Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

(V) Be A Test Case For Your Church
na | 06-29-2015 | OrangeHoof

Posted on 06/29/2015 8:24:16 AM PDT by OrangeHoof

If you are a member of a Bible-believing church that considers homosexuality to be sin, last week's SCOTUS decision making gay marriage a federal right has to be disturbing.

Soon, as they have with wedding bakers, florists and photographers, gays are likely to show up to be test cases asking to get married in your church.

If you are a church elder, what is your response going to be when it is your church they want to marry in?

There's a good chance your answer is going to be like this: "The Bible declares in Deuteronomy and Romans and elsewhere that homosexuality is abhorrent and sinful in the eyes of God and we refuse to allow such a wedding to take place on our grounds."

When you do, be prepared to be trashed on social media and have a complaint filed against you to the local civil rights commission and possibly sued for discrimination. Is this what you want?

Jesus told His early disciples to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves". (Matt 10:16)

The way to counter a discrimination charge is two-fold.

1) Insist that every wedding that takes place at your church must first be screened by the elder board or a marriage consultant who is affiliated with the church. Many hetero couples are not ready for marriage and this screening body is already in use at many churches for the means of advising couples if they are not suitable yet to become spouses.

2) Document hetero cases where this consulting board has turned down weddings based on the church's belief that the couple are not ready.

Thus when the gay test case comes to your church, your answer can be: "Our church screens all prospective marriage couples for their suitability and compatibility in marriage and we decline to marry those we believe do not meet our requirements. We have already turned away hetero couples we felt were not a good prospect for marriage."

"We invite this couple to go through our Bible study and take our counseling classes like any other prospective couple and we will evaluate them for compatibility with the tenets of our church."

Oh, but what if you have no documented hetero couples that your church has turned down? You may be dragged into court and be forced to produce evidence where you've rejected a hetero couple that wanted to marry.

That's where your Singles Ministry can help out. Find some guys and girls willing to go through the counseling and screening while acting out like what they DON'T want in a marriage partner for the sole purpose of being rejected so the church can document that rejection and be able to state with a straight face that they are not rejecting a gay couple solely for being gay.

Lawyers would have to find a different angle other than simple discrimination as a reason to prove the church is discriminatory.

Wise as serpents.

Oh, and in no way should you tell the homosexuals their wedding is being rejected on the basis of homosexuality. Rather fall back on the subjective basis of incompatibility, or an unbiblical nature. When you get right down to it, all of us are sinners and finding some reason to find a couple of homosexuals to be less than good mating material should not be very difficult as they are probably breaking other commandments too or showing behavior that would not make them suitable marriage partners.


TOPICS: Religion
KEYWORDS: bloat; churches; homosexualagenda; homosexualmarriage; scotus; ssm
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last
Protect your church by blunting any charges of discrimination. Set up a screening body that counsels prospective couples before approving their weddings and then document all HETERO couples who have failed the screening process. If your church has not documented this or has never turned down a hetero couple, then get some singles willing to go through some sham screenings in order to protect the church at some future time when their test case comes to call.
1 posted on 06/29/2015 8:24:16 AM PDT by OrangeHoof
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Actually, the Bible condemns sex within the same sex which is different from Homosexuality. Homosexuality is being solely attracted to the same sex.

Fornication and adultery are the real issues. If a church supports marrying people of the same-sex, they essentially endorse adultery.


2 posted on 06/29/2015 8:28:03 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Good advice. Well thought through.


3 posted on 06/29/2015 8:30:41 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Our church already has written guidelines for weddings, including the cost for members and non-members, several weeks of marriage counseling with the pastor, and a requirement that the couple may not be living together prior to the wedding.
That requirement may be strengthened in the coming weeks.


4 posted on 06/29/2015 8:30:59 AM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

I won’t feel the least bit sorry for the first gay couple that gets shot or beheaded for trying to force an Islamic mosque to marry them.


5 posted on 06/29/2015 8:32:11 AM PDT by MeganC (The Republic of The United States of America: 7/4/1776 to 6/26/2015 R.I.P.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof
Oh, and in no way should you tell the homosexuals their wedding is being rejected on the basis of homosexuality.

That's the ticket! Deny the Bible to protect your tax exempt status!

6 posted on 06/29/2015 8:36:26 AM PDT by dware (Yeah, so? What are we going to do about it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Weddings are a union between a man and a woman in holy matrimony. It is a consecrated religious service in our church, we do not do any civil unions.


7 posted on 06/29/2015 8:38:05 AM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MeganC

.... or thrown from a minaret.


8 posted on 06/29/2015 8:38:39 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

I disagree with your advice. You are advocating duplicity and lying (if it is arranged to have a young couple not be ready, it becomes a real issue, morally and legally).

My advice is much simpler - announce today that the church will no longer be performing weddings. Weddings are not a New Testament mission of the church. Far better to stop the periphery benefits offered by the church than to be sucked into a dishonest charade, or violate the moral foundations of Christianity.


9 posted on 06/29/2015 8:40:36 AM PDT by GilesB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof
Oh, and in no way should you tell the homosexuals their wedding is being rejected on the basis of homosexuality.

Lying by omission is still lying.

Lying is sinful.

Do not sink to their level. Be prepared for any persecution we may encounter due to our beliefs. If you sidestep the issue, you are not providing any kind of positive witness for Christ.

10 posted on 06/29/2015 8:41:43 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

No. The other USSC decision last week means that if you are accused of discrimination, you are guilty.


11 posted on 06/29/2015 8:42:03 AM PDT by Ingtar (Capitulation is the enemy of Liberty, or so the recent past has shown.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Simple. Stop doing state marriages.

Provide the sacrament of matrimony. Call it that. Start doing it now.


12 posted on 06/29/2015 8:49:21 AM PDT by agere_contra (Hamas has dug miles of tunnels - but no bomb-shelters.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof
...gays are likely to show up to be test cases asking to get married in your church.

Wouldn't a first question be whether a person is a member in good standing of the church in question?

Forgive my ignorance, but do people just walk up to a random church and ask to be married there? Do the churches comply?

Similarly, I have heard stories of Rabbis who have refused to perform interfaith weddings. Will this be allowed to continue? Will a Catholic church be forced to perform a gay wedding, while synagogues continue denying interfaith weddings?

Shouldn't it be either weddings for all anywhere, or weddings only at the discretion of the establishment based on its long-standing deeply held convictions?

-PJ

13 posted on 06/29/2015 8:49:56 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof
If your church has not documented this or has never turned down a hetero couple, then get some singles willing to go through some sham screenings in order to protect the church at some future time when their test case comes to call.

Wouldn't that be considered bearing false witness?

14 posted on 06/29/2015 8:51:03 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & Ifwater the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GilesB

this is they way to go

However parishioners who meet the church screening standards for adherence to church doctrine can be offered special religious services to bless their marriages that have been registered by the government

similar to Europe where people have civil service to get married legally and optional church services to bless their marriages

Ministers and priests will no longer be licensed by the government to perform marriages. No great loss. Go to a wedding registry in city hall. Church marriage returns to being a sacrament. Church membership in good standing and public statement of faith returns to being a requisite


15 posted on 06/29/2015 8:52:32 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

Good thoughts.

Our side is not as clever and crafty as we should be. We are by nature sedentary and fixed and unimaginative when it comes to political gamesmanship. The other side is constantly thinking up mischief-making, and we’d do well to borrow some of that personality.

By the way, the church would do well to institute rigorous pre-marital counseling, modeling, testing, and strict review, regardless of whether or not this was intended for same-sex marriage gamesmanship. The church and its pastors SHOULD scrutinize prospective couples and reject some numbers of them based on failures in maturity and preparation and devotion to Christ. People would FLOCK to that church, and any church which makes demands of its sheep.

Marriage has suffered greatly in recent decades, and prior to any of us pondering same-sex marriage. When debating same-sex marriage, we MUST move the discussion to marriage itself, (whether is Godly or civil forms), and demonstrate how important “tradtional” marriage is to humanity, society, and the state, as well as to God.


16 posted on 06/29/2015 9:00:32 AM PDT by mbarker12474
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

“Sorry, it appears that you seem to have failed the blood test”.


17 posted on 06/29/2015 9:02:51 AM PDT by Rodamala
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf

I like the idea. However, I fear the radical gays will try to infiltrate churches, then go get the civil marriage, and demand the church blessing on the strength of their membership in the church and their legal civil marriage license.


18 posted on 06/29/2015 9:06:44 AM PDT by GilesB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: OrangeHoof

The Catholic Church demands Pre-Cana conferences!!


19 posted on 06/29/2015 9:10:59 AM PDT by Ann Archy (ABORTION....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GilesB

Thank you for your comment. The issue of duplicity jumped out at me too.


20 posted on 06/29/2015 9:13:40 AM PDT by Conservative4Ever (Hey Hillary, ... liar, liar pants on fire.-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson