Posted on 11/05/2008 9:05:38 AM PST by HarleyD
Ping for later.
Prop 8 wrote “marriage” into the constitution. Maybe we can get the Bible back into schools the same way.
One thing I've noticed is that whenever the culture pushes some anti-Christian agenda, Christians get the 'blame' for responding to that shift. It's happening now with sodomy, just as Christians were accused of "sex obsession" during the Sexual Revolution simply for opposing it. People need to understand that if burglars started pressing for burglary to be 'normalized' and made acceptable, Christianity would fight it - and then get blamed for 'obsessing over burglary.'
sickening
The Great Falling Away picks up steam.
MM
Headline:
God Expresses Skepticism and Frustration with a New Generation.
We keep letting foreigners with different faiths immigrate. In this one respect, the Mexican inflow which is largely Christian may actually be welcomed.
I’m from an evangelical church in MN. Sings the usual contemporary praise songs, talks about Christ being the only way to heaven etc. But I have to say I’ve been disapppointed how they’ve never said a peep about issues like abortion or homosexuality.
I seem to see the same with Rick Warren’s, Olsteen’s, and most evangelical churches.
Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but almost seems to be a myth that Christians are so anti-homosexual. I’d be curious to hear of others’ church experiences.
The most important mission field is always your own offspring. Lose them and you lose everything.
Freedom is self-government and the capacity for self-government is a moral quality. Lose that and you lose your freedom. You won’t believe its possible and you won’t even believe its desirable.
Consecrate yourselves.
Get your households in order.
Purify yourselves and the Church casting out apostates, wolves in sheep clothing, and those living in unrepentant sin in your midst.
Wake up Bride of Christ cease living as though tomorrow is just the same as yesterday.
Tell everyone of the coming wrath. If they will not listen, shake the dust off your sandals and move on quickly. Leave the calling out to the LORD.
Do not fear; be of great courage and boldness.
Pray for there to be ears to hear and eyes to see
.the Truth. Thy Word is Truth.
Prepare the way of the LORD.
Praise the Worthy Lamb, for His Kingdom is near.
Many of these perceptions have more to do with Christians, churches, and $$$ then is explicitly stated.
But Obama should help remedy that as many churches will soon lose their tax exempt status once it is decreed that any church speaking out against homosexuality or abortion will forfeit this status.
This coupled with bigger gov’t, the nanny state, and higher taxes will force churches to operate on a fraction of the financial resources currently enjoyed. Full-time pastors will be replaced with tentmakers. Gone will be the big building programs in the millions.
This young generation is drastically different than the previous. They are the “show-me” generation. Whereas boomers were attracted by a good show. They are repulsed by it.
The mega-churches 10 years from now will be characterized first and foremost by open-handed sacrificial giving and radical ministries of compassion.
It’s time for the Church to put its money where its mouth is. And I’m pointing the finger at myself and my church in the first place.
“study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations”
Sometime back I heard someone of this generation, may have been a talk show, lamenting that theirs would be the first generation that was worse off than their parents. Pity they don’t seem to be able to make a connection.
Matthew 10:22
Everyone will hate you because you are committed to me. But the person who patiently endures to the end will be saved.
Luke 6:22
Blessed are you when people hate you, avoid you, insult you, and slander you because you are committed to the Son of Man.
Matthew 5:11
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, lie, and say all kinds of evil things about you because of me.
John 15:18-26
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’[b] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
But the campaign to pass Prop 8, which appears to have been heavily financed by an alliance between Mormons and Catholics, is exactly what gives young people the impression that American Christianity is “anti-gay.”
“Voters under 30 heavily opposed Proposition 8, while voters 65 and over supported the initiative. Age groups in between were split. The ban on same-sex marriage was opposed by voters who graduated from college and those who said they never attended religious services. Those who said they attend religious services weekly heavily backed the ban.”
This may be a problem that can’t be solved. It’s a culture clash. The culture has changed and youth don’t remember any other culture than the current one that favors giving the right to gay couples to marry. One thing that I’ve found is that even young people who consider themselves “spiritual” are pretty much ignorant of the Bible and of how churches are different in their doctrines. They just don’t care about learning these things.
What I expect to happen is that the hardline churches will gradually die off as young people go to churches who accomodate their values. Heck, there are plenty of Catholic parishes that already are happy to leave moral decisions up to the conscience of the individual.
Amen!!
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
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