Posted on 02/11/2024 1:33:34 AM PST by Morgana
Christian publication Crosswalk has waded into the recent backlash to Alistar Begg recommending some people attend same-sex weddings, releasing several articles on why Christians should attend gay weddings and should probably attend and participate in baby showers for same-sex couples.
Crosswalk is a Christian website owned and operated by Salem Web Network, a division of Salem Media Group, that owns a large swatch of prominent Christian and conservative publications, including CCM Magazine, BibleStudyTools.com, Christianity.com Crosswalk, Godtube, Hot Air, Jesus.org, Lightsource.com, Townhall, Christian Headlines,, PJ Media, and many other apps, podcasts, and radio stations.
In the article Can Christians Attend a Same-Sex Couple’s Baby Shower? author Amanda Idleman suggests they can and should. She begins by revealing that “As same-sex marriage has become more prolific and socially acceptable, there is a growing number of same-sex parents. Personally, I’ve interacted with same-sex foster parents who also attend the same church as I do.”
“We know that God’s Word clearly states that God’s best for marriage and family is for one man and woman to come together. Yet, hard black-and-white lines don’t work when talking about people you love.
..It’s our job to be Jesus to our lost friends. To encourage those who know God but continue to struggle with sin. We need to remain faithful to the standards God gives us for living in the Bible. We must also ask God to help show us how to love well.”
One of the ways to “love well” includes the prospect of attending a baby shower hosted by a same-sex couple, which really is a celebration of that baby into a life of abuse, robbed of a father and mother.
“A baby shower is different from a wedding in that every child is a gift from God. This sort of celebration is designed to joyfully support the arrival of a new person whom God has a special plan for. While we may understand that same-sex relationships are not God’s best, we are called to nurture and love every child. Even if we do not feel called to participate in the baby shower, we should find a way to love this family and their child. “
Another article gives no such out: Should You Attend a Gay Wedding? by Dr. James Emery White. White summarizes Begg’s advice to attend a gay wedding and even buy the couple a gift, and then lends his support to this position, encouraging him not to back down.
Despite the fallout, Begg stands by the advice he gave. He should.
This is not about a theological “drift.” Neither I nor Begg affirm a homosexual lifestyle. But does that mean it is never appropriate for a Christ follower to attend a gay wedding?
Let’s break that down a little—first by addressing whether it is okay to participate in one, and then second, whether it is okay to attend one. I would argue that participation and attendance are distinct from one another.
Participating in a gay wedding means lending support, helping to facilitate it, enabling it to happen. It’s being involved in such a way as to bring it about. Biblically, that isn’t something a Christian can do.
He explains:
When Christians refuse participation in a gay wedding, they are following important Christian convictions. For a photographer to shoot it, or a baker to make the cake, or a florist to design the centerpieces would be a violation of conscience and conviction. As would serving as a singer, musician, bridesmaid or groomsman. If your participation is enabling it to happen, facilitating its act, then the answer on whether to participate has to be no.
But what about just attending, as Begg advised the grandmother to do? Let’s say you have a gay friend or family member and you’ve been invited to their wedding. Is it okay for a Christian to attend? You’re not participating in a way that is making it happen or helping it to happen—you’re just at the happening. Didn’t Jesus dine with tax collectors, hang out with prostitutes, and go to parties hosted by people of ill repute?
Emery clearly does not understand the purpose of weddings, much less LGBTQ ones. To quote Dan Phillips:
“Given that there is no such thing as a marriage of two men or a marriage of two women- so take that away- then what is this occasion that the grandmother is being asked to go to? It is just a celebration of perversion, and it’s just a celebration of two people promising each other that they will never repent of the sin that will send them to hell.”
Who are we to deny what makes people happy?
It is not a marriage so it should not be attended. To do so it to show support for the sham.
The baby shower thing is even worse. It is showing support for placing innocent children into sham families. It does not matter how wealthy and how apparently loving the LGBTQP “parents” are to the children. Children need a mother and a father and in the absence of that, an orphanage, an aunt and uncle, a single parent seeking a mate, or a single adoptive parent seeking a mate would all be preferable.
If my wife and I died leaving our young children, I would rather an illiterate subsistence farmer couple who are believers, up in the hills of Honduras, raise them rather than Elton John and his “partner” with all their wealth.
How about pedophiles?🤔
I’m sure you wouldn’t want to deny their happiness?🥴
Point is ... Sin is sin and homosexuality is condemned in God’s eyes as is harming children!
Anyone supporting these abominations is not Christian, at least not one as defined in the Bible!☹️
Just yesterday evening I was shocked to hear a trans positive program on the Salem Network; now this.
I too never heard of it.
I have 6 bibles and that is the extent
of my Christian publications or media.
I don’t honor Fags or perverts.
I let God judge them.
I recognize them as children of God like we all are.
Nothing in the bible says I have to like, trust, or deal with them.
That is the network that hosts Hugh Hewitt, an open border, endless war, pro-Nikki Haley, Bushleague schill who to this day clamors for the amnesty of these millions of invaders.
To a follower of Christ, publicly affirming sodomy is out of the question.
A few decades ago, Crosswalk’s centerpiece was a set of lively forums on various topics.
I got booted off for the crimes of excessive optimism about the future, and excess exuberance about the Great Opportunity Christian families had in the present.
The “Wheaton Mafia” (generic American evangelical culture) is a constipated and constricted little in-group, castrated and hamstrung by dispensational premillennialism. Crosswalk was perfectly fine with parents supporting secular humanism 30 years ago — and sodomy today.
I have heard of it but haven’t actually seen it in years. What Crosswalk is doing is telling Christians to have one foot in the world, one foot in a life with Christ. The Lord calls that being lukewarm and says he will spew the lukewarm from His mouth. Time to stop agreeing with the world and celebrating sin and being sanctified, as Jesus meant us to be.
Yes, sometimes I have to ask liberals, “Is there ANYTHING that the shallow Hollywood trendy set espouse that you reject?”
One cannot reconcile the ways of the fashionable world with the steadfast truth of scripture.
Didn’t Jesus dine with tax collectors, hang out with prostitutes, and go to parties hosted by people of ill repute?
What kind of crap is that?
He certainly did but not to celebrate them and praise them!
This article has elements that are just warped and wrong on so many levels...
“One cannot reconcile the ways of the fashionable world with the steadfast truth of scripture.”
Very well said. And when people like those at Crosswalk do that, they are telling people it’s all right to sin and not repent, which is what Satan told Eve in the garden. It is sending the lost to Hell. We are to preach repentance and redemption in the cross of Jesus, not condone sin and yes, the world will hate us for that.
Jesus never validated sin in someone's life by giving the impression He was OK with them doing it.
HE ministered to them and told them to go and SIN NO MORE.
THAT is showing the love of God to them.
This is what happens when we exercise “tolerance” - things become polluted...
Well stated...
I have a simple rule that addresses the many ways evil shows up. The rule is to make a list of all the things God has ordained and has asked as obedience and you will never be surprised when the un-Godly show up with their issue of the day.
To make the list you have to read the Word of God and focus on Jesus.
This is much easier than playing whack a mole with sin and having inane relativistic debates about how much sin is too much sin.
Yeah, I get their stuff in e-mail.
Unsubscribe.
Eau contraire. Jesus taught that you are to love your enemies.
Something at which I fail at daily.
Where does it say you are supposed to celebrate sin?
The Aztecs could only be made happy by sacrificing children to the gods.
Would you be standing in line sharing their joy?
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