Posted on 06/13/2015 5:36:58 AM PDT by xzins
Christian minister Tony Campolo's recent announcement that the church should accept gay couples is highlighting the growing division between Christians over the issues of homosexuality and gay marriage.
In a statement issued this week, Campolo said he's tried to approach people on both sides of the issue with grace and understanding while struggling with his own beliefs.
Finally, he said, it was his own relationship with his wife and the many same-sex couples they know and spend time with that persuaded him that the primary purpose of marriage is about spiritual growth.
He also wrote that homosexuality is "almost never a choice" and the church should offer love and acceptance to those who have same-sex attraction.
"It has taken countless hours of prayer, study, conversation and emotional turmoil to bring me to the place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church," he said in a statement posted online.
Conservative evangelicals criticized Campolo's stand, while self-professed progressives applauded the move.
His announcement comes as new research from the Pew Research Center shows the divide between evangelicals and mainline Protestants over gay marriage is getting wider.
The survey found that 70 percent of white Evangelicals and 57 percent of black Protestants don't support making same-sex marriage legal. However, 62 percent of white mainline Protestants and 56 percent of Catholics are in favor of same-sex marriage.
The implications of wide-spread acceptance of gay marraige for pastors, churches, and faith-based ministries have challenged leaders on how to respond while holding true to their convictions.
The nation's largest Protestant denomination is taking steps to help its churches deal with the legal ramifications of gay couples seeking ministry jobs or marriage services.
The Southern Baptist Convention partnered with the Alliance Defending Freedom to provide guidance for churches and other faith-based institutions by publishing a booklet called, Protecting Your Ministry: A Legal Manual for Southern Baptist Churches, Schools, and Ministries.
The 44-page manual gives churches and ministries the tools to help prevent lawsuits over sexual orientation and gender identity. It includes checklists and sample documents to help churches make policies and official statements about its biblically based beliefs.
Dr. Russell Moore,with the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press the manual is a resource "to help equip churches on how to remain faithful in our mission in a culture that often disagrees with our message."
Moore spoke with CBN's Heather Sells about the resource and the importance of churches taking steps to protect themselves. Click play to watch the interview.
This is not any attempt the exhonerate their behavior. There is little doubt in my mind that they are Thyatira and Pergamum.
It is a call for us pots to quit calling others black, when we have a log in our own eye.
There is no more good reason for protestants or evangelicals to be pointing a finger at Catholics because of wayward priests, nuns, or laity. Apparently, in the neighborhood of 40% of American non-Catholic evangelical and/or protestant Christians support homosexual marriage. Since the nature of much of non-Catholic Christianity is ‘independent local churches’, sometimes with loose ties to a non-binding organization, these churches don’t rise to the media recognition level that garners national media attention. In other words, they support unnatural marriage (such as Highland Baptist in Louisville, KY), but they generally aren’t publicized like larger denominations such as Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.
This is not any attempt the exhonerate their behavior. There is little doubt in my mind that they are Thyatira and Pergamum.
It is a call for us pots to quit calling others black, when we have a log in our own eye.
So, homo ‘marriage’ is shaping up to be the dividing issue with Christians. On one side is the wheat; the other side is the chaff.
I just sent him a scathing email. How dare he.
Yep, it appears that way.
he’s been ‘daring’ for many years........he’s just ratcheting it up a notch.
Actually there is no more good reason for Catholics to (respectfully) confront their clergy to demand that they actually discuss the subject and the Church's teaching on the subject.
Can 212. §3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.
Yep had a gay colleague back in early 2000s who was kept referencing Campolo as a supporter of gay marriage. I told him men change, God does not.
Q: who the F is Tony Campolo and why should i care what he thinks?
A: he’s nobody and i don’t give a rat’s arse what he thinks about anything.
I hope Romans 1:31-32 does not come back to bite Campolo on judgement day.
Campolo has always been a far-left liberal.
When you see his name, you can expect that whatever the subject, he will be promoting the radical position.
“It has taken countless hours of prayer, study, conversation and emotional turmoil to bring me to the place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church,” he said in a statement posted online.”
Makes me wonder what it was he was studying, and, if it was The Bible, why it took so long to read a few scriptures. Also makes me wonder to whom he was praying. The God of Political Correctness?
Perhaps the reason for the emotional turmoil was because he was going against God’s word.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 applies.
READ . YOUR . BIBLES !!
We are *ALL* sinners, and NO SIN is to be “normalized”, “medicalized”, or in any other way dismissed as not a sin anymore.
That includes the sin of homosexuality.
Campolo is seriously lacking in judgement, discernment and submission to the authority of Scripture.
Pretty much nailed it ~2000 yrs ago. Scary and exciting times.
I think this issue has its biggest problem in a generational divide. Having spoken with twenty and thirty somethings who consider themselves Christians, many, perhaps most have fallen for the gay propaganda that this is a civil rights issue.
I don't know how to fight their views easily, I have been very surprised at how we have lost a generation. The ones that still call themselves Christian believe the agit prop from the gay radicals, and it's a fact that a lot of people affected by the renewal in the seventies/eighties find their children have not kept the faith.
Campolo has always been a liberal rogue. Wolves love wearing sheep clothing.
He is not the only liberal protestant phony-baloney. We have whole denominations crawling with idiots. We have other denominations peppered with idiots. Every denomination has at least one or two needing to be fired. False teachers are a battle for everyone.
Governments get traitors. Businesses hire thieves. Countries have enemies, some are terrorists. It is a fallen world with varying degrees of evil and sabatage everywhere.
This is the same man who was Bill Clinton’s spiritual advisor following the Lewinski affair.
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