Posted on 09/17/2006 6:07:39 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
"Churches have not been places of safety and security for women with HIV. My own church has not been a place of safety," Warren, 52, a petite blonde in a black pantsuit and a red AIDS bracelet, tells about 100 lawmakers. "If people think God is like the church, no wonder they ... think 'I'm rejected there.' "
She pauses.
"The exact opposite is true."
Applause echoes up the 50-foot-high Corinthian pilasters of the Russell Senate Caucus Room. It strikes the gilded Greek key pattern of the ceiling and punctures the rarefied hush of the chamber that has witnessed many of the calumnies and controversies of American history, including the Army-McCarthy hearings, the Watergate and Iran-contra investigations, and now the tragedy and scandal of AIDS.
Kay Warren's unlikely cause.
Unlikely, because its connections with premarital or homosexual sex makes it taboo for many conservative Christians, among whom Kay and her husband, Saddleback Church senior pastor Rick Warren, count themselves.
There is also a complicating matter: The sexual abuse Kay Warren says she suffered as a child.
Yet today Kay Warren may be the evangelical church's most visible voice on AIDS, willing to both embrace victims vilified by some Christians for their sexuality, as well as to consider controversial solutions, such as condoms.
It is a transformation that mirrors the denomination she and her husband help lead. Evangelicals today are in the midst of a shift from the sometimes parochial preoccupations of their rural forefathers to the more nuanced and morally complex issues of the wider world.
That shift has led to new initiatives, including the PEACE Plan, Rick Warren's idea of a broad network of spiritual and humanitarian assistance delivered by a galvanized international church.
Kay Warren, he says, was the inspiration.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
I know many evangelical and fundemental churches who care for and have in their congregation many HIV+ and AIDS patients.
Why do they think you have to endorse immorality in order to care for AIDS sufferers?
The premise that Christians reject Gays is false. One can love the sinner but hate the sin.
OF COURSE, you are right.
This is a sad, pathetic comment from an angry, unhappy woman.
Churches are merely buildings designed as houses of worship. They are only as good as the people in them.
She spouts emotional errors about them as being refuges of safety and security. She thereby shows that she doesn't see JESUS as her refuge. She doesn't see her FAITH as her means of safety and security.
She doesn't get it and possibly never will. No church will ever be good enough for her. That is because she is looking to her fellow parishoners to comfort, support and succor her. Maybe they will; I'm sure there are many who would.
But, in reality ALL the answers are at the foot of the Cross. THERE is where she must get her REAL comfort, support and succor. He won't fail her, ever. She's looking in all the wrong places for her peace.
Our sermon yesterday was about putting our suffering WITH Jesus' suffering. When we do that our suffering has meaning. It helps us grow and mature as spiritual beings.
When we don't do that, our suffering is empty and useless. It then makes us cynical and bitter.
Bingo.
The Catholic Church in San Francisco does 90% of ALL the city care and outreach for all HIV/AIDS sufferers.
There are even places for family members to stay when visiting their sons (mostly) who are living out their final days in the Catholic Church-run hospice.
There is no one or group MORE outspoken against immoral homosexual behavior -- or immoral heterosexual behavior -- than the Catholic Church.
Loud applause for your post #5.
It seems to me that this lady has not sufficiently worked through her own psychological issues. She might be better placed in practical ministry, such as AIDS hospice care, rather than teaching.
Oh, KAY Warren; I was thinking Earl.
Seriously, isn't a "Warren" where rabbits go to cower and/or fornicate?
Well, you know, the church never did anything right or compassionate until Rick and Kay Warren came along to Show Us All The Way.
What megalomaniacs these two are.
She and her husband help lead the SBC? News to me!
Because they're liberals in Christian garb. Like Jim Wallis.
Except that the Catholic Church won't let their faithful wear condoms.
And the mainstream CoC is fairly fundamentalist in the spectrum of Christian church bodies
This topic segues neatly in to the thread about how surpising it is that Conservatives are more financially giving than leftists.
So I guess conversion is out for the Catholic Church?
Recent events seem to support that contention.
,,, I bet it's a really big pane of glass in Brokeback Church's crying room.
Ya know, that one went RIGHT over my head. I confess I haven't seen too many movies about homosexual lust affairs.
,,, how many have there been?
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