Posted on 04/09/2015 9:34:44 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
A New York Times columnist and a corporate leader have agreed that Christian churches “must” be convinced, or coerced, to change their teachings on sexual morality and abandon an “ossified” doctrinal teaching that sex outside heterosexual marriage is immoral.
Frank Bruni wrote that traditional Christianity – whether among evangelicals, Catholics, or Orthodox – provides the greatest resistance to normalizing homosexuality in the United States in a recent column in the New York Times.
“Homosexuality and Christianity don’t have to be in conflict in any church anywhere,” Bruni insisted. “The continued view of gays, lesbians and bisexuals as sinners is a decision. It’s a choice. It prioritizes scattered passages of ancient texts over all that has been learned since — as if time had stood still, as if the advances of science and knowledge meant nothing.”
Bruni quoted furniture tycoon Mitchell Gold, who has used his millions to found a liberal pressure group Faith in America, writing that Gold believes Christian churches “must be made 'to take homosexuality off the sin list.'”
“His commandment is worthy — and warranted,” Bruni added.
The column sparked outrage at the notion that a successful businessman and an op-ed writer could induce the Christian Church to ignore a 2,000-year-old dogma.
Noting Bruni's column at The American Conservative, Rod Dreher wrote that he would find a conservative columnist lecturing liberal denominations that they “must” change their moral theology equally “appalling” as an act of imposition.
“But of course nobody on that side seems to have the slightest doubt about their cause, their motives, or their methods. None,” he wrote. “In a holy war, there is no room for doubt.”
A number of mainline Protestant churches have, in effect, taken Gold's advice, condoning – if not celebrating – homosexuality and allowing sexually active homosexuals to be ordained as pastors.
The Episcopal Church saw its membership decline by half-a-million people between 2002 and 2012. After changing its views of homosexuals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) lost more than 600,000 people – in excess of 12 percent of its total members – in just three years. The first mainline church to allow for homosexual ordination, the United Church of Christ (UCC), lost 350 congregations within three years of its 2004 decision.
But even refraining from calling same-sex relations a sin – or, in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “intrinsically disordered” – is not enough for the modern LGBT movement.
“The LGBT militants are not asking to be left alone,” said former Reagan administration adviser Pat Buchanan, a co-founder of The American Conservative. “They are demanding that we accept the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriages, and manifest that acceptance, under pain of law and sanctions, in our daily lives.”
Buchanan said during an interview with WND.com that orthodox Christian churches must have one response to demands that they alter their teachings to fit the modern zeitgeist: “The answer is no. If it comes to civil disobedience, so be it.”
Buchanan's statement came as a number of prominent evangelical Christian leaders have called for open acts of nonviolent resistance if the Supreme Court forces states to accept homosexual “marriages” this summer.
Any Church that allows its doctrines to be manipulated by the government is not a Church. But then again the “Church” is the Body of Christ, not a denomination or a building.
Rom 13:1-3 Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities. For there is no authority but of God; the authorities that exist are ordained by God. (2) So that the one resisting the authority resists the ordinance of God; and the ones who resist will receive judgment to themselves. (3) For the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the bad. And do you desire to be not afraid of the authority? Do the good, and you shall have praise from it.
Note: That’s not in my handwriting.
Thanks for your opinion, Mr. Bruni and Mr. Gold. The Orthodox Church in all it’s varieties says no.
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Then there is the whole book of Acts and all of the "powers that be" persecuting the Church. The Apostles defied them and rightly so. Yet I bet the apostles drove the speed limit and didn't steal or murder but obeyed those lower laws.
The very government and chosen people He created got it all wrong at the fake trial and crucifixion didn't they. So it seems we are to submit to the laws but not where they concern doctrine.
“The very government and chosen people He created got it all wrong at the fake trial and crucifixion didn’t they. “
Or did they get it right?
Genesis 1
English Standard Version (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Their point is they want you to validate their sinful behavior.
If we can decide on our own what sin is and what laws or commandments we should obey, what will be next?
Luke 12:48
But he who did not know and did things worthy of a beating shall be beaten with few [lashes]. For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.
Who’s been entrusted more than America? God blessed us with the greatest Nation that has ever been.Great wealth, great freedom. And what have Christians gave back in return? We’ve sat on our hands while others spit in his face all over again. We elect the “lesser of to evils,” which is still evil by the way ( that’s for you freepers who love to tell us a lesser evil republican is better than a more evil Democrat ). I could go on, but everyone gets the point.
We are going to be disciplined first, by God. It’s happening already. He’s giving us opportunities to stand up and fight and we still keep sitting on our hands. Then the persecution will start, and it looks like it’s coming quickly. We better start selling our cloaks for swords if get what I’m saying.
If we can decide on our own what sin is and what laws or commandments we should obey, what will be next?
The point of the homos is to have their sins validated and for there to be no hint in society that what they are doing is wrong. That requires the elimination of Christian values. And that’s where they play into the hands of the bigger agenda.
If homo “marriage” weren’t the sticking point for Christians, the left would find something else that was - child sacrifice, beastiality, cannibalism, etc,
and when Christians resisted, that resistance would be criminalized.
I think this is the “war on women” for the 2016 election cycle. Note the massive, completely off the charts increase in homosexual “discrimination” coverage in the media and courts - searching and even creating conflict to highlight the “extreme views” of Christians. They intend to shame a large percentage of Christians into changing their views (long term) and not voting for “homophobes” (short term) on the right. I first thought the focus was going to be the “black lives matter” narrative, but that is backfiring on them, as Ferguson hurt the left with the average American more than they are willing to admit. Note that the latest shooting victim’s family supposedly told Sharpton to stay away from the funeral.
As others have pointed out, they are not targeting Muslims or religious Jews, who generally have similar beliefs with regard to homosexuality - sometimes extreme in the case of islam.
This is the time to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. The real Bible Believers need to stand strong and united with what God’s Word teaches, and for the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Last week returning from Easter worship I saw a billboard: Church should be fun. My warm feelings turned sour. One of the non-denom churches in town looking to draw a bigger crowd. Read about the church in places like Syria and China. There is a devotion to Christ and his Word that puts us to shame. The world is not worthy of them. But fun? Is taking up your cross, denying self fun? Is walking upstream against the culture fun? And so, many will walk away when the fun is over. Yet it’s a blessed thing to follow Christ because we know in whom we believe. A living Savior who gives us a living hope.
Well said.
Remember they have chosen to turn their back on God and indulge their disgusting ‘behavior’.
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