Posted on 07/12/2014 2:07:09 PM PDT by NYer
The story behind a case that made headlines a few months back, from The New York Times:
Father and son had always been close, from the moment Tim Schaefer was born, six weeks premature, with blood poisoning, a weak heart and lungs, and a doctor who thought he would not make it through the night.
His father, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, thought of his eldest son as a miracle child, saved by some combination of medicine and prayer, saved for something special.
“We couldn’t even touch him; he was in an incubator, and we had to reach in with latex gloves through those holes in the sides,” Mr. Schaefer said. “I begged God to please save his life.”
Their bond was such that, years later, facing a choice between upholding his church’s teaching and affirming his son’s sexual orientation, Frank chose to endanger his own career by officiating at his son’s same-sex wedding. The actions that followed — a rebellion in his congregation, a church trial, a defrocking and then, last month,a reinstatement — have made the Schaefers symbols of the conundrum facing much of American Christianity: How does religious doctrine on homosexuality respond to the longings for spirituality and community from congregants and family members who are gay?
In a series of recent interviews, by telephone and in Washington, where they attended a gay pride event with President Obama at the White House, father and son described their separate and shared crises of love and faith, which began in 2001 when Tim, then in high school, acknowledged to his parents that he was gay.
Frank, now 52, had grown up in a conservative Baptist church in West Germany, believing homosexuality was a sin, but had quietly become more accepting. Tim, now 30, had grown up in his father’s conservative United Methodist church in Pennsylvania, becoming depressed and contemplating throwing himself off the roof of a parsonage when he realized he was gay.
“I would pray at night, ‘God, get me through this phase, make me normal,’ but as time went on, it was not changing,” the younger Schaefer said. “I didn’t want to be gay, and I didn’t want to go to hell.”
Yep!
What does the phrase “affirming his son’s sexual orientation” mean?
>>the homosexual act is something beyond the attraction. <<
Yeah, the desire to abuse your body.
Genesis 1
English Standard Version (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
It's ridiculous to compare rapists, murderers, and thieves to homosexuals. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Ha Ha, you’re late. See post 29. ‘Nuff said. No need to insult you. Deuteronomy 32:35: “To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”
““I didn’t want to be gay, and I didn’t want to go to hell.””
Being gay doesn’t condemn you to hell. Being an unrepentant sinner, certainly can. What kind of love is it, that supports someone into hell? Well, that’s not love at all.
Right. Yeah. Sure.
FMCDH(BITS)
I am the grandson and nephew of Methodist ministers. I grew up in the Methodist Church, attended and graduated from Methodist Universities and attended numerous Methodist churches in my life, including a few in Southern New Jersey outside of Philadelphia. In all the churches I have attended, I have never seen a Methodist minister wear a clerical collar.
Is that common in other areas?
“facing a choice between upholding his church’s teaching and affirming his son’s sexual orientation”
I’ve noticed this very subtle journalistic conspiracy. They always group such things into the catagory of ‘church teaching’ as if they are subjective opinions of church leaders. How about ‘the Word of God’ or ‘Biblical teaching’??? That’s the real choice this man had to make, and orientation has nothing to do with it. He had the choice to either affirm the Biblical crime of sodomy or affirm the Lord’s commandment against it. He chose the former.
I pray for both of these people. The misguided son and the beaten father. I pray for the congregation who may be misled by lies and I pray for the idiot journalists as well. At times I am outraged at the perverts’ fascist and prideful nature, and at other times I only feel sorrow for them. This is one of those times.
Crickets. I guess you never read the Biblical account in Genesis 18. Let me know if I am wrong. No further comment until you have read it.
It’s all a jumbled mess! I recently recalled words of The Lord from the Revelation: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline”. Wow! We’ve really missed true love in our spoiled era.
The poor guy “didn’t want to be gay and didn’t want to go to hell”. Understandable. Still, if one is snagged by God’s word on a subject (really convicted by the Holy Spirit), how will a “There, there, we love you and accept you regardless of what that mean old Bible says” really set your troubled mind at ease? It won’t.
One has to be set free through Christ, and He will rebuke and discipline you regarding His ways.
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