Replies

“are homosexuals kicked out of the church?”

Here is but just one example:

“New York gay couple kicked out of church choir after having married in Canada” http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003_Nov_25/ai_111850619
It isn’t a stretch if the imagination that this can happen, even if it is just the feeling of not being welcome. But I think this question is meant it ask if anybody who hasn’t repented and changed their life are they not indeed welcome in most any mainstream church today?

Well, yes, and so are also a lot of couples who committed adultery and have remarried and continue to live separated from their first, second or third spouse, and many who separated from the spouse that brought their children into this world. Are these some of these people also not welcome in some other congregations too, well yes.

Is there a group of people trying to push an interpretation of the Bible that says adultery isn't a sin, and, therefore, need not be repented?

Already happened during protestant reformation.

“Is there a movement afoot to have adultery accepted as an alternative lifestyle that is in keeping with what God has ordained?”

As a result of the protestant reformation movement, and of secular beliefs in churches; nowadays marriage and remarriage even for the most trivial reasons or disagreements between spouses and is an accepted practice.

But Jesus said; Matt 5:31,32 "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

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Luke 16:18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

So the fact that there are so many people on their second or third spouses (or more) and who are also church members, is that proof that adultery is an accepted lifestyle, if we also agree in Jesus’s definition of adultry as written in Mathew and Luke?

“I’m not seeing the parallels.”

Obviously many people don’t, that is my question; how is it we can not see these parallels? Is any sin worse or better than the other, or are all sins equally in need of repentance, and maybe continually in need of forgiveness?

They weren't kicked out of the CHURCH - they were relieved of their duties in the choir. BIG difference.

The rule is that people who are serving in a public position in the church cannot be a public scandal.

If a gay couple goes and gets "married," that is directly contrary to the teachings of the church and a public scandal. I guarantee you they didn't do it on the quiet -- probably had engraved invitations and a big reception and the whole nine yards.

They therefore cannot continue to serve in a visible position in the church, i.e. the choir.

Same thing goes for somebody who's divorced and remarried - they can't do choir, can't do EEM, etc. etc. Otherwise it appears that the church is condoning scandal.

I disagree with your parallels. Adultery is NOT acceptable in protestant churches. It may be in some of these secular places that some call churches, but not in any I have ever seen.

Divorce for very specific reason is allowed, yes. But the divorcee must repent, and must follow Gods laws afterward too. Likewise, the churches do not condone women having children out of wedlock, nor do they condone multiple marriage. However, if a person is divorced through no fault of their own, and remarries later to a Christian, and has followed Gods laws in regard to that divorce and remarriage, then yes the churches forgive and welcome them. Most anyway, I do not know for sure about Catholics. There is an annulment provision for Catholics and it is quite involved.

I have known people who have fallen, gone against the church teaching in the ways talked about in your post, and the churches they went to were very admonishing about it. Generally, any churches I have been a member of, give people a chance. If they continue to lead their lives with sin, and tell the church they do not accept that they are in fact sinning, nor do they intend to stop, they will not be allowed membership. They can still attend services, but cannot be members or take communion.