[cuban leaf]

I don’t think an anti gay marriage stance would drive young Christians from the church, but it may drive young “church attenders” away.

I’ve been noticing, for the last 20-30 years, that more and more people are getting off the fence and taking a stand for one side or the other. I wondered why prophesy seems to speak of both a great falling away as well as revival in the end times. There may be fewer church attendees, but more of them will be “real” Christians and not cultural ones or people “hedging their bets” regarding the “turn or burn” message.

[NavVet]

Bingo. It may really thin the ranks weeding out people who like to be seen going to church as opposed to actually following the teachings of Christ.

[L,TOWM]

Many churches have done a really bad job of defining Christ’s central message “I love you enough to die for you and nothing you do or can do will stop me loving you.” If we truly follow Jesus, we despise the sin, but love the sinner. When it comes to the whole spectrum of homo behavior, we have stated our positions poorly on the despising the sin side and not really even whispered that we love those that are broken in that way. There is enough condemnation to go around in the secular world without the church getting involved. There is also truly little love being showed from people that are commanded to love EVERYONE, especially their ‘enemies’.

Here’s another thing - it is definitely not helping that condemnation of homo marriage comes from churches with a significant number of their male members having their own issues with porn. Jesus was not lying when he told us to deal with the log in our own eye before dealing with the speck in the eye of our brother. Matthew 5:28 sets a pretty high bar and most men fall short.

Personally, I avoid wasting my time hanging out with a bunch of hypocrites or those that ignore passages in God’s Word, so I cannot blame the youth for leaving churches.

[scottjewell]

Excellent observation.

[ScottinVA]

There may be fewer church attendees, but more of them will be “real” Christians and not cultural ones or people “hedging their bets” regarding the “turn or burn” message.

I attend a community church in Yorktown, VA, at which the pastor regularly takes strong stands against homosexuality. We've had 300% growth in the past four years, many of whom are young people in their 20s. It's very encouraging!

Of course, the qualifier... this area of VA is very conservative.