Posted on 06/20/2014 10:11:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s highest governing body voted Thursday to allow ministers to perform same-sex marriages.
Presbyterian clergy can now marry gay and lesbian couples wherever same-sex marriage is legal.
The Presbyterian Lay Committee released a statement repudiating the action of the PCUSA General Assembly.
"The Presbyterian Lay Committee mourns these actions and calls on all Presbyterians to resist and protest them ... God will not be mocked and those who substitute their own felt desires for God's unchangeable Truth will not be found guiltless before a holy God."
The PCUSA's 221st General Assembly, which is meeting in Detroit this week, also approved by a large majority an amendment to its Book of Order that would change the definition of marriage from one man and one woman to "two people." The amendment must be ratified by a majority of the denomination's presbyteries, or district governing bodies.
Commenting on the amendment, Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, explained to The Christian Post that the PCUSA had a "constitutional problem," where it could not pass an "authoritative interpretation" overture allowing for same-sex marriage when its Book of Order expressly defines marriage as a man and a woman.
"They're trying to solve that by sending an amendment to the presbyteries which formally changes the language," she said.
The same-sex marriage votes come three years after the PCUSA voted to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy.
Why not include group marriage? Why so intolerant?
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. - 2 Peter 3:10-13
Sounds like the Presbyterian lay people are having the same problem with their “leaders” as the entire American people have with theirs.
The PCUSA has been losing members for years. Many have left and joined the PCA ( Presbyterian Church of America ) or other conservative evangelical Churches.
There are many reasons, one of them being the leader’s doubts about the inerrancy of scripture. This current news is another reason why.
And why not include animals, for that matter? After all, God wants us to love the animals, so I’m sure bestiality is okay.
PCUSA will be needing to rewrite the Holy Bible to meet their PC standards. I’m going to have to talk to my minister and see where he stands since he doesn’t mention it in his sermons.
http://christianity.about.com/od/Bible-Verses/a/Bible-Verses-Homosexuality.htm
There are plenty of laws regarding marriage (where someone can marry a person that YOU may not).
If someone is ALREADY married (or unable to get divorced) you cannot marry that person.
If someone is a blood relation, you cannot marry that person.
If someone is underage you cannot marry that person.
Why is it so hard for 0.05% of the population to accept that if you are a member of the same sex, that you may not marry that person???
So, this is how the PCA (Presbyterian Church of America ) was established.
The PCA has its roots in theological controversies over liberalism and neo-orthodoxy that had been a point of contention in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (formerly the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America) which had split from the mainline Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. along regional lines at the beginning of the Civil War.
While the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy had led to a split in the PC-USA in the mid 1930s, leading to the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Bible Presbyterian Church, the PCUS remained intact.
However, beginning in 1942, as the PCUS began to experiment with confessional revision, and later, when neo-orthodoxy and liberalism began to become influential in the PCUS’ seminaries, and attempts were made to merge with the more liberal PC-USA and its successor, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., renewal groups began to be formed, including the Presbyterian Churchmen United, which had been formed by more than 500 ministers and ran 3/4 page statements of their beliefs in 30 newspapers.
They sought to reaffirm the Westminster Confession of Faith as the fullest and clearest exposition of biblical faith, which many conservatives felt that presbyteries had been violating by receiving ministers who refused to affirm the Virgin birth and bodily resurrection, and to call all pastors and leaders to affirm the inerrancy of Scripture.
For the most part, PC(USA) Presbyterians, not unlike similar mainline traditions such as the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ, are fairly (in some instances, strongly) progressive (liberal) on matters such as doctrine, environmental issues, sexual morality, and economic issues, though the denomination remains divided and conflicted on these issues. Like other mainline denominations, the PC(USA) has also seen a great deal of demographic aging, with fewer new members and declining membership since 1967.
I so loved my own PCUSA church, which is very conservative in theology and simply hides it head in the sand on these issues, but finally left 18 months ago when PCUSA leadership elected to permit homosexuals to be elected to offices in the church. I had served as our adult bible study teacher, elder, deacon, trustee, and tenor in our choir for many years. As much as it still hurts to lose my church family and friends, I knew this would happen and could no longer justify working for the disciples of Satan that are the senior leaders of the church. The only way this will end is when congregations will stand up to them, and since my church’s congregation voted not to leave PCUSA (because our historic church would have been seized), the only other means of resistance was to leave.
When polygamy becomes the fad, the Presbyterians and Episcopalians will need to provide larger chancels for the crowd at their pagan altars.
I did a Google Search on the Grace Brethren Church, with was the church I was baptized in and grew up on. Now I wish they had a church in Seattle so I wouldn’t have to attend a PCUSA.
This is the way churches should take a stand:
http://gracebrethren.info/resolutions/homosexuality.htm
So now they are the Les-bi-terian church
I’m not sure what they do with all the verses and pages in the Bible that establish what marriage is.
They use the Gender Neutral Bible to adulterate them.
To all of those laws, I would add “for now.” The deviants’ end goal is to define down morality to such a degree that marriage will cease to be a relevant institution.
They’ll coach their arguments in “consent,” as they do now, and tell us that we have no right to interfere with two consenting individuals (notice I didn’t say “adults” or even “people”). After all, if two individuals agree on something, it must be right in the moral relativist’s world.
Every time they make headway with defining down morality, they celebrate because they’re foisted their perverted view of the world on good people that much more. That’s why they get their kicks.
Trick question. Two people of the same sex can’t marry.
Agreed.
“After all, if two individuals agree on something, it must be right in the moral relativist’s world.”
But why would a moral relativist limit the number to only two?
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