Posted on 11/03/2014 11:14:00 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
NWhen Southern Baptists convened a national conference here this week to discuss issues of human sexuality, bringing conservative evangelicals and LGBT Christian activists into the same ballroom was a recipe ripe for potential fireworks.
Perhaps the most shocking thing was how few fireworks there were.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission was clear: Sex is reserved between a man and a woman within the bonds in marriage. And openly gay evangelicals in attendance were equally clear: Homosexuality is not incompatible with Christianity.
No concessions were made, but leaders on both sides expressed surprise at how the two agreed to coexist. Put another way: The old emphasis on “Love the sinner, hate the sin” has become more a version of simply “Love all sinners. Ask questions later.”
“I do want to apologize to the gay and lesbian community on behalf of my community and me for not standing up against abuse and discrimination directed towards you. That was wrong and we need your forgiveness,” said North Carolina megachurch pastor J.D. Greear, drawing applause.
“We have to love our gay neighbor more than our position on sexual morality.”
For now, at least, some gay groups seem willing to give the other side the benefit of the doubt.
The conference brought together a “who’s who” within contemporary conversations on homosexuality and evangelicalism, including ERLC President Russell Moore and Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley, who attended the conference of 1,300 with a group of other pastors from his nondenominational North Point Community Church.
The interactions were largely friendly, with none of the hostility seen from both sides in recent years. Inside the ballroom and out in the hallway, LGBT activists mingled with Southern Baptist leaders. From the crowd, gay advocates tweeted responses to the speakers on stage, at times seeming to overtake the conference’s Twitter hashtag.
While the substance remained much the same, the evangelicals’ shift in tone was noticeable. Moore regularly referred to people who are gay — not merely people who are sexual sinners in need of redemption — and denounced so-called “ex-gay” therapy as “severely counterproductive.”
Even the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., the veteran culture warrior and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., seemed to have a change in tune, if not an outright change of heart.
“Early in this controversy, I felt it quite necessary, in order to make clear the gospel, to deny anything like a sexual orientation,” Mohler told the crowd. “I repent of that.”
Yet the thawed relations could not hide tensions between the ideas of “loving your neighbor” and “defending your rights,” particularly as legal recognition of same-sex marriage continues its lightning-fast expansion across the country. With the clashes between religious liberty and gay rights that inevitably follow, many still question whether the friendly conversations can continue.
The closest conference speakers came to politics came during presentations from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom on what it sees as a threat posed to religious freedom by legalized gay marriage.
Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington state florist who declined to sell flowers for a same-sex ceremony, drew a standing ovation. Erik Stanley of ADF, the organization defending business owners like Stutzman, called the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998 “a hate crime myth.” Attendees listen to a speaker during the 2014 ERLC National Conference.
Show caption
Attendees listen to a speaker during the 2014 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference. Photo courtesy of Rocket Republic, via ERLC National Conference
Mohler also decried “revisionists,” or LGBT advocates like Matthew Vines, who are encouraging evangelicals to embrace the idea that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. A copy of Mohler’s rebuttal to Vines’ book was included in the conference grab bag.
Even as Moore denounced ex-gay therapy, he nonetheless cited examples of some people who have changed their sexual orientation.The conference also featured four speakers, including Rosaria Butterfield whose personal story went viral last year, who spoke of leaving homosexuality or embracing celibacy.
Even so, specific political positions or political endorsements were largely absent. “Baptizing lost people and teaching them to vote Republican is not a revival,” Moore said to cheers and claps.
Numerous conference speakers encouraged Christians to love their neighbors who identify as LGBT. Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, who has cultivated a friendship with a lobbyist for the gay rights advocacy Gill Foundation, said he prays for LGBT activist Tim Gill.
Several speakers said the church should lead, not follow, in combating anti-gay bullying. “You have to ask, what greater lie we could tell about our savior than to distance ourselves from the hurting and the broken in the moment they needed us most,” Greear asked. - See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4Cj3Tea5L98J:www.religionnews.com/2014/10/31/southern-baptists-lgbt-activists-happily-co-exist-but-for-how-long/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a#sthash.OHTy0QTD.dpuf
Seems to be a lot of that going around these days.
Comments?
“We have to love our gay neighbor more than our position on sexual morality.”
What kind of nonsense psychobabble is this???
No, you hold sexual morality as a sign of love for your neighbor. Otherwise, accepting the immorality is actually a SIGN OF HATE.
Well-meaning foolishness. It will lead to further slide. You cannot negotiate with terrorists and you cannot negotiate with activists whose sole purpose is to lead you away from the straight and narrow.
Play with fire and you will get burned.
every Baptist congregation is an independent entity
Does the New Testament teach holiness?
Does Christ or any apostle endorse, tolerate or condone open sin?
The good news of the gospel is clear: REPENT of your sins, turn your life over to Christ, and He will save you - free gift. But you must change your ways, not God change His ways.
You don't get to keep sinning. And you don't get to change God's law to make your sin acceptable.
What the hell does that mean?
From my perspective, it looks like he's trying to repent of telling the truth.
Homosexuality is an inherently disordered condition. It is inherently a corruption. It is always a tendency, temptation or desire to do something which is always and by its nature WRONG.
No true Scotsman would support sodomy.
They say equal rights, but won’t give up until they get the upper hand.
lets hope so, especially in kilts
Exactly. There is no love that is godly that would abandon a biblical position on morality.
Love for God comes before love for neighbor and without it true love for neighbor is impossible. To love God is to love His Law — to meditate on it day and night.
To aid and abet immorality is to hate God, His Law and your neighbor.
I often think of Christ's encounter with the woman who was about to be stoned. He asked that the one without sin to cast the first stone. Okay, great. Then, turning to the woman, says to her "go, and sin no more".
There is forgiveness for one's sins; but, you must acknowlege that you HAVE sinned, and, he admonishes us to "sin no more". If you are forgiven; but, then go back to the same sin -- you are back exactly where you started.
Moore regularly referred to people who are gay — not merely people who are sexual sinners in need of redemption — and denounced so-called “ex-gay” therapy as “severely counterproductive.”
“Counterproductive” for who, I wonder?
It’s unbearable to read naive ministers’ words about gays. Do any of them ever run across them - I don’t mean some friend of a friend who moved away to SF 30 years ago - I mean living with them on a daily basis like I do in NYC?! Have any of them ever witnessed ACT-UP in action? Or been to a gay bar? Or seen a video of Larry Kramer? I doubt it. They’d then sing a different tune, believe me.
Yuck ...
Lewd jokes aside, who gets to define what “Baptist” means? What is the objective measure by which one can distinguish the “True Baptist” from the base heretic falsely claiming to be a Baptist?
Perfect example from Scripture!
Yeah. Starting with this one:
"Another Fine Example Of Catholics Never Posting Threads Challenging The Beliefs Of Others" ping!
When St. Paul famously lists all those whose vices shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven --- murderers, sex offenders, sodomites, and so forth --- (1 Corinthians 6) and then says "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God -- that implies that he knew some of these people BEFORE they were washed and sanctified and somehow walked them through the process of repentance and obtaining the grace from God for a different way of life.
The must first entail knowing them and loving them before their conversion.
Just as Jesus knows and loves every person on earth before their conversion.
I don't know how you pastorally "approach" a person without knowing them and loving them.
That must mean you're on good speaking terms. And that you have managed to gain their trust.
Doesn't it?
Behaviors can be addictive but that does not translate into an “orientation.” For those who for whatever unfathomable reason get hooked on homosexuality, the term habit would be much more fitting than orientation. Orientation is a term used to excuse them. We get that they struggle with overcoming the habit. Biology clearly proves that they are physically oriented to be heterosexual. Desire is not orientation.
Mohler is squishy. He is intelligent but not overly wise.
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