Posted on 12/12/2006 5:12:42 PM PST by shrinkermd
Justin Lee believes that the Virgin birth was real, that there is a heaven and a hell, that salvation comes through Christ alone and that he, the 29-year-old son of Southern Baptists, is an evangelical Christian.
Just as he is certain about the tenets of his faith, Mr. Lee also knows he is gay, that he did not choose it and cannot change it.
To many people, Mr. Lee is a walking contradiction, and most evangelicals and gay people alike consider Christians like him horribly deluded about their faith. “I’ve gotten hate mail from both sides,” said Mr. Lee, who runs gaychristian.net, a Web site with 4,700 registered users that mostly attracts gay evangelicals.
The difficulty some evangelicals have in coping with same-sex attraction was thrown into relief on Sunday when the pastor of a Denver megachurch, the Rev. Paul Barnes, resigned after confessing to having sex with men. Mr. Barnes said he had often cried himself to sleep, begging God to end his attraction to men.
His departure followed by only a few weeks that of the Rev. Ted Haggard, then the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and the pastor of a Colorado Springs megachurch, after a male prostitute said Mr. Haggard had had a relationship with him for three years...
...A lot of people are freaked out because their only exposure to evangelicalism was a bad one, and a lot ask, ‘Why would you want to be part of a group that doesn’t like you very much?’ ” Mr. Lee said. “But it’s not about membership in groups. It’s about what I believe. Just because some people who believe the same things I do aren’t very loving doesn’t mean I stop believing what I do.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I've showed more than 7.
I wonder just what 'seven' is refered to by Dr. (or Mr.?) Gagnon...
Lots of that was probably true of the guy sleeping with his father's wife in 1 Corinthians. Paul never questioned his salvation, but he certainly insisted that he be kicked out of church until he repent.
"Homosexuality," Plato wrote, "is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce." This attitude of Plato's was characteristic of the ancient world...
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/1979boswell.html
Acceptance does not salvation make.
In a way, when the homosexual lobby says "everybody is gay", is a warped sense they are right, in that everbody is a sinner, we all have the ability to choose it. It is our actions, or even our thoughts that make the sin. Which is of course why we need grace, because NOBODY can be as perfect as Jesus. The law was given to the Jews, but it could not save them because no one could live the perfect life.
So we are all liars, cheats, and thefts, and adulterors (for even if you have looked at another women with lust in your heart, you have commited adultery), and what other sins you want to list. But we can be saved by his grace, (and as others have said) as long as we repent and ask for forgivness and strive to "go and sin no more".
Repentance, what is that???
Repentance is when we find our self in sin and, we ask God to forgive us, right? Repentance is saying we are sorry for what we have done and, we will no longer do this again.
God promises us He will forgive of our sins but not in our sins.
So, repentance is not a word we should use loosely.
If we are truly repentant, we will abstain from sinning again.
Please don't give me the old crutch, He is all forgiving, if you are going to take it out of context.
The best reply I have read thus far.
Now, a Democrat would take issue with your post.
The sin that needs the most vociferous and hateful condemnation is always someone else's.
"In his Symposium the ancient Greek philosopher Plato described three sexual orientations (through the character of the profane comedian Aristophanes) and provided explanations for their existence using an invented creation myth. [1] Aristophanes' fable is only one of many perspectives on love in the Symposium, and should not be considered identical with Plato's own ideas. Most of the Symposium's speeches are intended to be flawed in different ways, with the wise Socrates coming in at the end to correct their errors.
If you want an education rather than a means of affirming your a priori beliefs it would be wise to read Answers.Com entry on this subject which can be found here: http://www.answers.com/topic/terminology-of-homosexuality.
Incidentally, Foucault, a homosexual and an atheist, nailed the problem for Christians here:
...Post structuralist theorist Michel Foucault has argued that homosexual and heterosexual identities didn't emerge until the 19th century; before that time terms described practices and not identity. Foucault cites "Westphal's famous article of 1870 on 'contrary sexual sensations'" as the "date of birth" of the categorization of the homosexual (Foucault 1976). The point here is Christians condemn the sin but do not reject the sinner as beyond redemption. Just read any FR post on homosexuality and you find a hatred and rage that makes Hamlet's death wish seem like the chuckle of a freckle faced boy.
God knows everyone and uses everyone to make his point--even people identified as "homosexuals."
Yes, you are quite correct, but note that what is condemned is homosexual sexual acts per se rather than a blanket condemnation of people.
Sin is a sin - it does no good to pretend like it's not.
I agree, and like everyone else you won't escape either.
Good post. Evocative of a true compassionate spirit.
Right!
Condemn the SIN, not the SINNER.
But Jesus told the woman: Go, and sin no more.
Obviously, that statement is for ALL of us; not just her!
Are you concerned at all about his soul and it's eternal abode?
Just what are some of the things you will tolerate?
Joshua 24:15
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
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