Posted on 06/18/2006 9:12:04 PM PDT by sionnsar
From Integrity, the advocacy organization for homosexual persons, we receive this act of thanksgiving addressed to its God, followed by a petition to the same Deity:
"We give thanks for all the blessings of this life, [silence] especially for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons you have called to witness openly to the fullness of their creation in your image. We give thanks for those who have found grace to live together in loving and faithful partnership, awaiting in hope the day when their unions will be recognized on earth as they are before you. May we each become ever more thankful for the gifts you have given us." (used at its Eucharist on Friday in Columbus, Ohio).
This prayer is in reality a statement of the doctrines propagated by Integrity. It is, at the same time, a theological attack upon received Christian doctrine, using the unique medium of a congregational act of prayer to do this. It attempts via prayer to propagate the doctrine that what has been historically regarded as living in sin is now to be regarded as living in holiness and definitely reflecting the intention of the Creator!
This prayer obviously intends to deny the following basic Christian teaching:
That the creation of man by God (YHWH, the LORD) was as male and female and, being such, holy matrimony is the relation ordained by God of a man and woman (husband and wife) united as one flesh. And one flesh means here several things, of which the most prominent one is, without doubt, the procreation of children by the uniting of the sperm of the one and the egg of the other under the blessing of God.
The basic Scriptural texts in mind here are these:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:27).
From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female...and they shall be one flesh: so that they are no more twain, but one flesh (Mark 10:6ff.)
So the fundamental question arises: How can such a God, (YHWH, the LORD), who is the God of Truth, and who has such a specific will and purpose also, at the same time, call people to witness to that which denies what he has caused to be written into Genesis 1 - 3 and to be confirmed very specifically by Jesus the Christ?
The answer to the question cannot surely be that this God has two separate and opposing wills; but, rather, that we refer here to two different perceptions of Deity. One is based upon the Bible and the long Christian tradition; and the other is based on the contemporary experience of an activist minority within the Episcopal Church.
Christians have always believed, taught and confessed that the Deity who is responsible for the Bible, as the Word of God written, is The Trinity. He is the One God, who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: a Trinity in Unity and a Unity in Trinity. The Trinity is the creator of man as male and female and of the institution of marriage as the relation in one flesh of a man and a woman. Man and woman as two distinct persons are to reflect in their union the perfect union of the Three Persons of the Trinity.
In contrast, the Deity, who is seen as responsible for the innovation of same-sex relations as reflecting God's image in human persons and as being the expression of holiness, cannot be YHWH, the LORD, the Trinity, but is most probably a Deity of human projection, created in order to justify a particular modern form of living that seeks to deny the authority of the commands of YHWH!
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Further pushing down the slippery slope.....
United Methodists Oppose Arizona Marriage Amendment
2006 UMC Annual Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona
http://www.desertsw.org/AC06.html
http://nolongersilent.org/PhoenixDeclaration.html
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