Posted on 02/04/2019 8:24:29 AM PST by DCBryan1
COLLEYVILLE, Texas On a Tuesday in January, pastor Katie Lewis was surprised to have even 26 members of the United Methodist Church of Colleyville attend her study group on human sexuality and same-sex marriage.
In a group of mostly middle-aged white congregants, opinions ranged widely. One man said he felt pressure to accept LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage from "more liberal" members from the East and West coasts. Others quickly disputed that idea, saying the issue is a concern in Colleyville as well.
"Whether you know it or not, someone in your life is struggling to be accepted for who they are," one woman told the group.
Lewis said she felt the conversation was necessary ahead of the United Methodist General Conference this month in St. Louis. The conference meets every four years, but a special session was called to vote on a plan regarding same-sex marriage and the acceptance of LGBTQ clergy in the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
Everythng they touch.
Many of us have relatives, friends, sons or daughters of friends, son or daughters of Methodist pastors even. Believe me, all are accepted in the Methodist congregation, I can attest to that. Whether it is in the stupid dogma, who knows, who cares? No, the Methodists don’t even believe in evil, this will not tear them apart.
This sort of thing seems to pop up in various denominations.
My question is: Just how religious are LGBTQ types on average? Same as the overall population? Less? More?
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him....Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
It is trendy to say “Jesus did not say anything on the issue.” Well, yes He did. “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19.4)
Note that SPECIFICALLY, the “joining” or “union” is between man and woman. THAT is how God made it. There is no other biblical pattern and all the blather about “acceptance” and “tolerance” and other (noble) virtues about the way we treat each other as Christians cannot simply erase this.
The UMC is in sad sad shape.
If that Church can be ripped apart, is it a real Church?
I left when I no longer felt comfortable disagreeing with the church. They went from “Here’s why we believe this” to “If you don’t agree, you are a bad person”.
The problem for the Methodists is the African and the Asian churches. They don’t want it and they keep the UMC from being “Lily-white”.
“...someone in your life is struggling to be accepted for who they are...”
“who they are”
That little meme is totally overworked, will end up destroying countless lives of the ones parroting it.
So what do they do?
Hold to traditional values, and lose a few more liberal types who want homosexual marriage and clergy??
Or go full force , shove homosexuality down the throats of the entire denomination, and risk massive departures of members who just can’t abide homosexual marriage and approval of homosexuality???
Is it worth ripping a denomination apart over homosexuality? Will it be worth it for them to bend over backwards to prove that they are liberal??
How many homosexuals are just itching to join the Methodist Church, if only they signal approval of homosexuality?
Wheat or chaff
“Religious?”
Very. Man and woman are incurably religious as a species.
“Christian?” Not so much. In fact, if being “Christian” means that the earliest confession that “Jesus is Lord” is yours, then not at all, since the clear teachings of Jesus on sexuality are held under the scrutiny of those who claim being “tolerant” is the most important virtue. Either Jesus is Lord of our sexuality and standards for marriage (including porn, self stimulation, divorce and remarriage) or He is not Lord at all and WE are Lord, seeking to invoke His name to approve of the decisions we make.
Bkmrk.
They act like an upcoming decision and vote is to be made. But that is the most obvious theater.
This is already a decided policy. They are just pathetically trying to make it look “fair.”
Knowing what you believe and knowing why you believe it are equally important. If you can’t quote chapter and verse supporting your belief, you should question why you believe it. Applies to secular as well as religious beliefs.
Is that "all," as in all people, or "all" as in all doctrines of devils?
Are John and Charles Wesley spinning?
Methodists believe it’s all good, and I mean all. You are not permitted to question or criticize anyone for anything. It is an empty ideology, feel good stuff.
They’re less. MUCH less
Just look at the hate filled postings, statements, et al and then see the total lack of condemnation from the “gay communities”
Hate of people of faith goes hand in hand with their increasingly far left politics. Too many base their politics and their lack of faith on their sexuality, rather than standards of decency, fairness and their supposed “tolerance”
I've found it fascinating that the most "LGBTQ"-friendly churches also tend to be very "high church" in practice, being full of the rituals, pageantry and rote scripts and gestures of Catholicism and Anglicanism. You'll find the most "sacred" music in these groups, including soaring organ and choir music in the traditional form. In this way, they follow the empty forms of religion, thinking they have fulfilled their duty.
In their daily lives, you'll find them on their Grindr apps and trying to hook up in "gay" bars (when they're not attacking Christian bakers.)
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