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 ...
Gee Rev. Tidd, I think God prefers the terms "sodomites" and "abominations".
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Does he also give “shout outs” to welcome the adulterers, fornicators, thieves and murderers?
Just when we thought home-schooling was the answer,now we’re going to have to have home-churching!
My church, like ALL decent Christian churches, has always been fully open to gays. decent churches
what utter crap
did you just join this site to mention that.
Any decent person religious or not knows that homosexuals do an unnatural act and if anyone thinks otherwise then they too are just as perverted and sick.
the church and the military has been under attack from the perverts and homosexuals for a long time. though if you look at pollster’s post about decent Christian churches then you would see the homosexuals/perverts are going about their agenda.
They come on here and say things like pollsters’ post or they say how get to know a few by going to church and then letting one of the church members know they’re homosexual and then have that person say how they know a homosexuals and he just wants to be left alone or how they just want to love someone.
it’s all a ploy but for anyone who goes along with that crap then they only need to go to MA or go to events like the folsom fair and see how they really are
So you go to a church which doesn’t welcome SINNERS?
The building must be empty.
I consider myself a decent person or at least strive to be one. And as you say, I do know that homosexual acts are unnatural and against God's will. That is why we are supposed to welcome homosexuals into our churches - so we can provide guidance on proper behavior. As my favorite writer said: "And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your Master eat with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said to them, They that are whole do not need a physician, but they that are sick. Go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
I like your style.
Welcome to FR. :)
Thank you.
I am disgusted by those who pretend that a homosexual relationship can be meaningfully called "marriage", not that many gays actually want that status in anything like the traditional sense. I am even more disgusted by those who try to rewrite the Bible to suggest that homosexuality is okay with God. He made Himself perfectly clear, in the Old and New Testaments, and I'm quite confident that He will tell us clearly if He changes His mind. Still, I want homosexuals coming to real churches (not these shams that are ordaining homosexuals or even naming a bishop who abandoned his teenage daughters to shack up for a gay relationship). Otherwise, they will never be reminded that they owe it to themselves and to God to change their behavior.
yes but some homosexuals come to church with an agenda
They go to church to meet others who have attended that church, they befriend them and then when they think that the person who they have befriended will fall for their “I just want to love someone in peace or I want to be private and love” then they hope that their homosexuality will be accepted in that church.
If that sounds nuts then it is not as I have met some who have said that they have nothing against homosexuals because they know one and they are nice and want to be left alone.
Even on here one woman said that sadly, she fell for it.
I agree however that the door should be open to help those and make them normal and act naturally however your post implied that if a Christian church does not accept them or their doors are not open to them then they are not decent.
Now that is not what you maybe meant but to some including me it did imply that.
Anyway have a merry Christmas to you and your family
second post with added comment.
The lesbian who left VT and moved to VA and fond that church is good and it shows there is hope for them. many who left the perverted lifestyle have said it was wrong but of course the activist homosexuals do not make money off those who leave the lifestyle and demean those who leave their agenda.
I hope many more find their way to a natural way as nature intended.
No matter how much the homosexuals say this and that the fact remains that nature intended for two of the same sex to reproduce and carry on the human race
yes but some homosexuals come to church with an agenda
They go to church to meet others who have attended that church, they befriend them and then when they think that the person who they have befriended will fall for their “I just want to love someone in peace or I want to be private and love” then they hope that their homosexuality will be accepted in that church.
If that sounds nuts then it is not as I have met some who have said that they have nothing against homosexuals because they know one and they are nice and want to be left alone.
Even on here one woman said that sadly, she fell for it.
I agree however that the door should be open to help those and make them normal and act naturally however your post implied that if a Christian church does not accept them or their doors are not open to them then they are not decent.
Now that is not what you maybe meant but to some including me it did imply that.
Anyway have a merry Christmas to you and your family
Chances are, this isn’t the first bit of heresy to seep into this “church,” not by a long shot.
Christ said... Mark 10:6
But from the beginning of creation he [God] made them male and female. 10:7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, 10:8 and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 10:9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
That looks ironclad to me, no divorce and no homosexuality a.k.a. same sex marriage.
So? I never said either was ok.
I said church is for sinners. Who are we supposed to be witnessing to? Other Christians? Jesus spent time with all the outcasts of society, not the local bigwigs.
Correction. Church isn’t for sinners. The word church as used in the Bible implies the blood-washed believers in Christ - not a building. The believers come together to worship and praise God, whether it’s in a building or by a river. Sinners have no place in the “church,” which is also termed the body of Christ.
Jesus told us to go ye into the world - not for the world to come into our gatherings. (sadly, it has) We are to witness to the lost.
Everybody is a sinner.
I would hope that Christians could use that opportunity, regardless of why they came.
They go to church to meet others who have attended that church, they befriend them and then when they think that the person who they have befriended will fall for their “I just want to love someone in peace or I want to be private and love” then they hope that their homosexuality will be accepted in that church.
There's one detail that prevents that from happening in a decent church - the Bible. I'm not sure how the perverts expect to get around that.
I agree however that the door should be open to help those and make them normal and act naturally however your post implied that if a Christian church does not accept them or their doors are not open to them then they are not decent.
If a church does not welcome all who come in peace, they are not following the Word of God. If a church excuses behaviors that are prohibited by the Bible, then they are equally wrong.
Merry Christmas to you too.
I don't go quite that far on divorce. Jesus had some specific words on that topic, and even if he gave grudging permission to divorce, he did permit it in cases of infidelity. As for me and my life, I am content to marry one and only one time. For others, the Bible does permit divorce at least in that situation.
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