay is a gift from God, asserts one church in Ohio.
That’s the message that Central United Methodist Church is spreading throughout their community via a digital billboard, launched on Monday.
This “simple statement,” the church announced, is “intended to be a gift to those who have experienced hurt and discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.”
“The Church seeks nothing less than the healing of the world, and Central UMC wants to offer words and acts of healing to those hurt and marginalized,” the website states.
Jeff Buchanan, the director of Exodus Church Equipping & Student Ministries, agrees that the Church must display love and compassion for those in the LGBT community. But he opposes the message that CUMC is sending through their “Being Gay is a Gift from God” campaign.
“Why would God bestow this ‘gift’ only to condemn it throughout the Bible? This would seemingly contradict His character as a God who is loving and just.”
The Toledo church’s controversial billboard ad is directly connected to a long month-long sermon series by its new pastor, Bill Barnard. The church is hoping that the ad will move the public towards tolerance, reported ABC 13, and not perpetuate anti-gay attitudes and behaviors, which were harming the LGBT community.
The purposes of their recently launched campaign are threefold: to offer welcome to all persons who are gay; to challenge the larger Church to fully accept persons who are gay into the life of the Church; and to call on all people to bring all the gifts of who they are to God.
“By welcoming and living in community with faithful Christians who happen to be gay, we have come to understand that being gay is part of who God made them to be,” CUMC proclaims on their site. “And by gay Christians bringing all that they are to God, the body of Christ has been strengthened.”
“In fact, we would experience the body of Christ as incomplete without LGBT persons.”
Barnard told ABC, “We really believe that being gay is a gift from God, and it’s not anything that anyone has to apologize for or be ashamed about. So that’s how [the campaign] came to be.”
Believing sexuality to be a “good gift from God” – or as they declared yet another way in God’s infinite diversity – CUMC defines sin as denying who God created them to be.
“The overwhelming scientific evidence is that people are born with their sexual orientation, that it is not a choice,” the church contends. “Fully accepting one’s sexual orientation and identity is key to leading a normal and healthy life.
“Forcing people to act against their God-given sexual orientation will lead to disordered lives. Allowing people to act in accordance with their God-given sexual orientation leads to reconciliation.”
While deeming the marginalization of LGBT persons as “unjustified” – mentioning that Jesus did not speak directly regarding homosexuality – the Toledo church recognizes that the Church today continues to be divided over interpretation of Scripture related to homosexuality.
Just two months ago, 33 retired United Methodist bishops urged the denomination to remove its ban on homosexual clergy, prolonging the undying debate within the church body.
CUMC hopes to unify believers by focusing more on “things that [they] agree on, such as kindness, justice, and humility,” instead of contributing to hate and discrimination, which they believe leads not to reconciliation, but to self-destructive practices within the LGBT community.
“Holding people responsible for matters in which they have no control is irrational and immoral,” the church declares. “We believe that both those within and without the Church are hungry for dialogue about homosexuality that reflects compassion and humility rather than intolerance and strife.”
Buchanan contends that CUMC’s message “tells people that the only option they have is a gay identity.”
But “people need to understand that thousands of men and women have found there is another way and have found freedom from homosexuality through the power of Christ,” he says.
Even if there was conclusive evidence supporting the theory that people were “born this way,” Buchanan stresses that Christians were called to be “born again.”
“While we may not choose our desires, we do have the ability and responsibility to choose whether or not we act on those desires. Our goal should be living a life that is congruent with Scripture,” he says.
“Genesis describes the fall of man and the permanent effects that sin has on us spiritually, mentally, and physically. Just because something may be inherent does not mean it was intended.”
Despite the outcry of many from the Christian community against CUMC’s campaign, Barnard continues to proclaim that homosexuality is a “gift” and has people come and remain just “as they are.”
Working to accept persons who are gay into the full life of the Church, CUMC is a founding member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which is the United Methodist movement for gay equality in the denomination.
Two of the volunteer staff members at their church, including the music director and lead team chair, live with their partners and have served the church for over seven years.
Grieved over the misinterpretation of Scripture and false teaching that is being promoted by CUMC and many other churches like them, Buchanan encourages churches to deliver the message of Christ with love and grace, but also with accuracy and uncompromised truth.
“We must always remember that authentic love is built upon a foundation of grace and truth.”
“Can it be lust in say 5 seconds?”
In about that much time, it is still temptation. I would say feeding lust would be more of I try rethinking or fantasizing about her that evening, or the next day that it should be considered a problem.
Oooohhhhh... that left a mark.
Well spoken and true.
Hoss
Calvin was an active homosexual.
That’s why he was excommunicated.
That’s why he made up his bull5h;+ religion (a religion named after a man, how hilarious).
Calvin was queer.
Got caught.
Ran away to swishy Switzerland and became queen bee.
Hope you never practiced any type of birth control - Calvin actually held the same view as Catholics have alway held.
... The Biblical view is that repentance is a fruit of Salvation but there is no quid pro quo. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and make a liar out of God”.
You seem to be a Calvinist. Whereas I believe in free will. So we will end up discussing this and making no progress whatsoever while dragging this thread off topic.
So rather than go that route, can we agree that someone who identifies themselves as being proud of their sin (That is they call evil good) cannot possibly be a follower of Christ. A follower of Christ (a Christian) would be turning away from their sin and turning towards Christ.
Calvin was queer. Got caught. Ran away to swishy Switzerland and became queen bee.
You must really be in need of your binky. Or a warm bottle.
Nighty, night!
Hoss
Oh? What changed then? Active homosexual priests are no longer ex-communicated. Nor are they defrocked, once a priest, always a priest. In addition, they are now transferred around and protected from the consequences of their homosexual behavior in ruining young boy's lives.
Calvin was queer. Got caught. Ran away to swishy Switzerland and became queen bee.
Can you say.... Pope Stephen VI, Pope Benedict IX, Pope Sergius III, Pope John XII, Pope Leo X, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Innocent IV, Pope Urban VI, Pope John XV, and Pope Clement VII?
Of course, the list of the top ten worst popes varies by the website visited. It appears that there's too many to choose from to make the list based on a consensus.
IIRC, Calvin never started a religion. That was not his intent and the name of the doctrinal position he held was credited to him after he died.
Plus, Calvinism is not a religion, nor a denomination.
Some people will stop at nothing to misrepresent history in their hate.
I guess they must think the same way about pedophiles, too, right? Fair is fair. Kleptomaniacs are welcome (just don't ask them to pass the offering plate). Oh, and, serial killers should be welcomed as well - God made them that way, after all...
The gift that just keeps giving......
AIDS!
They do not rewrite Genesis, but resort to interpreting the Bible anyway necessary to escape the obvious.
An extensive examination and refutation of such attempts can be seen here: http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Homosex_versus_the_Bible.html
Despite all their attempts to render the Bible as having no coherent sexual ethic, or as not condemning homosexual relations, and even sanctioning them the issue is really quite clear. As i tell them, from beginning to end marriage is sanctioned, and fornication is condemned. God is shown creating man and women uniquely compatible and complimentary, after having illustrated that nothing else would do for a help mate, and only joined them in marriage, opposite genders being specified by both Genesis and by Jesus Christ. (Gn. 2:18-24; Mt. 19:4)
In no place does the Bible sanction marriage between same genders, despite attempts to extrapolate it, and it only condemns homosexual relations - by design and decree, in principle and by precept - and the injunctions against them are part of the transcendent moral laws. (Lv. 18:22; Rm. 1:26,27) All homosexual relations are rendered fornication, and that of a most perverse kind.
The idea that either Moses or Paul were only condemning certain forms of homosexual activity based own motive or association with idolatry, while sanctioning “loving caring” homosexual relations is as untenable as supposing that bestiality or adultery was only forbidden within a certain context. Motive is never the determinative factor in laws against illicit sexual relations, while idolatry is the mother of all sins, more than just homosexual relations. (Rm. 1:28-32)
However, we (I) have all sinned, even sometimes trying to justify it by the Bible, sometimes even as Christians, and thus there is yet room at the cross for all who will turn to Christ, wanting Him over sin, and believe in Him with all their heart. (1Cor. 6:9-11)
However, not even the Catholic church takes his slander seriously. It was more a case of hurt feelings over the fact that Calvin tried to have Bolsec banished when the two disagreed over doctrine.
Really, though, why should they hold others to a higher standard of behavior than its own priests?
After all, that wouldn't be faaaiiiirrr.
Interesting.
However, as we've seen, the official church position on anything isn't enough to keep some Catholics from believing what they want and spreading lies about it.
1. The man is free to go - we never hear anything about him.
2. Jesus wrote something on the ground that made all the self-righteous "religious" people slither away - probably all the names of those present who had been with that very same woman before.
3. He says to her, "Neither do I condemn you.", and people usually leave it there. But...
4. He says, "Go and sin no more." - something most people forget. He called sin, sin and he wanted the woman to not do it anymore. I highly doubt she went away from that experience as an unbeliever in Christ. Her life from that day forward WAS changed.
Those who want to continue in sin unaffected by any condemnation usually have to redefine Scriptural terms. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has a long history of both clergy and lay members living completely apart from the clear teaching of Scripture concerning sexual relations. It is not a new phenomenon but goes back at least a thousand years or more. You have to ask yourself if the church that claims it alone is the one, true, infallible "thing" created by Jesus Christ from the beginning, then how is it that even they are no different in practice from any other religious institution? Sure, it's fine and good to preach something, but when even those "in charge" are found guilty of the grossest evil - such as sexual abuse of children and the covering it up of their superiors - anyone daring to expose the wrong is persecuted rather than the ones that are guilty of the sin.
It is no wonder that the "world" mocks Christianity as filled with nothing but hypocrites. That's what we are showing them, so why shouldn't they? Somehow the, "We are all sinners...blah, blah, blah.", doesn't ring true anymore but it blares of a religion without any truth behind it. True faith CHANGES people - from the inside. When even the leaders show no difference from the world, it's understandable people see it that way. Jesus said we were to come out from the world, to be in it but not OF it. True holiness comes from an inward miraculous change and faking it will not ever work - at least not for long.
Well said. Thank you. I guess what this church may be attempting to say is, in essence, God doesn't make mistakes. We all have our "burdens in life" to bear and all people are welcome to come to the place of healing and hope. I personally think they are doing a poor job of advertising that point, but perhaps this is a campaign to at least get them in the door so that they will be introduced to the only way to heaven - faith in Jesus Christ. I believe that once a person honestly commits their life to the Lord they will only then find the power to overcome temptations of the flesh - of any kind.
Hopefully, this church is trying to reach those who feel rejected by God and they need to know that they are welcome by people of God. NOT to be encouraged in their sin, but to start down the path of holiness we ALL must walk. No sin is any worse that another in God's sight and we all stand guilty before a just and holy God. Without his mercy and grace NONE of us would ever join him in eternity.
Well said....
The charge of homosexuality against Calvin is just more of the old “you’re no better” and “everybody is doing this” argument.
Just look who the charge is coming from!
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