Posted on 08/22/2014 5:17:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
By now, we’ve all heard the refrain that U.S. churches need liberalize their teachings on sexuality and homosexuality or rapidly decline. The logic behind the argument is simple: more and more Americans are embracing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including growing numbers of religious Millennials. So long as churches remain the face of opposition to gay marriage, those churches will shrink into irrelevancy when gay marriage (inevitably, we are told) becomes a settled political issue.
These arguments often see church acceptance of homosexuality as a carrot as well as a stick. It isn’t so much that denouncing homosexuality will drive people away from church, but that embracing it will also lead people into church. LGBT individuals and their supporters, many of whom hold a dim view of religion after a decades-long culture war, will reconsider church if denominations remove their restrictions on gay marriage and ordination.
But a number of Christian denominations have already taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
The acceptance of homosexual behavior is deadly.
It will kill churches, organizations and even nations.
All of the mainline protestant churches that adopted progressive liberal theology a century ago are dying today. Their support for homosexual acts and unions is nothing more than an outgrowth of their previous adoption of leftist theology.
These churches will continue to shrink because at the end of the day they don’t really believe in anything religious. At some point when the church is no longer religious a substantial portion of people don’t find it necessary to remain. Those that do view the church as little more than a social gathering place. These days, the folks filling the pews at leftist churches tend to have gray hair.
That or convert your liturgy into an incomprehensible hodgepodge of arcane, obsolete English and a dead language from the time of Christ.
I’ll tell you another one. Woman preachers. I already got a woman preaching at me at home. I don’t need to drive to a church to get more of it.
And people.
Yet, Baptist and Fundamental Protestant churches worldwide are seeing their churches grow, especially as they stand against the wickedness of the world.
Many of the Baptist churches I visit as I do work related travel are doing very well, and have full pews and full children’s programs.
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.”
or the modern equivalent
“God’s not dead, He isn’t even sick.”
Gay marriage is just one of a long string of issues that has undermined the mainline churches. Back in the 60s, when they moved away from preaching morality and moved to “God is your friend” and started advocating for social spending, the Exodus really started. Churches have made themselves superfluous by buying into the Libs’ personal freedom and social spending agendas.
Jesus said that the way to life is narrow and difficult. God tells us that homosexuality is incompatible with God’s way of life, just as other sins. Society does not accept that declaration, so those who claim to represent God give in to pressures to soft-peddle what God says. They disqualify themselves in the process.
GOD I'll never understand this crap.
They are not doing it to increase membership, they are doing it to give cover to their own vices (or that of a big donor).
“Membership” isn’t a real concern. In fact, I have seen synods celebrate the decline of membership once they start ordaining poofters and carpet munchers.
Yeah, tossing aside the Scriptures in order to please the 1.0-1.5% perverts crowd, consequently causing an exodus of the faithful, is a great strategy for church growth.
This advice must have come from Screwtape.
Fascinating...and wrong on multiple levels.
I participate in a number of fellowships that are growing by leaps and bounds. Of particular interest is the number of high school and college age "kids" who are absolutely on-fire for Jesus and willing to be very public about it.
The sodomite and death-culture proponent groups would like everyone to believe otherwise.
Let’s see. A supposedly “Christian” church/denomination rejects pretty much whatever the Word of God says about morality? Apostate indeed. And it seems to always start with women clergy, in violation of Scripture. Everything snowballs from there.
I think the problem is even more BASIC than what the author says. It is this -— NOT ACCEPTING SCRIPTURE AS THE WORD OF GOD.
Let’s remember the very first attack the Devil did on our ancestor — Adam and Eve ... PLANTING DOUBTS IN THEIR MINDS ABOUT WHAT GOD SAID.
“Did God really say....” (Genesis 3:1)
Once you start questioning what God said and rationalize, anything goes and gay marriage is but one of the consequence.
Right. If a church really doesn’t believe in anything, what’s the point of giving up your Sunday morning for nothing. Why give your money to not much of anything. The only people who remain are there out of inertia, tradition.
LOL.
The mainline Protestant tailspin will be worse than people imagine. The adult membership is simply coasting on their own childhood upbringing by parents for whom religion and doctrine actually mattered. Going to church is a comforting ritual and calling oneself agnostic or atheist is rather too much of an effort versus maintaining an identity as Christian. But their kids? Not 5% of them give one crap about church. They were raised by parents who didn’t deeply care and preached at by ministers who were simply social workers in frocks.
The destiny of pretty much every Episcopal and PCUSA church outside the south and rural America is to be sold for cool looking condos or converted into mosque or gurujawara...
RE: The destiny of pretty much every Episcopal and PCUSA church outside the south and rural America is to be sold for cool looking condos or converted into mosque or gurujawara...
Here in New York City and the Suburbs, Asian Churches ( e.g. Chinese and mostly Koreans ) are BUYING them up for a song or taking over. This is good news.
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