Posted on 11/03/2014 11:14:00 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
NWhen Southern Baptists convened a national conference here this week to discuss issues of human sexuality, bringing conservative evangelicals and LGBT Christian activists into the same ballroom was a recipe ripe for potential fireworks.
Perhaps the most shocking thing was how few fireworks there were.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission was clear: Sex is reserved between a man and a woman within the bonds in marriage. And openly gay evangelicals in attendance were equally clear: Homosexuality is not incompatible with Christianity.
No concessions were made, but leaders on both sides expressed surprise at how the two agreed to coexist. Put another way: The old emphasis on “Love the sinner, hate the sin” has become more a version of simply “Love all sinners. Ask questions later.”
“I do want to apologize to the gay and lesbian community on behalf of my community and me for not standing up against abuse and discrimination directed towards you. That was wrong and we need your forgiveness,” said North Carolina megachurch pastor J.D. Greear, drawing applause.
“We have to love our gay neighbor more than our position on sexual morality.”
For now, at least, some gay groups seem willing to give the other side the benefit of the doubt.
The conference brought together a “who’s who” within contemporary conversations on homosexuality and evangelicalism, including ERLC President Russell Moore and Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley, who attended the conference of 1,300 with a group of other pastors from his nondenominational North Point Community Church.
The interactions were largely friendly, with none of the hostility seen from both sides in recent years. Inside the ballroom and out in the hallway, LGBT activists mingled with Southern Baptist leaders. From the crowd, gay advocates tweeted responses to the speakers on stage, at times seeming to overtake the conference’s Twitter hashtag.
While the substance remained much the same, the evangelicals’ shift in tone was noticeable. Moore regularly referred to people who are gay — not merely people who are sexual sinners in need of redemption — and denounced so-called “ex-gay” therapy as “severely counterproductive.”
Even the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., the veteran culture warrior and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., seemed to have a change in tune, if not an outright change of heart.
“Early in this controversy, I felt it quite necessary, in order to make clear the gospel, to deny anything like a sexual orientation,” Mohler told the crowd. “I repent of that.”
Yet the thawed relations could not hide tensions between the ideas of “loving your neighbor” and “defending your rights,” particularly as legal recognition of same-sex marriage continues its lightning-fast expansion across the country. With the clashes between religious liberty and gay rights that inevitably follow, many still question whether the friendly conversations can continue.
The closest conference speakers came to politics came during presentations from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom on what it sees as a threat posed to religious freedom by legalized gay marriage.
Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington state florist who declined to sell flowers for a same-sex ceremony, drew a standing ovation. Erik Stanley of ADF, the organization defending business owners like Stutzman, called the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998 “a hate crime myth.” Attendees listen to a speaker during the 2014 ERLC National Conference.
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Attendees listen to a speaker during the 2014 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference. Photo courtesy of Rocket Republic, via ERLC National Conference
Mohler also decried “revisionists,” or LGBT advocates like Matthew Vines, who are encouraging evangelicals to embrace the idea that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. A copy of Mohler’s rebuttal to Vines’ book was included in the conference grab bag.
Even as Moore denounced ex-gay therapy, he nonetheless cited examples of some people who have changed their sexual orientation.The conference also featured four speakers, including Rosaria Butterfield whose personal story went viral last year, who spoke of leaving homosexuality or embracing celibacy.
Even so, specific political positions or political endorsements were largely absent. “Baptizing lost people and teaching them to vote Republican is not a revival,” Moore said to cheers and claps.
Numerous conference speakers encouraged Christians to love their neighbors who identify as LGBT. Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, who has cultivated a friendship with a lobbyist for the gay rights advocacy Gill Foundation, said he prays for LGBT activist Tim Gill.
Several speakers said the church should lead, not follow, in combating anti-gay bullying. “You have to ask, what greater lie we could tell about our savior than to distance ourselves from the hurting and the broken in the moment they needed us most,” Greear asked. - See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4Cj3Tea5L98J:www.religionnews.com/2014/10/31/southern-baptists-lgbt-activists-happily-co-exist-but-for-how-long/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a#sthash.OHTy0QTD.dpuf
Warning: That site is NOT safe for work.
Just what is it you don’t believe? That a 13-year-old boy could be virginal, and experience an unbidden sexual attraction?
He did. St. John the Baptist was a martyr for true marriage, just like St. Thomas More. But did preach in a way that Herod listened: Scripture says Herod liked to hear him preach. He must have spent some time trying to win him, as contrasted with simply repulsing him.
The individual congregation, reporting to Christ. That’s who defines it. There is no higher earthly authority or Catechism, etc.
The people who love organizing everything keep trying to pretend otherwise, but that the fact.
With respect, ma'am, that's not an "orientation". It's a temptation. Our sexuality is ordered, or oriented toward the other: men to women, women to men. I think you know this. Homosexual attractions are a disorientation, a perversion, a temptation to do what is inherently and irretrievably wrong. To simply call it another "orientation", as though it were no different morally from the orientation of men to women and women to men flies in the face of Sacred Scripture and Natural Law.
Not long ago I said churches would start marrying gays. And it won’t be long.
LOL!!!!
So "Baptist" means whatever each congregation says it means, and none may gainsay the other. You've described a bunch of Humpty-Dumpty's all shouting over each other.
Baptist ping
Unbidden? So he is the victim of his own thoughts?
Sin always starts in the mind. The “orientation” label is used to excuse it at that level. I think better to use the term lust when dealing with sexual thoughts. Just because someone desires to not have impure thoughts in theory, does not mean that he is guilt-free when he has them.
When christians start parsing words to make sinners feel better they do the gospel a disservice. Repentance requires that you hate your sin, even at the thought level.
Jesus loved sinners.
And He told them to go and sin no more.
There is almost no sin beyond His power to forgive, but salvation is not fire insurance. You can’t continue in it.
Amen and Amen!!!
A new ping list, perhaps?
Perhaps not challenging but disparaging.
It means that, contrary to recent emphatic blanket assertions made by multiple FRoman Catholics on behalf of all Catholics everywhere, there are Catholics who do indeed think about / concern themselves with Protestant beliefs and practices, and this thread is but one example of that.
That’s OK. Wow. I guess this stuff goes on at Union Square here in NYC but I miss it. A lot of hate in SF!
Many Southern Baptist Churches are reeking with “lukewarm theology” They better figure out which side of the fence they are on. No fence sitters in God’s Book! Sunday School classes gloss over the topic and as a result kids are not learning the Truth and are only getting what is being taught in the public schools (and we know what that is. . .just look at the state sex ed programs)and many parents who send their children aren’t bothering either. These are sad times we live in.
By the way did you know there is documentation that the microwave and GMO foods are turning boys into girls? Just sayin’
I used to follow ‘zomblog’ regularly; haven’t actually looked at it for a long time now. I guess the perversity and organized hate just got old. Those people are truly pathetic. They need our prayers ...
LOL!!!
If it works for others......
I don't know about you, but if I ever came across someone trying to put boys and girls into a microwave, I'd suggest that they try Hot Pockets instead.
I agree. It looks like it hasn’t been much updated since 2013. I’m sure the person who runs the site just overdosed on “disgusting.” But thanks; I’ll look it over more later.
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