(Photo: Q via The Christian Post)Eugene Peterson concludes his discussions with Q Ideas Gabe Lyons today with a conversation on Being Immersed In Scripture.
Posted on 07/13/2017 11:00:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
(Photo: Q via The Christian Post)Eugene Peterson concludes his discussions with Q Ideas Gabe Lyons today with a conversation on Being Immersed In Scripture.
Eugene Peterson, the Presbyterian pastor who wrote the The Message, has come out in support of gay marriage, saying that he would officiate a same-sex wedding if asked.
In an interview with Jonathan Merritt at Religion News Service Wednesday, the author of more than 30 books said that he knows many gays and lesbians who "seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do," noting that he would not have said that 20 years ago. He added that he thinks the whole debate about gays and lesbians is probably "over."
"People who disapprove of it, they'll probably just go to another church," Peterson, who formerly pastored a PCUSA church, said.
"So we're in a transition and I think it's a transition for the best, for the good. I don't think it's something that you can parade, but it's not a right or wrong thing as far as I'm concerned."
He was asked if he were pastoring today and a same-sex couple in his church asked him to perform their wedding ceremony, would he do it. Peterson replied: "Yes."
The 84-year-old writer is perhaps best known for creating The Message, a reading Bible that uses contemporary language. The Message, as Merritt noted, does not use the words "homosexual" and "homosexuality" in key texts.
Denny Burk, professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, argued that Peterson did more than leave out the words "homosexual."
"[I]n the three New Testament passages that deal explicitly with homosexuality, Peterson obscures and conceals the Bible's meaning altogether (see Rom. 1:26-27, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, 1 Tim. 1:10 in The Message)," Burk, who wasn't surprised by Peterson's new comments on homosexuality, wrote on his blog.
Orthodox evangelicals across the Internet, meanwhile, lamented Peterson's new public stance.
"We have to be at least thankful for Peterson's honesty when he ends his answer with 'as far as I'm concerned,' but therein lies the problem. He's not the only one who's concerned. There is One who is infinitely more important than Peterson, who is also infinitely more concerned and has made Himself clear on this issue," said Colin Smothers, writing on the website of the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, referencing 1 Corinthians 6:9.
Similarly, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called Peterson's words "so disappointing" on Twitter.
Merritt's own father, James Merritt, a Southern Baptist pastor who has served as president of the denomination, said of Peterson's words: "I'll change my mind when God changes his. His is the only opinion that matters and on this issue God neither stammers or stutters. #truth."
I'll change my mind when God changes his. His is the only opinion that matters and on this issue God neither stammers or stutters. #truth https://t.co/ukVOxfoTQm— James Merritt (@drjamesmerritt) July 12, 2017
In a tweet Tuesday, Peterson said: "Exegesis is not mastering the text, but submitting to it as it is given to us."
John Mark Reynolds, senior fellow in the Humanities at The King's College, responded in light of the news Peterson now supports same-sex marriage: "Except when he doesn't like what it means."
"We will never forget how we had already almost forgotten Eugene Peterson," Reynolds noted in a subsequent tweet.
Sam Alberry, a celibate Anglican priest who has same-sex attraction, cited the words of Tim Keller, who has written that when Christians abandon their views about the moral wrongness of homosexuality after interacting with wise, loving gays and lesbians it indicates their previous views were already defective, and not grounded in scriptural teaching.
Meanwhile, Matthew Vines, who identifies as a gay Christian was elated, calling Peterson's move "huge" and an "amazing moment."
As part of that same interview with Merritt that was released Tuesday, Peterson had some strong words about the current American president and the state of evangelical Christianity.
"I think we're in a bad situation. I really do. Donald Trump is the enemy as far as I'm concerned," Peterson said.
"He has no morals. He has no integrity. But I have good friends who think he's wonderful. But I think they put up with it less and less. People are getting pretty tired of him, I think."
The author is reportedly finishing his final book and said that he is optimistic about what the future holds though he is most disturbed by megachurches.
"My feeling is that when you're a pastor, you know the people's names. When 5,000 people come into the church, you don't know anybody's name. I don't think you can be a pastor with just a bunch of anonymous people out there. In the megachurch, well, there's no relationship with anybody. I think the nature of the church is relational," he said.
"Now there's a lot of innovation in the church, and overall, I can't say I'm disheartened. I'm just upset by the fad-ism of the megachurch, but I just don't think they're churches. They're entertainment places."
I have heard The Message referred to as *The Mess*.
And I have heard people read from it and it certainly is.
“I now pronounce you Lake of Firelings...”
Who? Whaaa? Whatever, hippie! Smoke your bong before your next sermon, (Rev.?) Eugene Peterson...
If the congregation is zonked, then you MIGHT have a chance of getting through to them?
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matt 24:12.
Word. As in 1) Bible, the Word of God, 2) Christ, the Word who is God, and 3) true.
This is like the government saying they have no problem with counterfeit currency.
Nevah hoid of da bum.
I have to say that I really don’t see megachurches as real churches. They are not intimate enough. However, the small groups within them I would call “churches” of a fashion.
I mean, what is “church”? I don’t mean what is “the” church. That is a different question. What is “church”? And what is “a” church?
Romans 1
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.[a] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
He makes perfect sense - if God is merely a “concept”.
Otherwise, woe to him and his ilk (’It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble’).
Ah. Well, I never heard of this particular translation until today.
This is Eugene Peterson’s own translation of the verses you quote ( THE MESSAGE BIBLE ):
18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!
26-27 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
28-32 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!
That’s what happens when you rewrite the word of God.
whistling and graveyards come to mind. What Paul wrote in those verses is a direct indictment of his thinking. The irony is that was in this mornings readings.
The first church formed in Jerusalem (Acts) had at least 3,000 members. Comment?
“The Message” is not a translation - it’s a paraphrase. I never liked it, and after reading this article I like it even less.
Remember The Living Bible? My mom tried to get us to read it as kids. We rebelled by going all out King James rogue. LOL!!
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