Posted on 12/01/2014 9:22:11 AM PST by PROCON
Thousands of people have resigned from the Lutheran Church in Finland, after the nation’s parliament approved a same-sex marriage law and the church’s archbishop expressed support for the vote, Finland’s Yle News reported.
By late Saturday, around 7,800 people had officially resigned from the state-supported Lutheran Church via an online service, which was specifically created to ease the registration process.
The resignation frees the individuals from obligatory church membership taxes, which is where the majority of the Lutheran Church’s income comes from. By the end of 2013, some 75 percent of Finns – 4.1 million people – were listed as members of the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
If you believe in evolution - how could homosexuality still be in the gene pool?
Not sure how that would work. There’s no selection pressure to preserve dysfunctional reproductive behavior.
We are too close to government funding and controlling churches which are paid by tax forgiveness. Government money is how the left has used our government to take control of Christian/Catholic Universities and hospitals.
Churches condoning and even celebrating homosexuality is the line in the sand for many Christians. Ministers and Priests need to know this so they don’t get swept up into political correctness.
I do not thisnk your dictionary definition is adequate. Belief, as we use the word in casual everyday speech, usually means a reasonale inference from evidence:
"I believeI can pass my Algebra test tomorrow."
In common parlance, it also means trust:
"I told my husband on our wedding day I really believed in him."
THeologically, Faith is not accepting something with little evidence, with dubious evidence, or against evidence: that is called the sin of credulity.
Philosophically, belief is accepting the knowledge of a knower, e.g. Person #1 knows from direct experience,strong evidence or dispositive proof; Person #2 believes Person #1 because he has evidence of another sort: evidence that Person #1 is honest and knowledgeable.
So your dictionary definiton only covers a small portion of the semantic field indicated by the words "faith" and "belief."
interesting.
you are correct 8000 is not enough, they need at least 250000 to half a million to be a movement.
Perhaps there should be a government endorsed normal church without the recreational hedonism.
Sooo true.
What is interesting is that today’s generation see nothing wrong....and in fact bask in the freedom to do whatever “feels” good regardless of warnings and dangers.
Thanks. Should have looked that up myself...
That is what moral relativism has brought us to. There is no "right and wrong" anymore. People are taught that if it "feels" okay to them that they should do it (sometimes with the caveat of "as long as it isn't hurting anyone else"), even some churches are trying to insure that everyone "feels" happy and that nobody is offended.
Christian love is about telling others that some things are absolutely wrong no matter how much they may enjoy it AND showing them that it is possible to repent from their sinful ways.
Given the fact that there are many religions, none of which believing in any other; how can any thinking human claim that their religion is IT?
> Here’s the creep.....”.... I rejoice with my whole heart for them (gays) and with them,” ...Archbishop of Turku and Finland, Kari Mäkinen, stated.... the picture of an enemy of God.
He looks like he would be right at home wearing a plaid short sleeved shirt sitting typing on a computer chatting with a 10 year old boy
Agreed...and probably does just that.
> Finn population is around 5.4 million...
And obviously going to be reducing in large numbers in the coming years. Seems there are a lot of homosexuals in the Nordic regions I’m finding out.
I like, though, what C.S. Lewis said about the "Tao," the perennial philosophy --- some would connect it with Natural Law --- which accompanies the historic or civilization-shaping religious faiths. There are recurring commonalities: not that all religions repeat each other, but they do rhyme.
> true.
What is interesting is that today’s generation see nothing wrong....and in fact bask in the freedom to do whatever “feels” good regardless of warnings and dangers.
Sorta sounds like one of the commandments in the Satanic bible, “Do what thou wilt”
It just so happens that individual homosexuals can do it with both females and males, thereby passing sex genes on - and on - and on.
This is what its going to take.
If denominations want to truly change the direction things are going, they need to take their $$$ elsewhere.
It costs a fortune to keep some of these Monuments to Christianity running and in the long run, they are just buildings.
The Church, independent of denomination is made up of a united people, not a building.
Beware of the man with the small receding chin and hairline
There is no evidence for your belief. Homosexuality is sin, and yes sin is a human trait.
31 There is no evidence for ANY belief ... Look up "belief" and take a good look at the synonyms surrounding "belief." My dictionary has it as ... "belief, the term of broadest application in this application implies mental acceptance of something as true, even though absolutely certainty may be absent; faith implies complete, unquestioning acceptance of something even in the absence of proof and, esp., of something not suported by reason. 41 If you believe in evolution - how could homosexuality still be in the gene pool?
42 Not sure how that would work. There’s no selection pressure to preserve dysfunctional reproductive behavior.
49 Given the fact that there are many religions, none of which believing in any other; how can any thinking human claim that their religion is IT?
5/13/2013 – Identical Twin Studies Prove Homosexuality Is Not Genetic
Eight major studies of identical twins in Australia, the U.S., and Scandinavia during the last 2 decades all arrive at the same conclusion: gays were not born that way. “At best genetics is a minor factor,” says Dr. Neil Whitehead, PhD. Whitehead worked for the New Zealand government as a scientific researcher for 24 years, then spent 4 years working for the United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency. Most recently, he serves as a consultant to Japanese universities about the effects of radiation exposure. His PhD is in biochemistry and statistics.
Identical twins have the same genes or DNA. They are nurtured in equal prenatal conditions. If homosexuality is caused by genetics or prenatal conditions and 1 twin is gay, the co-twin should also be gay. “Because they have identical DNA, it ought to be 100%,” Dr. Whitehead notes. But the studies reveal something else. “If an identical twin has same-sex attraction the chances the co-twin has it are only about 11% for men and 14% for women.”
Because identical twins are always genetically identical, homosexuality cannot be genetically dictated. “No-one is born gay,” he notes. “The predominant things that create homosexuality in one identical twin and not in the other have to be post-birth factors.”
Dr. Whitehead believes same-sex attraction (SSA) is caused by “non-shared factors,” things happening to one twin but not the other, or a personal response to an event by 1 of the twins and not the other. For example, 1 twin might have exposure to pornography or sexual abuse, but not the other. One twin may interpret and respond to their family or classroom environment differently than the other. “These individual and idiosyncratic responses to random events and to common environmental factors predominate,” he says.
The 1st very large, reliable study of identical twins was conducted in Australia in 1991, followed by a large U.S. study about 1997. Then Australia and the U.S. conducted more twin studies in 2000, followed by several studies in Scandinavia, according to Dr. Whitehead. “Twin registers are the foundation of modern twin studies. They are now very large, and exist in many countries. A gigantic European twin register with a projected 600,000 members is being organized, but 1 of the largest in use is in Australia, with more than 25,000 twins on the books.”
A significant twin study among adolescents shows an even weaker genetic correlation. In 2002 Bearman and Brueckner studied tens of thousands of adolescent students in the U.S. The same-sex attraction concordance between identical twins was only 7.7% for males and 5.3% for females—lower than the 11% and 14% in the Australian study by Bailey et al conducted in 2000.
In the identical twin studies, Dr. Whitehead has been struck by how fluid and changeable sexual identity can be. “Neutral academic surveys show there is substantial change. About half of the homosexual/bisexual population (in a non-therapeutic environment) moves towards heterosexuality over a lifetime. About 3% of the present heterosexual population once firmly believed themselves to be homosexual or bisexual. Sexual orientation is not set in concrete,” he notes.
Even more remarkable, most of the changes occur without counseling or therapy. “These changes are not therapeutically induced, but happen ‘naturally’ in life, some very quickly,” Dr. Whitehead observes. “Most changes in sexual orientation are towards exclusive heterosexuality.”
Numbers of people who have changed towards exclusive heterosexuality are greater than current numbers of bisexuals and homosexuals combined. In other words, ex-gays outnumber actual gays.
The fluidity is even more pronounced among adolescents, as Bearman and Brueckner’s study demonstrated. “They found that from 16 to 17-years-old, if a person had a romantic attraction to the same sex, almost all had switched 1 year later.”
“The authors were pro-gay and they commented that the only stability was among the heterosexuals, who stayed the same year after year. Adolescents are a special case—generally changing their attractions from year to year.”
Still, many misconceptions persist in the popular culture. Namely, that homosexuality is genetic – so hard-wired into one’s identity that it can’t be changed. “The academics who work in the field are not happy with the portrayals by the media on the subject,” Dr. Whitehead notes. “But they prefer to stick with their academic research and not get involved in the activist side.”
I’m sick of these homosexuals who now think that their perverted sick filthy sex is normal and we all have to accept it because the weak minded amongst us or ignorant just turn a blind eye and go along with it.
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