Lesbians, Transgendered, and Queers—Oh, My!

http://www.gospelcom.net/hsc/articles/LesbiansOhMy.php | Aug. 7, 2003 | Rev. Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jr.

[AnalogReigns]

This is the watershed issue? Think again.
Unlike the rest of the evangelical world, I am not all aflutter while waiting for the Episcopals to decide. I have friends, all strong opponents of sodomy, who are on both sides of the issue. Some desperately hope that sense will prevail, and the bishopric won’t be handed over to Reverend Lightinhisloafers. What a tragedy, after all, to see this old and honored denomination sink to such depths.

On the other side of the aisle are my friends who want to see the man don a pink mitre. The feeling from these folks is that when this happens, finally all our friends who have stuck it out in the ECUSA all these years will take a walk. The horror of a sodomite sitting in authority will shake up the bushes, and every good man, woman, and child will flee like so many old-money rats escaping a sinking yacht.

A pox on both their houses. What does it say about so-called “evangelicals”, whether inside or outside the ECUSA, whether rooting for or against the installation, that they are more concerned about what perversions the man practices in the dark than they are about the perversions preached from pulpits all across the denomination? When the denomination is dominated by those who deny the deity and resurrection of Christ, what difference does it make if some of them like to be dominated?

It was the same with the President. Conservatives of all stripes kept insisting that character matters. And I agree. But the real problem with President Clinton wasn’t what he was doing in the hallway outside the Oval Office, but was with the legislation he was signing in the Oval Office. The problem isn’t that he is a philanderer, but that he is a socialist.

I’m not arguing that shameful “private” behavior doesn’t matter. I am arguing that there is something wrong when it takes precedence over public acts of shame. I don’t want, in the evangelical fold, either a denomination that says, “Deny the deity all you want, but keep your pants on,” nor a bunch of priests and parishioners who reason the same way. If you won’t leave over heresy, but will over sodomy, your god is middle class morality. And he can neither save the church, nor you.

[AnalogReigns]

It's amazing how people put religion in a box though. They assume if one attend a house of worship, they "aren't religious." It's hard to get the concept through that, as Bob Dylon once said (when he was lucid) "you gotta serve somebody..."

All humans are religious--in that they put something at the center of their lives... (and too often their true religion is different from the one they profess). As the Chesterton said, quoting writer Emile Cammaerts,

"The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything."

[AnalogReigns]

(corrected response)

It's amazing how people put religion in a box though. They assume if one does not attend a house of worship, they "aren't religious." It's hard to get the concept through that, as Bob Dylon once said (when he was lucid),

"you gotta serve somebody..."

All humans are religious--in that they put something at the center of their lives... (and too often their true religion is different from the one they profess). As Chesterton said, quoting writer Emile Cammaerts,

"The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything."

[AnalogReigns]

I will become very disappointed, and frankly dismissive, of evangelical Episcopalians if they stick around the ECUSA.

If Lot had refused to leave Sodom he would have deserved their judgement.