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Church won't hold funeral for gay man
The Dallas Morning News ^ | August 9 2007 | JEFFREY WEISS

Posted on 08/09/2007 9:41:18 PM PDT by texas booster

An Arlington church volunteered to host a funeral Thursday, then reneged on the invitation when it became clear the dead man's homosexuality would be identified in the service.

The event placed High Point Church in the cross hairs of an issue many conservative Christian organizations are discussing: how to take a hard-line theological position on homosexuality while showing compassion toward gay people and their families.

Mr. Sinclair, 46, died Monday. He was a native of Fort Worth, a Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm helping rescuers find downed pilots, and a singer in the Turtle Creek Chorale, said his mother, Eva Bowers. He did not belong to a church.

His brother, Lee, is an employee and member of High Point, a nondenominational mega-congregation led by the Rev. Gary Simons. Mr. Simons is the brother-in-law of Joel Osteen, nationally known pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church.

When Cecil Sinclair became ill with a heart condition six years ago, church members started praying for him out of love for his brother, Mr. Simons said Thursday. And when Mr. Sinclair died of an infection, a side effect of surgery intended to keep him alive long enough for a heart transplant, a member of the church staff was immediately sent to minister to the family, he said.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: highpointchurch; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; megachurch; morals; religion; sin
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To: mithglin
I don’t condemn them to hell, I don’t have that authority.

Now don't go spoiling Christian fun. It's a favorite pastime for many.

61 posted on 08/10/2007 6:08:32 AM PDT by Sue Perkick (And I hope that what I’ve done here today doesn’t force you to have a negative opinion of me….)
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To: texas booster

Good for this part of the body of Christ.

How dare these people.

Give an inch and they try to take a mile.


62 posted on 08/10/2007 6:10:22 AM PDT by servantboy777
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To: GraceCoolidge

I’m with you, Grace.


63 posted on 08/10/2007 6:28:43 AM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: It's me; DoughtyOne
Here we have a church that volunteers to pray for the brother of an employee, has provided the family with assistance in the past with no expectation of repayment, attempts to give the man a decent burial and the survivors a decent funeral. The church used their media department to create a tribute to a man as best they could.

It was all done in Christian charity. They drew the line at a situation that they felt was offensive to the church.

My gut feeling is that the entire family was poor and would not have been able to afford a funeral. It happens more often than we would like. Dying is the most expensive part of living, it seems.

64 posted on 08/10/2007 6:32:08 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: mithglin
Well spoken.

I am amazed how often the attempts by our church to help others has come back to bite us. Never a major problem, but disappointing that altruistic assistance is never rewarded with even a thank you.

We keep doing it anyways.

65 posted on 08/10/2007 6:35:41 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: visualops
Careful now. This was in the days of DOS and I was truly a wizard among mortals. Back then I even knew more than my kids. ;')

Understand that when one searches through the descendants documents there may be items found that are not appropriate to present to a grieving family.

As a counselor, in the course of searching for a LW&T you may find photos of Mr. Smith in flagrante delicto with either Mrs Smith or not-Mrs Smith (it really doesn't matter).

Those things are simply inappropriate to present to a family especially before the funeral.

Now go back to the days when being gay was not a social statement (this is Texas). Are you going to present a family and his life partner with multiple photos of Joe being inappropriate with many nameless faces? Or to print out a screaming screed blaming a parent or lover for all of life's ills, and this painful death?

Be careful what you wish for. As a volunteer I tried to balance discovery with tact, especially when having HIV was a painful death sentence.

I certainly do not have all the answers but I do my best.

66 posted on 08/10/2007 7:08:27 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: srmorton
As a guy who cleans up after weddings, let me assure everyone that there is a definite cost in offering a facility for weddings and funerals. Just because no bill is presented does not mean that the event was cost free.

Our church had few guidelines many years ago. Alcohol was the primary prohibition. As time marches on we have added a few more.

Our prohibition against dancing in the church, while well meaning, has created a situation where a staff member can’t have a last waltz with his daughter. They simply are moving the reception elsewhere.

I expect that when the young generation starts to run the church, many of our rules will be relaxed or eliminated.

I also suspect that the stricter rules will be reinstated when the newly relaxed rules allow conduct that is unbecoming in a church.

67 posted on 08/10/2007 7:19:48 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: VeniVidiVici
Why do they feel it is necessary to announce his homosexuality at his funeral? I can’t imagine anyone at my funeral making some sort of announcement about my heretoness. “And he loved women. He was a fine hereto.” See? Just doesn’t cut it.

Because for those suffering from the disease of butt-sex-mania, their sexual exploits ARE their life.
68 posted on 08/10/2007 7:23:58 AM PDT by Antoninus (P!ss off a leftist wacko . . . have more kids.)
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To: Larry Lucido
Kudos for the best joke of the thread and an insightful comment.

Last time I checked, all of us will die if the Lord tarries. We do not know where someone will end up, since G_d determines that. We can only be responsible for ourselves and those few we touch.

Funerals are for closure for the living. I don’t like the theatrics of Mr. Phelps or crass political statements of a Wellstone funeral.

69 posted on 08/10/2007 7:27:40 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Non-Sequitur
Had I been Mr. Sinclair's family, the food would have gone to the nearest homeless shelter and the video would have gone directly into the dumpster.

As would be your right. But apparently a Church does not have a right to behavior that you disagree with.

Would you force a Church to hold a service for an acknowledged and proud drunkard? Would the Church have no recourse but to hold the service when it was revealed that a video showing his prodigious drinking skills would be shown at the funeral?

Why must the Church give up it's own values when confronted?

Why can't it make a stand and say, "No, not in our sanctuary. We won't allow a celebration of sin to take place where we meet to go into the presence of God in our time of communal worship."

Once again I find proof that those who scream "Tolerance!" the loudest are those who will not tolerate those who disagree with them.

70 posted on 08/10/2007 7:28:11 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: Sue Perkick; mithglin
Now don't go spoiling Christian fun. It's a favorite pastime for many.

Yawn.

I'd wager that, aside from leftist agents provocateur like Fred Phelps, the vast majority of Christians have exactly the same point of view about homos that mithglin does.

Few people on FR have more contempt for the vile and dangerous homosexual deathstyle and its wanton promotion in the Western media than I do. Yet I would never condemn any practitioner of such sexual fetishes to hell on my own authority--I don't have it. Besides, many can and do eventually repent through the grace of God...

The Truth About the Homosexual Rights Movement (Caution, graphic contents)
71 posted on 08/10/2007 7:37:19 AM PDT by Antoninus (P!ss off a leftist wacko . . . have more kids.)
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To: Antoninus

LOL. Spare me. To which part of the post was I responding?


72 posted on 08/10/2007 7:50:39 AM PDT by Sue Perkick (And I hope that what I’ve done here today doesn’t force you to have a negative opinion of me….)
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To: robertpaulsen
In between, they have nothing but contempt for the church and and it's teachings.

Maybe it's because the man and his partner would not have been welcomed at a church such as this that causes that contempt?

73 posted on 08/10/2007 8:23:22 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: srmorton
As far as this particular situation, I think the church handled it in the most generous and loving way possible...

Why? Because the sent the food over? Booting the funeral is not generous or loving.

74 posted on 08/10/2007 8:24:47 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
As would be your right. But apparently a Church does not have a right to behavior that you disagree with.

Why did they agree to the funeral in the first place? Nobody hid the man's sexual orientation so why all of a sudden the cold feet?

Would you force a Church to hold a service for an acknowledged and proud drunkard? Would the Church have no recourse but to hold the service when it was revealed that a video showing his prodigious drinking skills would be shown at the funeral?

Would the church have banned the funeral if there was a picture of him drinking a beer? The Bible teaches that those who divorce and remarry are committing adultery. Had Mr. Sinclair been a divorced man would this church censor out pictures of his second wife on the grounds that he and she were living an adulterous lifestyle? I think not. Mr. Sinclair was who he was. His family and his partner were a part of his life and accepted him for who he was, better or worse. If the church could not do the same then they had no business whatsoever of extending the invitation in the first place. But having done so then they should have allowed the family to remember Mr. Sinclair as they wanted to.

Why can't it make a stand and say, "No, not in our sanctuary. We won't allow a celebration of sin to take place where we meet to go into the presence of God in our time of communal worship."

Because if they ban the sinners then the church would be empty?

Once again I find proof that those who scream "Tolerance!" the loudest are those who will not tolerate those who disagree with them.

And that those who scream 'Sinner' generally are very selective in the sin that they protest against.

75 posted on 08/10/2007 8:36:04 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: Juliusz
Homosexuality is just one of many ways of sexual satisfaction and should remain in everybody's private, personal area.

If a person with a related spiritual or psychological problem enjoyed having sex with animals would you consider this 'just' one of many ways of sexual satisfaction?

On the surface there is nothing in your statement that would condemn any form of sexual pleasure (which did not violate the private will of another person), even sexual pleasure resulting from beastiality.

76 posted on 08/10/2007 8:39:51 AM PDT by Old Landmarks (No fear of man, none!)
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To: texas booster
mployee and member of High Point, a nondenominational mega-congregation led by the Rev. Gary Simons. Mr. Simons is the brother-in-law of Joel Osteen, nationally known pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church.

How can a "nondenominational" claim any stand on anything? Some denomination or another is going to allow, endorce or otherwise everything under the son.

mega-church... proof that snake handling need not be limited to tents and carnivals anymore.

77 posted on 08/10/2007 8:41:42 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: texas booster

The church is not obligated to celebrate anyone’s sins.

Does the Mafia ask the church to celebrate a hit man’s sins?


78 posted on 08/10/2007 8:43:33 AM PDT by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
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To: texas booster

He didn’t belong to ANY Church.


79 posted on 08/10/2007 8:45:35 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy
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To: mithglin

I tolerate the homosexual lifestyle. I don’t agree with it, I don’t approve of it.

I can agree with you to a point, however, what the homosexuals have done is gone totally wacko in my opinion. They have gone from being quiet to yelling and screaming about their rights. I tell you it is getting annoying and uncalled for if you ask me. If they would shut the heck up and live their lives they probably would be better off. Obviously that is not taking religion into my opinion.


80 posted on 08/10/2007 8:49:24 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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