Gospel of Inclusion?

OpinionJournal.com ^ | August 8, 2003 | KATHERINE KERSTEN

[Paul_B]

Gospel of Inclusion? Its Episcopal disciples leave little room for Scripture.

MINNEAPOLIS--This week, the Episcopal Church's triennial Convention was the site of a media frenzy. On Tuesday, church leaders meeting here took the unprecedented step of approving as bishop a practicing homosexual, the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. At press time, they seemed poised to give local communities permission to bless same-sex unions.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Thanks, but I don't waste my time on CNN polls.

[Terriergal]

Blood of Tyrants: This is exactly the kind of "church" that the devil loves

annie: a form of godliness, while denying the power thereof.

Revelation 3:14-19"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

[FreeRep]

Some bishop on the news, said that, the gay-unions-blessings were 'Life-giving'

What a Joke.

[SuziQ]

The gospel of inclusion has little place for repentance or transformation. Thus, it has little place for the central feature of Christianity: Christ's Cross, which brings redemption through suffering. This new gospel may be appealing, for it permits its adherents to "divinize" their own, largely secular agenda. But in a Christian church, it cannot easily coexist with the Gospel of Christ.

I thought this was the most important point of the whole article. IMO, this "if it feels good, it's OK to do it" theology dovetails perfectly with the whole narcisstic attitude of homosexuality.

[SuziQ]

This is exactly the kind of "church" that the devil loves.

And one that C. S. Lewis talks about in "The Screwtape Letters".

[SuziQ]

From a theological point of view, it is little different from the church making a bishop of someone openly and notoriously living with a woman to whom he was not married. It wouldn't happen.

Make you wonder why they don't see it that way. I guess their desire to push the homosexual agenda is stronger than their desire to teach the undiluted Word of God.

[SuziQ]

Check out this article from The Opinion Journal on the new homosexual Episcopal Bishop.

[Spok]

The Episcopal church is bending over forwards to appeal to secular society by validating self-indugence. They're doing to the Bible what liberal courts have done to the Constitution-if it feels good, it's okay/legal/moral/acceptable. Christianity, and interestingly, freedom, are both founded on discipline and premised on the ability of humans to resist the call of their darker impulses, and embrace the 'better angels of their nature'. The failure to nourish that ability will doom both.

[Terriergal]

ugh.

more like the abomination that causes desolation.

[maryz]

Pinging my Catholic ping list and, if you'll pardon the liberty, some of the more active contributors on the Anglican bishops thread.

[Grampa Dave]

Episcopalians might want to visit our new thread for resources and sharing the word on how to battle this obscene happening in our church.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/960631/posts?page=1


If you have a helpful link, please post it on this thread.

Please post what your priest or bishop has to say about this morass this Sunday and in other church functions and news letters.

That way we can share what is happening across the country.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

It looks like the Catholics are the next target. With the Kennedy's, Ketchup boy and homosexual partners going after your church.

This is not just a war in the Episcopal Churches. It is a war in many Christian churches.

[maryz]

It is a war in many Christian churches.

Indeed -- Or a war for the souls of the Christian churches.

We all should be on the same side in this degenerate age; this is why I find the inter-denomination sniping on FR so distressing.

[Grampa Dave]

I'm in total agreement with you. My church is under attack, your church is under attack, the Methodist Church may have lost the battle, the Lutherians are under attack and so have been the Prebs..

I wonder how many of the snipers are homosexual moles spreading their poison divide and conquer us.

[saradippity]

Your post #11 is excellent. Everyone should read it,if you can post it on other related threads,I'd be happy.

[saradippity]

"lifegiving"

Blessing a union whose "life force" is dead on arrival? Like God is going to turn the rectum into a womb and like where is he going to put the ovaries? And is He going to give both "significant others" the same organs,will they be interchangeable?

[FreeRep]

I agree with you 100% well said.

[NYer]

Instead, they radically reinterpret it, using techniques imported from America's postmodern universities. Walter Brueggemann, a theologian quoted in a pro-same-sex-union Episcopal publication, put it like this: Scripture is "the chief authority when imaginatively construed in a certain interpretive trajectory." Approached this way, inconvenient passages can be dismissed as inconsistent with "Jesus' self-giving love."

This is a serious and growing problem in many religious organizations. Not long ago, I came across a christian lesbian apologetics web site, developed by a recently ordained lesbian Protestant minister. The website has an ample assortment of lesbian apologetics essays offering a "biblical defense" of homosexuality. (somewhat of a conundrum I feel).

The webmistress herself recently married her life partner. It took place in a Lutheran church, something that truly disturbed me. More disturbing, yet, is that these people truly believe that their lifestyle and marriage are blessed by God!

Here is the happy couple, along with a link to the web site.

"My perspective at this moment was looking into the face of the woman I most love in all the earth and being filled with the deepest sense of joy and gratitude. Dana confirms the same was was true for her!"

Peace Lutheran Church
Danville, California

Why Get Married?

I'm willing to admit I was heavily influenced by heterosexuals in my formative years. Everywhere I looked, there they were, flaunting their life style and as a result the couples I most admired were those who were married and like so many other young women I grew up dreaming of marriage and realizing I was a lesbian later in life did little to change that. I hoped to one day fall in love and get married to that special someone and that dream became reality the day I met Dana.

On the day I asked her to be my wife, I didn't give any thought to what the government, the church, or my diversely-opinionated gay and lesbian friends would think. I asked Dana to marry me because I love her above all others and out of that love flowed the desire to commit my faithfulness to her alone and to create a life together as a couple in this world. For the record, I've been assured by Dana that her responding 'yes' had everything to do with love and nothing to do with an attempt to irritate and infuriant the masses.

Why Get Married In A Church?

As Christians, our faith and our God are central to our relationship. For this reason church is one of the most significant communities within our lives and seems the most right place to celebrate and affirm this next step in our lives together. We've already affirmed our commitment to each other before God but we also want to make that same commitment before our friends and family so they'll know the intent of our heart and the promises we've made to each other and to God. Our motivation for marrying within the church isn't so we can give the appearance of conformity to the rites and traditions of the church and thereby gain acceptance but instead we marry within the church because we believe in both our sexual identity and in our relationship we have something life-giving to bring to the church that will enrich its collective life and enlarge it beyond its boundaries. I mean, let's not kid ourselves! After all the vows have been exchanged and the rituals have been fulfilled there will be two women kissing and so that alone makes it a radical event!

Why Do We Call Each Other 'Wife'?

I understand the concerns of some lesbians who shy away from the word because of the presumed marital roles and inequity of power that it traditionally implies. We've tried all the gay couple language like 'girlfriend', 'partner', 'significant other', and 'lover' but those words leave me unsatisfied. I've had other girlfriends but what I have with Dana is a unique once-in-a-lifetime relationship and so it needs a word I've never used before and 'wife' and 'spouse' are the only ones I can come up with short of creating a language of my own. Those are the only words I currently know that capture our mutual commitment and the intimacy of our relationship. When I call her my wife I'm speaking of the one I cherish above all others and when she calls me her wife I feel cherished above all others.

CHRISTIAN LESBIANS

[livius]

That's a point I hadn't considered. It sure wouldn't surprise me, though, if there were some gay/modernist "plants" trying to set brother against brother.

[Liz]

The members of the truculent gay cult -- who proselytize using New Wave
revisionist religious thinking -- are very, disturbed and troubled individuals.

They remind me of the benignly smiling, happy-together, death-dealing Heaven's Gate cult
(who committed mass suicide) who also used New Wave religion for their deadly purposes.