Posted on 06/29/2015 8:24:16 AM PDT by OrangeHoof
Actually, the Bible condemns sex within the same sex which is different from Homosexuality. Homosexuality is being solely attracted to the same sex.
Fornication and adultery are the real issues. If a church supports marrying people of the same-sex, they essentially endorse adultery.
Good advice. Well thought through.
Our church already has written guidelines for weddings, including the cost for members and non-members, several weeks of marriage counseling with the pastor, and a requirement that the couple may not be living together prior to the wedding.
That requirement may be strengthened in the coming weeks.
I won’t feel the least bit sorry for the first gay couple that gets shot or beheaded for trying to force an Islamic mosque to marry them.
That's the ticket! Deny the Bible to protect your tax exempt status!
Weddings are a union between a man and a woman in holy matrimony. It is a consecrated religious service in our church, we do not do any civil unions.
.... or thrown from a minaret.
I disagree with your advice. You are advocating duplicity and lying (if it is arranged to have a young couple not be ready, it becomes a real issue, morally and legally).
My advice is much simpler - announce today that the church will no longer be performing weddings. Weddings are not a New Testament mission of the church. Far better to stop the periphery benefits offered by the church than to be sucked into a dishonest charade, or violate the moral foundations of Christianity.
Lying by omission is still lying.
Lying is sinful.
Do not sink to their level. Be prepared for any persecution we may encounter due to our beliefs. If you sidestep the issue, you are not providing any kind of positive witness for Christ.
No. The other USSC decision last week means that if you are accused of discrimination, you are guilty.
Simple. Stop doing state marriages.
Provide the sacrament of matrimony. Call it that. Start doing it now.
Wouldn't a first question be whether a person is a member in good standing of the church in question?
Forgive my ignorance, but do people just walk up to a random church and ask to be married there? Do the churches comply?
Similarly, I have heard stories of Rabbis who have refused to perform interfaith weddings. Will this be allowed to continue? Will a Catholic church be forced to perform a gay wedding, while synagogues continue denying interfaith weddings?
Shouldn't it be either weddings for all anywhere, or weddings only at the discretion of the establishment based on its long-standing deeply held convictions?
-PJ
Wouldn't that be considered bearing false witness?
this is they way to go
However parishioners who meet the church screening standards for adherence to church doctrine can be offered special religious services to bless their marriages that have been registered by the government
similar to Europe where people have civil service to get married legally and optional church services to bless their marriages
Ministers and priests will no longer be licensed by the government to perform marriages. No great loss. Go to a wedding registry in city hall. Church marriage returns to being a sacrament. Church membership in good standing and public statement of faith returns to being a requisite
Good thoughts.
Our side is not as clever and crafty as we should be. We are by nature sedentary and fixed and unimaginative when it comes to political gamesmanship. The other side is constantly thinking up mischief-making, and we’d do well to borrow some of that personality.
By the way, the church would do well to institute rigorous pre-marital counseling, modeling, testing, and strict review, regardless of whether or not this was intended for same-sex marriage gamesmanship. The church and its pastors SHOULD scrutinize prospective couples and reject some numbers of them based on failures in maturity and preparation and devotion to Christ. People would FLOCK to that church, and any church which makes demands of its sheep.
Marriage has suffered greatly in recent decades, and prior to any of us pondering same-sex marriage. When debating same-sex marriage, we MUST move the discussion to marriage itself, (whether is Godly or civil forms), and demonstrate how important “tradtional” marriage is to humanity, society, and the state, as well as to God.
“Sorry, it appears that you seem to have failed the blood test”.
I like the idea. However, I fear the radical gays will try to infiltrate churches, then go get the civil marriage, and demand the church blessing on the strength of their membership in the church and their legal civil marriage license.
The Catholic Church demands Pre-Cana conferences!!
Thank you for your comment. The issue of duplicity jumped out at me too.
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