[Coldwater Creek]

Lot’s of confused folks.

[Jewbacca]

I so don’t care what sodomites do.

And they can call their sin whatever they want, provided I can call it the abomonation that it is and provided they can’t force me to recognize their fake union as anything more than the fake union that it is.

[freerepublicchat]

I guess they believe that punishment should be left to God.

I don't have a problem with this.

I do have a problem with devaluing family formation. Raising children properly is difficult, time-consuming, and a sacrifice. Society at large benefits greatly from healthy families that create new civil, productive adults. The benefits society grants married couples that are beginning new families are a recognition of the debt owed them by the rest of society.

Homosexual marriage is a dismissal of all the good that proper families do.

[madison10]

Not this “evangelical.” It’s a sin and the word “marriage” shouldn’t be in the same conversation as homosexual. Why don’t they have the Wiccans perform their ceremonies? They can celebrate to the same god.

[boomop1]

God and His word has no middle or compromise.

[Alex Murphy]

Using a term from sociology, Bean and Martinez said this can be explained as "structured ambivalence." Unlike "psychological ambivalence," which entails simultaneously holding contradictory views, structured ambivalence occurs from different demands and expectations based upon different social settings. "Structured ambivalence emerges at the overlap between social institutions, like family, religion, and work, as individuals struggle to perform the contradictory demands and expectations that they encounter there," they wrote.

The authors use Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church, as an example of structured ambivalence. Warren publicly expressed support for a ban on same-sex marriage, then later expressed regret for speaking out on the topic. "Structured ambivalence," Bean and Martinez claimed, "has taken hold within evangelicalism: not just secularization or accommodation of broader cultural trends, but institutionalized sources of ambivalence that generate tensions within evangelicalism. When leaders like Rick Warren express ambivalent, qualified attitudes about gay rights, they are not prophetic voices crying in the wilderness: they speak for a solid constituency of people in the pews who agree with them."

YBPDLNPL Ping!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I find this true with a huge swath of Christians across multiple denominations. I credit the cultural influence that weighs more heavily than the influence of God’s Word.

[winkadink]

They probably have that attitude toward any sin. Or they don’t believe in sin.

[444Flyer]

Matthew 13:24-31

24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

[MEGoody]

The "messy middle" position is just cowardly, attempting to satisfy people on both sides of an issue so they'll all like you.

God's word says homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, I cannot support with my vote or any other action any law that tries to "legitimize" the sin. If people don't like me because of that, so be it.

[GBA]

As the clock runs out, it's helpful for me to remember there are two players in this story we were born into and we are loved by the One that the other hates. The hater has already lost and is taking as many of us down with him as he can. He may have lost, but each one of us he takes hurts the one he hates, so he's very, very motivated.

For me, EVERYTHING that happens in our world is better understood from that perspective.

One tactic that's been used to great effect is a variation the very first one used: Get us to slowly lower our standards, our definitions, along with our devotion and faith by getting us to somehow participate, with our emotions and rationality, just enough that we'll turn away just a little, then build on those gains.

So, we slowly cut ourselves loose from the anchor that keeps us from being swept away by the strong currents of the era's abundant influences that constantly tug at us.

Rick Warren appears to be one of those handing us a knife to cut our mooring lines, getting us to weaken our grip and reach for a weaker hold, to ultimately prefer our will to His.

The tactic works and we have legalized infant sacrifice and soon gay marriage.

We are to pray for our enemies, for His fallen that they might find their way home, as for the sick that they might be healed, and to forgive as we are to be forgiven.

Our world has a lot that needs forgiving and we're making things worse. I hope we have time to come to our senses, but I think we're too far along. I pray for Him to hit the cosmic Reset button and reboot us for another second chance. We're ready for the Garabandal warning.

[circlecity]

Many "Christians" have one foot in the church and the other foot firmly planted in the world, refusing to let go. This is not a new phenomenon - the prophet Elijah condemned the people of ancient Israel for doing the same thing:

"And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word." (1 Ki 18:21)