Posted on 07/17/2006 7:14:21 AM PDT by pissant
Not many people of moderate persuasion have much sway in the church any more. I was reminded why recently when the Episcopal Church did two important things: It elected a woman bishop to head the denomination, and it backtracked on appointing gay bishops. The first move seems Christian. Women deserve to hold church office as much as political office (one diocese, however, was so incensed that it voted to leave the church, and worldwide there are still Anglican movements that do not permit women to be bishops or ordained priests).
The second move was an act of cowardice because it did not reflect the ideals of love in Christianity and was motivated by reactionaries in the Episcopal denomination. Countering a long tradition of laissez-faire tolerance, the reactionaries have gotten tough and threatened to form their own church if gays are promoted in the priesthood. The worldwide Anglicans are more intolerant, upholding that homosexuality is forbidden, unnatural, wrong or an outright sin, depending on who is doing the disapproving.
You'd think that someone would stand up and ask a simple question: Who are we to condemn gays if Christ didn't? In fact, who are we to condemn any sinner, since Christ didn't? Christianity is about forgiveness, and for the past two decades, as fundamentalism swept through every Protestant denomination, moderates and liberals have been driven out, and were roundly condemned as they left. Along with them went tolerance and forgiveness, not to mention love.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
What planet is this idiot living on?
I'm tempted to say Yahweh. But maybe that's naive.
California.
He is a salesman who selling the profitable new religion he invented.
Orthodox Christians are bad for business, because orthodox Christians have no desire to buy the New Age product he is selling.
It is in Chopra's best economic interest to lie about and mischaracterize orthodox Christianity, and so that's what he's doing.
This is not an op/ed or anything like that - it is what people in the commercial business call "adversarial advertising."
Its always the people who probably havent seen a church or a bible in years who presume to tell us all what the teachings of Jesus are. :(
Like G.K. Chesteron said, those who believe nothing will believe anything. Chopra's audience is just those people. Same people who buy into Scientology, The Bible Code or 'The Celestine Prophecy' (remember that one?).
Yeah, Deepak Chopra is the guy I want advice from. What a phony, mindless piece of fluff this guy is.
On the other hand, Oprah thinks he's just great. Oh, and she also just loves Dr. Phil, the worlds biggest a$$hole. She's got great taste in philosophers and advisers. /sar.
How does this person define "Christian"? I can't imagine a governmental decision accepting Christ as its Lord and Savior.
I was thinking urANUS.
Didn't this new-age fruit loop read what he wrote before he published it?
He implies that gays are sinners because they're gay. The definition of forgiveness means there's been an offense that the recipient of the offense decides to dismiss both emotionally and in action. Christ asks us to forgive the offense, but we are NOT obliged to ENCOURAGE it.
There's so much about this statement that just appalls me, I guess I need to forgive his pride in his ignorance.
Or Oral Roberts...
Archie Bunker said it best. The land of fruits and nuts.
ping! Yet another 'expert' analyzes the mess in TEC. This time, he isn't even Christian. Film will run constantly on MSNBC and have colorful commentary on the FX Channel.
/sarcasm off
That sounds about right. I listened to him once on PBS (of course). Never have I been so thoroughly unimpressed.
This person is obviously speaking as a heathen who learned everything he knows about Christianity from Heavy Metal CDs.
And I don't think Fudgepak is even a Christian, but he claims to be an expert.
Oprah is to women what Jesse Jackson is to blacks.
This is so foolish. Simply because you do not condemn a sinner, it does not follow that you automatically embrace his or her sins. You try to help them to see the error of their ways.
This doesn't mean that you loathe sinners, because we are all sinners. This author apparently has forgotten the proverb, "Hate the sin, but love the sinner."
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