Posted on 04/28/2011 5:55:29 AM PDT by ZGuy
Being gay is a gift from God, asserts one church in Ohio.
That’s the message that Central United Methodist Church is spreading throughout their community via a digital billboard, launched on Monday.
This “simple statement,” the church announced, is “intended to be a gift to those who have experienced hurt and discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.”
“The Church seeks nothing less than the healing of the world, and Central UMC wants to offer words and acts of healing to those hurt and marginalized,” the website states.
Jeff Buchanan, the director of Exodus Church Equipping & Student Ministries, agrees that the Church must display love and compassion for those in the LGBT community. But he opposes the message that CUMC is sending through their “Being Gay is a Gift from God” campaign.
“Why would God bestow this ‘gift’ only to condemn it throughout the Bible? This would seemingly contradict His character as a God who is loving and just.”
The Toledo church’s controversial billboard ad is directly connected to a long month-long sermon series by its new pastor, Bill Barnard. The church is hoping that the ad will move the public towards tolerance, reported ABC 13, and not perpetuate anti-gay attitudes and behaviors, which were harming the LGBT community.
The purposes of their recently launched campaign are threefold: to offer welcome to all persons who are gay; to challenge the larger Church to fully accept persons who are gay into the life of the Church; and to call on all people to bring all the gifts of who they are to God.
“By welcoming and living in community with faithful Christians who happen to be gay, we have come to understand that being gay is part of who God made them to be,” CUMC proclaims on their site. “And by gay Christians bringing all that they are to God, the body of Christ has been strengthened.”
“In fact, we would experience the body of Christ as incomplete without LGBT persons.”
Barnard told ABC, “We really believe that being gay is a gift from God, and it’s not anything that anyone has to apologize for or be ashamed about. So that’s how [the campaign] came to be.”
Believing sexuality to be a “good gift from God” – or as they declared yet another way in God’s infinite diversity – CUMC defines sin as denying who God created them to be.
“The overwhelming scientific evidence is that people are born with their sexual orientation, that it is not a choice,” the church contends. “Fully accepting one’s sexual orientation and identity is key to leading a normal and healthy life.
“Forcing people to act against their God-given sexual orientation will lead to disordered lives. Allowing people to act in accordance with their God-given sexual orientation leads to reconciliation.”
While deeming the marginalization of LGBT persons as “unjustified” – mentioning that Jesus did not speak directly regarding homosexuality – the Toledo church recognizes that the Church today continues to be divided over interpretation of Scripture related to homosexuality.
Just two months ago, 33 retired United Methodist bishops urged the denomination to remove its ban on homosexual clergy, prolonging the undying debate within the church body.
CUMC hopes to unify believers by focusing more on “things that [they] agree on, such as kindness, justice, and humility,” instead of contributing to hate and discrimination, which they believe leads not to reconciliation, but to self-destructive practices within the LGBT community.
“Holding people responsible for matters in which they have no control is irrational and immoral,” the church declares. “We believe that both those within and without the Church are hungry for dialogue about homosexuality that reflects compassion and humility rather than intolerance and strife.”
Buchanan contends that CUMC’s message “tells people that the only option they have is a gay identity.”
But “people need to understand that thousands of men and women have found there is another way and have found freedom from homosexuality through the power of Christ,” he says.
Even if there was conclusive evidence supporting the theory that people were “born this way,” Buchanan stresses that Christians were called to be “born again.”
“While we may not choose our desires, we do have the ability and responsibility to choose whether or not we act on those desires. Our goal should be living a life that is congruent with Scripture,” he says.
“Genesis describes the fall of man and the permanent effects that sin has on us spiritually, mentally, and physically. Just because something may be inherent does not mean it was intended.”
Despite the outcry of many from the Christian community against CUMC’s campaign, Barnard continues to proclaim that homosexuality is a “gift” and has people come and remain just “as they are.”
Working to accept persons who are gay into the full life of the Church, CUMC is a founding member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which is the United Methodist movement for gay equality in the denomination.
Two of the volunteer staff members at their church, including the music director and lead team chair, live with their partners and have served the church for over seven years.
Grieved over the misinterpretation of Scripture and false teaching that is being promoted by CUMC and many other churches like them, Buchanan encourages churches to deliver the message of Christ with love and grace, but also with accuracy and uncompromised truth.
“We must always remember that authentic love is built upon a foundation of grace and truth.”
Agreed. But sadly, much of modern evangelicalism can be characterized this way.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2711746/posts?page=74#74
You wrote that to even think about disordered sex is the heart lust Jesus condemns.
You equated “lust” and “a temptation to lust.”
Christ has condemned your pharisaical stance.
The Catholic Church teaches, and has always taught,that a person can be innocent, and yet suffer temptation (as Our Lord did) as long as, with the grace of God, he resists this evil. The Catholic Church also teaches that temptation must not be accommodated in any way: in your thoughts or in your words, in what you do or what you fail to do.
This is quite different from a church like the one this article describes, which teaches that homosexuality is "a gift, not a sin."
lets look and see what Jesus Himself says
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Matt 5 ;27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery : 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
AP->I don’t think you understand Salvation. Salvation is not dependent on what WE do but what God does. It is a free gift from God that we receive without merit.
I know plenty of Christians who struggle with sin.
Thank You AP! Now I get to expand on it.
Salvation is entirely a gift from God.
However in order to be saved we MUST repent of our sins. "Repent" means to turn away from. So we have to turn away from our sins, and turn towards God in order to be saved.
If someone identifies themselves as "gay" they are stating that their sexual choices are part of who they are and are not sinful (even though God calls those actions abomination). They are refusing to repent.
A person who does not repent cannot be saved
I know many people who struggle with various sinful desires. In fact, I am not sure I know any who do not. But these Christians do not identify themselves as their sin.
The Christian who struggles with gluttony does not support "glutton pride" and claim that his overeating is exactly the way God made him and is the right thing for him to do. He knows he is sinning but struggles against it. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
I can say the same for those who struggle with anger, porn, any other sexual addiction, jealousy, lying etc.
SO, someone who does not repent can not be a Christian, and someone who labels themselves "gay" has not repented.
We should pray for sinners.
The catholic church, like many cults , are very big on appearances ... but God isnt at interested with a cup that is clean on the outside .... On that day those that tried so hard to please God will only find that the works they did were sin before a Holy God, that is only pleased with His work in us...
There are no such people. If they call their sins "not sin" then they haven't repented. (So these people you refer to are not Christians.)
Do not mean to offend, BUT, if your church has this type of doctrine, you need to move and change churches. Why would you expose yourself (and spouse and children?) to this doctrine?
You did not say that ...but they think that those entertaining thoughts they have are "just temptations"
You did not say that ...but they think that those entertaining thoughts they have are "just temptations"
We are all sinners ...
Yes, exactly: Jesus does not condemn being tempted to look at a woman so that one can lust after her. He condemns the actual failure to overcome that temptation, which is to say that He condemns the actual act of looking at a woman for the purpose of lusting after her.
Scripture please???
Actually if you look at a woman and have a lustful thought ..that is adultery... One does not have to INTEND to have that thought.or go looking for a woman to lust after .
In that situation, the lust was there first. The person “looked” solely for the purpose of lusting.
It’s the difference between scrolling through a Maureen Dowd thread on Freerepublic and closing it when the inevitable Catherine Zeta-Jones pictures become distracting, and actually going to Google and typing in “Catherine Zeta Jones Naughty”.
One is a temptation and no sin when refused- the other is adultery, just as Jesus said.
That's indeed the sad truth: speaking here of myself before all else.
Your insane anti-biblical offensive-to-God sect does not understand that
overcoming the internal and real temptation to leer at a woman lustfully is NOT condemned by Jesus,
whereas actually leering at a woman lustfully IS condemned by Jesus.
This illustrates the pitiful and dangerous nature of your sect’s perversions.
“Salvation is entirely a gift from God.”
If by “entirely” you mean “not entirely”.
“However in order to be saved we MUST repent of our sins.”
So in other words, Salvation is dependent on us, not God. We must Save ourselves. God is like a spectator in the Salvation process.
“A person who does not repent cannot be saved”
For example, babies? Right? A baby cannot repent so even God can’t help them. God is helpless to Save someone unless that person performs X number of tasks.
Sarcasm aside, I don’t think you understand the concept of Grace. You have works-based, man-centered view of Salvation although you seem to have grasped the Methodist view that we can fall from Grace. Your view seems to be somewhat like the world’s opinion that you can be “good enough” to get into Heaven.
The Biblical view is that repentance is a fruit of Salvation but there is no quid pro quo. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and make a liar out of God”.
“How about Christians who don’t struggle with their sins, and who, rather, call their sins not sin? “
The church is full of people who justify their sin. They may call greed and lust for money “success” or “blessings” or “God’s harvest”. I’m sure Joyce Meyer can justify her wealth and extravagance just as easily as a gay person can justify their adultery.
The question is : Which one is struggling with sin and which one celebrates it?
Matthew 5:28
“But I say to you, that whosoever [anyone who] shall look on a woman [focuses his eyes on a woman] to lust after her [in order to lust after that woman] hath already committed adultery with her in his heart [is guilty of adultery].”
In very plain langauge, it is “looking in order to lust” that is the sin.
Jesus condemns the deliberate act of looking at a woman with the purpuse and intent to facilitate sexual daydreams.
Overcoming a truly felt desire to commit such a deliberate act is a victory for Christ.
(Your sect’s perverted views notwithstanding.)
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