Posted on 10/30/2005 3:51:32 PM PST by Cornpone
Johannesburg - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa has come out in support of polygamy and homosexuality - provided they promote the cause of the Gospel.
The church's bishop, Louis Sibiya, said on Sunday that there was not a simple "yes" or "no" answer as to whether a self-confessing gay person could be married and even ordained in the church, or whether a polygamist could be ordained into the ministry.
"Rather, we should ask how the acceptance and/or non-acceptance of these promote the course of the Gospel," he said, speaking at 30th anniversary celebrations of the church in southern Africa at Kempton Park, according to a statement.
"If we think that to elect as bishop he who has 14 wives will advance better the course of the Gospel, let it be so.
"If a gay presiding bishop would - in our opinion - advance even better the course of the Gospel, let it be so."
Sibiya added that the same support and conditions should apply were condoms to be kept in churches, diocesan offices and in parsonages, and pastors carried them on home visits.
He also questioned the custom of providing expensive funerals, saying that research had shown that the average cost of a funeral is R30 000.
"We need to be looking at traditions and customs that perpetuate poverty and suffering - and such funerals are one of them."
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa has a membership of 700 000 with 460 active pastors, 26 evangelists and 24 deaconesses, according to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America web site.
AS it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the SON of Man. People are going to be more and more wicked, and here is some more proof. The repentance for sin is just not being taught as Jesus taught. Satan has this world in a dread sway.
polygamy too... and people scoff when conservatives suggest that allowing gay marriage means anything goes?
Does anyone know if there will be any threads on homosexuality posted today?
Hmm...
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
"Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord."
"let every man have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband."
How much more clear does the Bible need to be?
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; ..... Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. 1 Thess 4:1-8
Nothing could be more twisted than mainstream protestant thought today - not even satire.
This summer at a Baptist family camp, the high school minister, fresh out of seminary, was telling the kids that homosexuality was okay. Another camper, gay it turns out, seemed to believe that it was hypocrisy to deny your sexual impulses, and everything is better than hypocrisy. Jesus hung out with sinners and all that. It was sad to see this camp, that our family has attended for several generations, become so sick and perverse. But expect this "anti-hypocrisy" doctrine to try to infiltrate your own church in the near future.
The sound we hear is that of Martin Luther hammering at his coffin.
What Gospel is he talking about?
This writer is confusing Christianity with Islam. In Islam, anything that advances the spread of that religion is acceptable (even the murder of innocents).
Christianity on the other hand is about a change of the heart.
Advocating sin (by one's living example) cannot show a potential convert what the Spirit has in store. While we are all sinners, it is the awareness and repentance of sin that invites the Holy Spirit into our hearts and bodies. It is the desire to be healed of our sin that announces our heartfelt intentions.
IMHO.
Come out in favor of these sins if you want to, but don't call it Christianity.
I understand Christian churches in Africa having to deal with converts to the faith who are polygamous, but I have never heard of outright endorsement as a solution.
This is not a new problem the Church from its very beginnings faced practices that were ingrained in a culture that were against the teachings of Christ. Some things could be given over the Christianity- like some of the days of pagan festivals being turned into Christian holy days. Others could not- infanticide and plural marriage for example. Not only is this policy anti Christian it is also racist as it assumes that Africans are incapable of following the moral standard set by Jesus.
Thanx, I stopped counting after 7.
DS - what you said!
Here you go.
Later gack pingout.
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