This is not your father's (Episcopal) Church anymore (Cal Thomas weighs in on "gay" bishop)

Modesto Bee ^ | Aug 6 03 | Cal Thomas

[sweetliberty]

"All the funnier because Paul was gay."

And where, pray tell, did you get that little piece of misinformation?

[sweetliberty]

I have also heard the convoluted "logic" promoting the notion that David and Jonathan were queers and because David was a "man after God's own heart" that Jesus must have been a queer too, which was why He never married.

How do you respond to that? Those who believe it are obviously dull-witted enough that no amount of reason will reach them, but only God's divine intervention, if even that. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

[lentulusgracchus]

Gay seminarians have interpolated it into that epistolary confession that Paul had to wrestle with a tremendous temptation, something that came over him. Gays assert that it was a gay crush and profess to recognize the symptoms from personal experience. Ergo, Paul was gay, they say.

So, of course, were ever so many men we've been taught to admire. Part of the strategy laid out by Kirk and Pill in "Overhauling Straight America" back in 1987.

[sweetliberty]

The practice of a Christian life and the close bonds that can, and should, be formed between members of the church family, of either gender, can sometimes be misinterpreted, even by those who experience them, as eros rather than philios growing into agape. Another danger of trusting feelings alone.

[sweetliberty]

You have to come to your answer for yourself, with God's help, as we all do at this point. I understand what you mean about individual parishes and God doubtless honors the faith of those who honor Him. However, the hierarchy of the Episcopal church does bring every parish that does not separate itself from it under its headship and if the head is corrupt, eventually the entire body will be corrupt as well.

[sport]

Prove it.

[sweetliberty]

What were all the comments about that were removed. I missed that. FReepmail if they're not appropriate.

[MHT]

My husband left the Catholic Church in disgust because of the number of blatant (and often pedophilic) gays in the ranks of their priests. He joined me at the Episcopal church. Now this. We are so disappointed.

I pray the American church splits. There is no place else to go to get the essence of ritual without "celebration" of "alternative lifestyles" unless the American Anglicans make the break.

It is the slippery slope of relative mortality, manipulation of absolutes, and legalistic logical that will cause America's demise. The churches which built this nation, nursed its values, and cradled its earliest citizens will be the first casualty.

[diamond6]

"The democrats that I know are VERY LIBERAL and consistently attend the Roman Catholic church....like the Kennedys and Cuomos".

The democrats (co-workers) that I know, hate the Catholic church and have made duragatory statements about it to my face. Your statement implies that Catholics are liberal; that just isn't the case. When people attack my church because of the recent scandal, I always remind them that when Christ founded the church he had evil in it from the beginning, that evil being Judas. Did the presence of Judas make the church evil I don't think so.

If I have misunderstood your statement, I apologize.

[Bluntpoint]

Did Jesus have any fashion sense?

If not, he is one of us.

[hellinahandcart]

I don't know what most of them were. One was "if your only objection is that they're having sex outside of marriage, why not let them marry?", which is just ridiculous (even though that's what the church is apparently bent on allowing). I made my reply to that, said gay marriage would never be holy matrimony, to which he replied "you didn't answer my question".

His next post to me included the information that he was gay, and accused me of intolerance and stereotyping, and went on for some time about how they were just like we are and just wanted the same rights. Yawn. Like any of that is going to shame me *this* week, or any other after last week.

And like I believed him anyway. He was a troll. Banned immediately when he stopped asking questions and started posting propaganda. I'm surprised there haven't been hundreds of them all over these threads.

[sweetliberty]

"I'm surprised there haven't been hundreds of them all over these threads."

I am thankful there haven't been. It is a sensitive issue and the last thing we need are those who would inflame the situation. Weirdest thing....earlier in the week I peeked in at the DU to see what they had to say about it, and there was not a single thread even addressing the issue, which I thought odd.

[jnarcus]

I only answered from my experience and the knowledge that I gain by reading the breakdown of voting records...whether you like it or not most Roman Catholics vote dem

[diamond6]

That is truely depressing and a shame. Shame on Catholics that vote for pro-choice politicians, shame on them.

[razorbak]

To criticize a church when it violates biblical standards is not "attacking" the church. It is calling it to accountability. When I lived in Southern Illinois [I'm originally from Ark. but now live in FL], 15 priests in the Belleville, IL diocese were found to be queer molesters of young men. They were sent for some sort of counseling and rehab or something and not seen around there again, but it would not be contrary to past practice of the RCC for them to have been eventually reassigned without letting the new parishoners know. This was about 10 years ago.

[Clint N. Suhks]

Literally crying a your post, I can’t even see the keyboard… I'm so ashamed!

[Wiser now]

I think anybody who believes David was queer bacause of his friendship with Jonathon is so unfamiliar with the Scriptures as to be unaware of the fact that David had more than one wife, and one of them was named Bathsheba! Not the behavior of any of the "gays" I know. I have had the experience of comfronting gays with what the Scriptures say and having them go away silenced snd bewildered. I have planted a seed God will use. Since my eldest daughter believes she is a lesbian, I have armed myself with the truth.

[Eva]

No, it certainly is not our father's Episcopal Church, my father-in-law quit the Episcopal Church back in the '80s when they first started pushing Gay rights and moving to the left on other issues.

[lentulusgracchus]

......I always remind them that when Christ founded the church he had evil in it from the beginning, that evil being Judas. Did the presence of Judas make the church evil I don't think so.

Good post, and well worth quoting and bumping.

The Iscariot went away and hanged himself with a halter, but his spirit never died. It's here still.

[lentulusgracchus]

Friend, I don't know what to say to you except that you'll get over this, and a little while and a little while, and you will know what to do.

As they used to say around my old church, benedicite!