Posted on 06/06/2014 8:50:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Southern Baptist church in California has broken with the denomination's stance on homosexuality and has decided to accept the LGBT community without judgment. The church made the change after its lead pastor announced that he no longer holds to the teaching that homosexuality is a sin.
Danny Cortez, who leads New Heart Community Church in La Mirada, explained his journey in a letter to progressive Christian blogger John Shore, founder of Unfundamentalist Christians, last month. At the end of that journey, his son came out to him as gay.
"I recently became gay affirming after a 15-year journey of having multiple people in my congregation come out to me every year," Cortez wrote. After reading many of Shore's writings and hearing testimony from gay friends who felt marginalized, Cortez said his "eyes became open to the injustice that the church has wrought" and in August 2013, he said he "realized I no longer believed in the traditional teachings regarding homosexuality."
Soon after his shift in beliefs, his 15-year-old son, Drew, revealed that he was gay and later came out publicly on YouTube.
Cortez believes that if it wasn't for that 15-year journey and his change in theology, "I may have destroyed my son through reparative therapy."
The California pastor, a graduate of Biola University's Talbot School of Theology, told his congregation in February that he had recently informed the church's elders that he now personally affirmed same-sex relationships.
Cortez explained to his church that his conversations with LGBT members of his congregation over the years had increasingly left him dissatisfied.
"I could feel the dread coming in the person I'm talking to. And I was always wondering why, of all of God's commandments, why is this the one commandment that seemed that it was different that seemed to impart life. And this is the one that created so much self-hatred, this was the sense of people feeling like they were imprisoned. A sentence of life with no chance to love," he said.
The majority of his sermon that day focused on Romans 1, a passage which many Christians interpret as condemning homosexual behavior.
"[Romans 1] wasn't so that we could judge everyone else. Paul, in this magnificent, brilliant, writing style was saying, 'I'm writing all of this, but really I'm getting you to agree with how evil it is and then telling you, guess what? You're just the same way,'" he said. "And therefore, Paul says, 'Don't judge anyone.' And yet we use this Romans 1 as the passage most often to judge all sorts of people."
Cortez also cited Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian, in his sermon. In his letter to Shore, he also acknowledged that Ken Wilson's book, A Letter to My Congregation, had been influential.
Cortez's announcement, which the pastor acknowledged had frustrated church elders by its abruptness, left many in the church displeased and the church decided to vote on whether to terminate the pastor or accept his proposition.
After a period of prayer, study and discernment, which also included hearing from gay and straight teachers on both sides of the homosexuality debate, the church voted in May not to dismiss Cortez and "instead to become a Third Way church," Cortez explained.
According to Cortez, as a "Third Way" church, the Southern Baptist congregation would "accept the LGBT community even though they may be in a relationship. We will choose to remain the body of Christ and not cast judgement (sic). We will work toward graceful dialogue in the midst of theological differences. We see that this is possible in the same way that our church holds different positions on the issue of divorce and remarriage. In this issue we are able to not cast judgement (sic) in our disagreement."
Those who disagree with the church will formally leave it on June 8.
Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, criticized the idea of a church trying to embrace a third way.
"A church will either believe and teach that same-sex behaviors and relationships are sinful, or it will affirm them," Mohler stated Monday, suggesting that Cortez's acknowledgement of church members departing evidenced this. "Eventually, every congregation in America will make a public declaration of its position on this issue. It is just a matter of time (and for most churches, not much time) before every congregation in the nation faces this test."
"Even if it is claimed that some continuing members of the church are in disagreement with the new policy and position, they will be members of a church that operates under that new policy. At the very least, their decision to remain in the congregation is a decision to stay within a church that affirms same-sex behaviors and relationships," he added.
Mohler also pointed to progressive Christian blogger Tony Jones, who disagrees with Mohler's views on homosexuality but has made a similar point to that of his conservative colleague last month.
"I've got a few friends to graciously and tenaciously hang on to the idea that a third way can be found on this issue, a middle ground between affirming gay marriage and condemning it. And I agree with them, to a point. ... Those are practices of a middle ground, but that middle ground is necessarily temporary," wrote Jones on his blog.
Why could this not exist?
According to Jones, there could be no middle ground because the same-sex marriage debate in the church is always determined by practices." He cited as an example the World Vision controversy in March, in which the Christian charity announced that it was changing its employment policy to allow for Christians who are in legal same-sex marriages.
"For three years, the WV board of directors studied and prayed about the issue, and no one complained. But as soon as they decided to institute a new practice — that is, hiring legally married gay persons in their U.S. offices — conservative Christians went postal. Spokesmen tweeted, pastors called, and recording artists threatened. In less than 48 hours, WV reversed their decision," he explained.
Mohler said he believes that New Heart will ultimately be forced to leave the Southern Baptist Convention, given that the "the Baptist Faith & Message, the denomination's confession of faith, states that homosexuality is immoral and that marriage is 'the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.'"
"Furthermore, the Convention's constitution states explicitly that any congregation that endorses homosexual behavior is 'not in cooperation with the Convention,' and thus excluded from its membership."
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO... "WHY I CHANGED MY MIND ON HOMOSEXUALITY"
Great point. Needs to be emailed to the pastor.
Because there is no Authority.
He now believes God accepts homosexual behavior. Who is to tell this pastor what he teaches is wrong?
Also, consider all the Jewish people from all over the world who have and are now reuniting with their homeland Israel. God’s time clock is running down. Look up and be ready.
Romans: 1 pastor. Quit now so your congregation can find someone more in line with scripture.
CC
**Cortez said his “eyes became open to the injustice that the church has wrought”**
God will be the judge of justice and injustice.
“Hate the sin; love the sinner.”
The Truth may only be found in the Catholic Church.
**Abortion?**
Already OK with lots of people.
Also, consider all the Jewish people from all over the world who have and are now reuniting with their homeland Israel. God’s time clock is running down. Look up and be ready.
And the rise of islam, the acceptance of homosexuality as normal within a single generation, etc.
Clearly something is afoot, and it will not go on indefinitely. It may just be another period like WWI or the Great War, only truly worldwide. Or it may be Ezekiel 39.
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Third way? There is only ONE way and it is Jesus!
Oh he has authority, he’s not willing to submit. He’s in open rebellion and so are all who remain under his ministry. There’s nothing new under the sun. In Jeremiah’s day the priests prophesied falsely and the people loved it.
Jeremiah 14:14 — “Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.”
Jeremiah 5:3 — “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”
He belongs in California. Stay out there. Stay out of the South.
RE: It appears that homosexuality and same-sex marriages are becoming accepted behavior.
I think the argument can be summed up thusly ( not my argument but the argument of those who support the gay lifestyle):
“Gays were born that way, just as black people were born that way. Therefore since God Himself made gays that way, we have to accept gays the way they are. Just as it is wrong to discriminate someone because of his skin color, it is also wrong to discriminate against someone because of his/her sexual orientation.”
The circumstances of our lives do not change scripture.
Danny Cortez, who leads New Heart Community Church in La Mirada, explained his journey in a letter to progressive Christian blogger John Shore, founder of Unfundamentalist Christians, last month. At the end of that journey, his son came out to him as gay.
The church broke with the SBC's stance. I'd bet the church doesn't stay SBC for much longer.
You know how in pro-life matters, you want to encourage people to finish the sentence? I.e., pro-choice = pro-choice to abort your unborn child.
We are going to have to do the same thing re: homosexuality. “Coming out” sounds so nice. How about “coming out and saying that you enjoy putting your private parts into receptacles of fecal material”? Or some other less clumsy formulation.
This tide is not going to turn until people are forced to put aside the rainbows and look at the ghastly, unhealthy facts.
Something incredibly powerful is moving with this homosexuality push in the last decade. Things are happening with increasing regularity, that just a few years ago no one could have dreamed.
It’s coming to a point where conservatives like here on FR and a few other places are finding themselves in a smaller and smaller minority. Either we have this whole thing all wrong, or the world really is becoming as Satanic and apathetic as is foretold for the end times.
It’s astounding.
Excellent point!
Because we are all sinners, we are all going to do things that are in contradiction to God's Law and with what our parents and pastors have taught us. That has NEVER meant that someone should change their definition of sin just because someone they love is guilty of a sin.
Moral relativism is quite possibly Satan's most successful tool since the Garden of Eden.
Yup. And by the way, it’s the latter.
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