Posted on 12/19/2009 4:41:36 PM PST by Steelfish
Evangelical Church Opens Doors Fully To Gays Renegade pastor in Denver finds new followers, but makes enemies too
DENVER - The auditorium lights turned low, the service begins with the familiar rhythms of church: children singing, hugs and handshakes of greeting, a plea for donations to fix the boiler.
Then the 55-year-old pastor with spiked gray hair and blue jeans launches into his weekly welcome, a poem-like litany that includes the line "queer or straight here, there's no hate here."
The Rev. Mark Tidd initially used the word "gay." But he changed it to "queer" because it's the preferred term of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people invited to participate fully at Highlands Church.
Tidd is an outlaw pastor of sorts. His community, less than a year old, is an evangelical Christian church guided both by the Apostle's Creed and the belief that gay people can embrace their sexual orientation as God-given and seek fulfillment in committed same-sex relationships.
Disagreements over homosexuality and the Bible have divided mainline Protestant churches for years. In evangelical churches, though, the majority view has held firm — the Bible clearly condemns homosexual acts. The common refrain at evangelical churches: "love the sinner, hate the sin."
But with younger evangelicals and broader society showing greater acceptance of homosexuality, many evangelical churches can expect, at the least, a deeper exploration of the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Then the 55-year-old pastor with spiked gray hair and blue jeans launches into his weekly welcome, a poem-like litany that includes the line “queer or straight here, there’s no hate here.”
And here I thought God hates sin. At least thats what my Bible says. Wonder what this ‘pastors’ book says.
Don't mistake the ELCA for Lutheran. They are a disgrace to the name. All the other Lutheran denominations in America are socially conservative. (I'm a Lutheran pastor, LCMS.)
“Tidd is an outlaw pastor of sorts.”
He is a heretic if he is teaching these things.
Mark Levin calls them Secularist Churches. I think he named them well.
Secular...
...just bath houses with a steeple.
Full Disclosure: in 5-10 years look for a series of multiBILLION dollar lawsuits against these churches as widespread sodomy of young boys by queer members and staffers is disclosed.
Cheers!
We love all our children and want them all to live in an upright way. Everyone is tempted to some kind of disordered behavior. Everyone. Love consists, not in saying "Well, OK, have at it," but in saying, "We're with you, we're praying for you: Strive hard to do the right thing, and avoid sin, through the grace and blessing of God."
Also, the church and pastor highlighted in the linked article are not Lutheran.
[Are Evangelical & Lutheran Churches Relevant Anymore?]
Don’t mistake the ELCA for Lutheran. They are a disgrace to the name. All the other Lutheran denominations in America are socially conservative. (I’m a Lutheran pastor, LCMS.)
_____________________________________
We joined the LCMS decades ago because the ELCA was drifting Liberal then.
The only thing “evangelical” about this church is perhaps it’s outreach to our youth in the sick attempt to indoctrinate them into the queer lifestyle.
Just like Obama and his fist-gate czar.
I have some “poetry” for him:
A worthless person, a wicked man,
Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,
Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet,
Who points with his fingers;
Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil,
Who spreads strife.
Therefore his calamity will come suddenly’
Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.
There are six things which the LORD hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.
When did these weirdos co-opt the term “evangelical”?
Just another article with an agenda of attempting to make Biblical Christians question and doubt their faith and trust in God’s word, and feel marginalised. It won’t work, we know Who is our Rock. We also know that Jesus Himself said that the way would be narrow and the world would despise us as outcasts. The world is headed more and more towards the one-world religion, along with the one-world government.
Also, I’d bet it’s one of those emergent congregations.
The term “evangelical” has been being re-defined for years. Now even the term “fundamentalist” is in the same process, thanks to a group loosely known as the “young fundamentalists”, who are in the same process of questioning the “old time religion” as evangelicals went through decades ago, when evangelicals and fundamentalists split. It’s not to the point of questioning such fundamentals as inerrancy of the Bible and such, but wanting to pull bricks from the wall, no matter how small the brick, is always how these things begin.
Thank you for remembering the 8th Commandment, FRiend.
We’re all tending to get as polemical as brother Martin of Erfurt these days.
My church, like ALL decent Christian churches, has always been fully open to gays. We have also always been open to adulterers and to thieves. Unlike the church in this story though, we are loving enough to welcome all comers and still to provide the guidance that they so desperately need.
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