Posted on 03/24/2014 8:14:00 PM PDT by Coronal
World Vision's American branch will no longer require its more than 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman.
Abstinence outside of marriage remains a rule. But a policy change announced Monday [March 24] will now permit gay Christians in legal same-sex marriages to be employed at one of America's largest Christian charities.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
This reads like a claim that because its base has gotten theologically looey, then so should it. That it goes with something closer to the lowest common denominator.
Well if it wants to stick with a looey base, then it may get its wish. Let it be the non-orthodox agency it wants to be, and let orthodox agencies take its mission in a more godly manner.
It won’t care about Scripture if it does not care about the Lord first. “Scripture says” hectoring is vain with agnostics and atheists.
... but still in line with what I said before, it shouldn’t be sawed off without a serious appeal. Erring Christians are not necessarily non-Christians. But I agree the intolerable shouldn’t be tolerated. It needs to be addressed one way or the other.
Well...at least we all know the ending. However, it’s the “getting there” part that is a painful. Hopefully, more folks will wise up.
Trials are never thrown in at random. The devil might think they are, but we know better. The devil can’t out fox God. It’s the attitude we take in the face of the trials that will matter. Resist the devil and he will flee from you — an old saw, but accurate. Dig in, and soon you will have heavenly reinforcements.
It’s just that my heart and sympathy has always been on the side of at least trying to take the risks needed to help save these miserable “gay” souls from Satan.
I’d agree that acquiescing to a move like what World Vision made is not among those things. But neither is immediately leaving World Vision in the lurch.
Some disagree — they say that “gay” indicates such a hard case that not even God will save so don’t bother trying any outreach. You’re (rhetorical you) going against New Testament scripture and power if you say this, but I’ve known some very dogged proponents of that position. They are as difficult to deal with as “gay” is. They are part of Satan’s plan to try to keep “gay” “gay.”
this is disappointing... infiltrated at every aspect... at every turn... kind of like the Barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire...
I have been sponsoring children through World Vision since the late 1970’s so this is very distressing. I think I will shift my donations to the Sisters of Life.
The child in the womb whose mother is considering abortion is truly the poorest of the poor.
“I’m not trying to defend World Vision, but I think you would be well served by diagnosing the cause — “Why” did they take this horrible decision? “
They did it either because they don’t consider the policy worth opposing, or because they support it.
Maybe we do need to put more vision on that world. Let’s care about who’s dying among our neighbors, then care about who’s dying on the other side of the globe.
Is there some way that churches could get nearer, not further, with respect to World Vision. We have brethren with a sin problem. Maybe they didn’t want to address it because they thought they would catch the flak all alone if they did. And if that perception is true, shame on “orthodox” Christendom for letting it happen.
And my own favorite hobby horse — outreach to the miserable “gays” themselves — is ultimately part and parcel of an integrated “vision.” Are we going to treat this problem like that of Old Testament lepers? Let’s make up our minds.
The homosexual mafia strikes again.
King James Version
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils...”
The promotion of the sin of sodomy is the promotion of the flesh in rebellion against the Lord's creation and His laws of nature. Sodomy and lesbianism are unnatural and rebuked by the Lord over and over again in scripture. Sodomy has become a false god to many. Open celebrated sin reveals an unrepentant heart. To proclaim ‘unity’ with such people is to claim unity with the devil's camp.
1 John 1:6
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth..”
Hebrews 10:26-27
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”
Here’s a customer review of Stearn’s book posted at Amazon:
I know Richard Stearn’s intentions are good but the book leaves me with a hole in my stomach:)
My journey in India has taken me through the paradigm of World Vision-like organizations (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan’s Purse, Gospel for Asia, The Leprosy Mission, etc) and I have seen their problems on the ground. Consequently, I am disappointed Richard Stearns gives a stinging critique of the American church but doesn’t adequately address the legitimate criticisms—well known to insiders—of the Christian, multi-national aid industry. Does one really think groups like World Vision are immune to the empire building and wasteful spending (and in many cases, outright corruption) that the American church is susceptible to?
But forget all the issues of corruption and gross inefficiencies suffered by most international Christian organizations. Those are just symptoms of some fundamental problems with many Christian foreign-aid organizations.
1. They have followed secular humanist priorities which view injustice and physical need as man’s primary problem when, as Christians, we are to understand these as symptoms of a much deeper spiritual crisis that exists in communities unable/unwilling to care for their own people. With so much emphasis in the secular media on the issues of poverty & injustice it is certainly easier and more lucrative to follow their lead rather than stand as a prophetic voice and point to the spiritual crisis that is the deeper issue and offer the solution of Jesus.
2. At least in the Indian context, their commitments to donors and the consequent program implementation deadlines require the quick application of funds with little regard for taking the time to build synergy with the local church and work with them to address the spiritual problems in the community that have created the symptoms of poverty and injustice in the first place.
3. In some instances, as is the case with World Vision India, their secular and governments partnerships prevent them from addressing the spiritual issues altogether!
4. As a result of points 2 & 3, they have often ignored the role of local church in enabling/empowering them to set the agenda and priorities in their region such that the deeper spiritual issues can be addressed while simultaneously dealing with the community’s symptoms in a manner that is sustainable and does not undermine the long-term, spiritual initiatives.
Finally, there seems to be a mutually symbiotic relationship between the Christian aid organization and the American Christian donor that is not good. The donor get’s to sacrifice a bit of their wealth and lifestyle (Stearn’s bit was to sacrifice his multi-million dollar income for a MEAGER $400,000/year salary at World Vision) in order to
(a) avoid the sacrifice Jesus and the disciples had to make, i.e. the sacrifice of their lives for transforming the world with the gospel;
(b) avoid the guilt associated with living a lifestyle that cannot be reconciled with Jesus’ teachings and the poverty they see on TV;
(c) stay in line with the secular humanist’s powerfully influential, yet biblically uninformed conviction that poverty and injustice are mankind’s worst enemies and can be solved without the God of the Trinity.
In turn, the Christian aid organization gets to receive the donor’s dollars with few questions asked...and even take pot shots at the Church and claim it’s being prophetic in doing so!
Neither seem interested in each other’s transformation. Neither seem interested in transforming communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ and thereby truly helping the community solve their own problems for the long term. Transforming communities through the Gospel takes time and involves face-to-face, relationship based on human interaction that results in discipling people. There is too much human sacrifice involved in that. Governments (such as the Indian government) and the powerful forces that under-gird poverty and injustice will persecute you for it. Furthermore, the secular humanists find that approach abhorrent in the age of pluralism and have a much faster turn-around time in their short-term approach. Consequently their approach seems to set the bar for today’s Christian aid organizations.
Bottom line: It’s a lot easier all around for rich Christians in America to simply throw money at the world’s immediate problems rather than be prophetic and involve sacrificially in addressing the spiritual roots. And, by the way, World Vision is happy to handle that money for you!
Stearn’s book was basically an extended argument for supporting World Vision hidden behind a veneer that wreaks of poor ecclesiology. Certainly World Vision will benefit financially from his polemic (and what better book-release timing than in the middle of the US recession). But World Vision’s short term gains will not be long term gains for the gospel of Jesus...nor for the communities being reached with this gospel of secular humanist ideology that under-girds many “Christian” foreign-aid programs which bypass the local Church’s discipleship mission.
bump
I really do appreciate your warnings to us in this regard. Thank you.
Of course we shouldn’t treat gays as lepers. The Catholic Church has an outreach to gays through Courage. But neither should we confirm them in their sin which will lead to eternal death.
What World Vision seems to be doing is confirming them in their sin.
Wow, so much truth in that reviewer’s post. For me, the book rubbed me wrong enough that I ended up putting it back on the shelf without finishing it. I really felt like I was being sold something and couldn’t get my heart around it. Thanks for the research and posting.
I agree that is the position WV appears to be in.
Can Christian love be brought to bear to bring WV back out of it?
Oddly enough that's what I try to preach at FR vis a vis domestic politics, often getting assent but sometimes getting dug-in opposition (oh, we only need to vote for more Christian/right-wing politicians and that will solve our social sin problem). This does look disturbingly "lite" rather than like a "light." Well if that's what World Vision wants to be, maybe we should shift to less superficial ministries. I'd say let's go ahead and follow through with any specific charity cases we've been covering through them, but then if they won't change we should shift our focus.
I was doing a Google search and found they had recently also accepted a multi-million dollar donation of computer equipment from Microsoft. (Reported in the local Seattle news.) A change of position saying they accepted the homosexual lifestyle might have also been a condition of that.
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