Posted on 06/27/2015 12:06:21 PM PDT by rhema
Without question, the Supreme Court’s decision to impose homosexual marriage as a constitutional right is disappointing. There was a time when the Court rightly bestowed a great respect for America’s Christian heritage and to the Creator on which the Declaration of Independence was based. Sadly, those time are passed.
As Christians, we know God, in His great wisdom, established the institution of marriage as only between one man and one woman. Not even the Supreme Court can change that.
Because of judicial activism, Christian ministries can and should take steps to protect their religious freedoms. No longer can even churches believe they are immune to the compulsive and aggressive nature of the homosexual agenda.
AFA strongly urges your church and other Christian ministries to consider three recommendations immediately:
** Adopt a clear statement of faith regarding human sexuality and marriage.
** Clarify that weddings in your church are Christian worship services.
** Adopt a policy that clearly restricts the use of ministry facilities to the ministry’s religious purposes.
AFA makes several resources available to aid your church pastor, leadership and ministry in protecting itself against the coming storm of homosexual activism.
American Family Studios has produced a short documentary that provides legal analysis of the dangers posed to religious liberty by the ruling. Watch it here.
Read and print this article written by AFA General Counsel Pat Vaughn. It will help your church understand the dangers of doing nothing. Will a gay marriage storm crush your church?
Alliance Defending Freedom has produced a handbook that will walk your church through every step of adopting strong marriage policies, including sample resolutions and statements.A Legal Guide for Churches, Christian Schools, and Christian Ministries
As Christians, we can and must guard our religious freedoms while showing Christ’s mercy to people in bondage to homosexuality. Avoiding problems in the future depends on what we do today.
Please use the resources provided to insure your church or ministry is ready for the certain dangers ahead. May God bless our efforts, as we stand on His word.
PING
http://www.zionshaffers.com/bylaws.html
2009 Bylaw Amendments
The following Bylaws were adopted by supermajority vote at the 2009 Annual Congregation meeting held on Reformation Sunday, October 25.
C09.01.01 - Pastoral Chastity and teaching on Marriage
Only a pastor who subscribes to and lives according to the November 23, 1990 document, Vision and Expectations: Ordained Ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America shall be eligible to be called as a pastor of this congregation:
“The expectations of this church regarding the sexual conduct of its ordained ministers are grounded in the understanding that human sexuality is a gift from God and that ordained ministers are to live in such a way as to honor this gift. Ordained ministers are expected to reject sexual promiscuity, the manipulation of others for purposes of sexual gratification, and all attempts of sexual seduction and sexual harassment, including taking physical or emotional advantage of others. Single ordained ministers are expected to live a chaste life. Married ordained ministers are expected to live in fidelity to their spouses, giving expression to sexual intimacy within a marriage relationship that is mutual, chaste, and faithful. “
The Christian tradition defines marriage as a covenant of faithfulness between one man and one woman and chastity in singleness as abstinence from sexual activity, heterosexual or homosexual. Only a pastor who preaches, teaches, and lives according to these understandings shall be eligible to be called as a pastor of this congregation.
C09.01.02 - The Rite of Marriage
This congregation adheres to and follows Resolution CB93.10.25 of the ELCA Conference of Bishops (October 1993): “We...recognize that there is basis neither in Scripture nor tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship. We, therefore, do not approve such a ceremony as an official action of this church’s ministry.”
Are there any churches currently in the ELCA that use this language in their constitutions?
Currently the Mennonite Church is splitting over the issue of homosexuality.
That congregation was in the ELCA at the time those By-laws were adopted. It has since become LCMC.
Several other ELCA congregations asked for the text (one in TX) and since they were posted on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau’s forum pages in multiple locations I’m sure that others borrowed without asking.
Every eye-rolling, scoffing, bitchy faggot in the land is going to mince, sashay and wiggle his way to the most conservative churches in the land, requesting a wedding with the hopes of being rejected, the better to SUE.
They will try to CAKE-ify every Church.
This is the beginning of the Great State War on Christians.
Bttt
I suspect they will also pick some of the more known evangelical churches.....and show up to see if the pastor is preaching politically correct
It's not impossible for some couple to try the same approach at a mosque. I'd pay to watch that :)
My sense of the issue for ministers is a bit different. We are “licensed” by the state to be “legal” solemnizers of marriage. No place on that license that I can see does it say anything about who can/will/must be married by that licensed pastor. I would say, then, that even though that church might not be forced to conduct a homosexual marriage service that the license of the pastor to be a ‘legal’ agent of the state can be revoked for not being an available resource.
mark
bookmark
You’re kidding, right?
Our church is a tiny fundamental baptist church with very few assets. Based on doctrine it would make a good target, but with so few assets maybe a larger church would be chosen by sodomites to attack by demanding a “wedding “.
Our pastor, who has a jail ministry, has stated for the past several years that he is ready to go to jail over this issue.
The point about making a policy that weddings are worship services made me think. If the law requires a church to “marry” sodomites, what prevents the pastor from conducting the service according to church practices? An expository message from Romans perhaps?
Even a message from Genesis 1-2 would be great. If they force a church ceremony then they get a church service.
If I had a bakery I might accept all jobs, but every one has an off day once in awhile. Sorry about the crappy looking cake. Same thing, you can force me to do something but you can’t force me to do it your way.
I’m another fundamental Baptist in a small, poor church. (That seems sort of common with us? but no matter.)You posted some very good ideas - thank you. I’ll share them.
Page 2 in the article is IMPORTANT. Everyone should read! It says churches should simply refuse to be agents of the state, and just not handle any state paperwork. Church wedding=religious rite only. For the state legal/ financial aspect, couples would need to go to the county clerk and have a state-sanctioned wedding. IOW, everyone would get state-married at the courthouse; some, not all, in church. Luke 20:25.
I’ve been to weddings in Protestant churches in which the couple aren’t churchgoers; they just decide to get hitched, then rent whatever church they think will look good in the wedding photos. They’ll hire a preacher after a five minute phone conversation, or worse, use a friend. And of course, write their own “vows” (awful poems, rock lyrics) without any reference to God’s word at all.
Can’t get away with any of this in the Catholic Church. Gotta be a baptized, confirmed catholic in a state of grace (abstinent and not cohabiting.) If legally divorced, prior marriage must be also annulled by the Church. AND the couple must go through 6 months of classes, heavy Bible study, prayer, and pre-marriage counseling, called the Cana Ministry. So, definitely a lotta hoops. It would be easy, seems to me, for the Catholic Church to dispense with the state license while holding to strict 1A claims of religious freedoms, since they only perform marriages for heterosexual Catholics in good standing anyway. Might be more difficult for Protestant rent-a-churches to suddenly start turning away gay weddings-on-demand, when they’ve been doing them for decades for straight non-members. Especially if they continue such practices. (No I’m not talking about all Protestant churches, nor do I intend this as a theological debate. )
To avoid this sad scenario, it may come to the church having to drop the pastor's being a "legal" agent and having both a civil servant (e.g. judge) and a minister co-officiate at a Christian wedding. Of course, this is what societies such Soviet Russia did when Communism prohibited religion. The Christian service was conducted in private away from the prying eyes of the KGB. Is this what American Christians have to look forward to to avoid the state-sponsored homosexual gauntlet against Bible-based Christian religion?
A church ceremony is a blessing of the marriage but the marriage is only “legal” when registered by a clerk in the town hall, so many couples have 2 weddings and others just skip the church
many people are atheist or agnostic anyway
This is one where it would be great for muslims TO stand with “People Of The Book” Christians because for sure Bruce and Muhammed are not going to sashay down to the mosque and demand an imam marry them
4)Get armed
5)Get nasty
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