Posted on 07/12/2006 10:43:24 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Forget about traditional morality—Christianity should focus on eradicating poverty, protecting the environment and ending the war in Iraq, according to the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Dr. Bob Edgar.
“Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion,” said Dr. Edgar to CBS News at a recent gathering of liberal Christian leaders in Washington.
The gathering was the latest effort by the “religious left” to gain back some of the political power the group enjoyed during the 60’s and early 70’s. 30 years ago liberal religious leaders used their political influence to lead demonstrations against social injustices such as civil rights abuses and the Vietnam War. Once those issues left the spotlight, liberal Christianity lost focus and faded to the background.
Now, liberal Christian leaders are attempting to stage a return to power, targeting young voters and concentrating on increasing childcare funding and raising the minimum wage. The group wants to build a strong voter base to counter what it calls the “ground game” of the Christian right—the powerful voting block of traditional Christians that has significant influence on the country’s politics.
Finding a unifying message that will allow the group to achieve political clout has been a struggle, observers have said. The New York Times reported in May on an earlier meeting by liberal Christian activists in Washington, a brainstorming session concentrating on identifying the group’s goals.
During a session on ethical sexual behavior, the meeting bypassed discussion of concrete issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Instead, Rev. Ama Zenya of First Congregational Church in Oakland, California, directed the gathering to discuss their spiritual values and “to practice fully our authentic being,” reported the Times.
The results of the gathering were disappointing, said liberal Baptist minister Rev. Tony Campolo, who once acted as spiritual adviser to President Bill Clinton, and attended the conference.
“We didn’t get on the same page with everyone, and it is about getting on the same page. The thing about the left is that they want everybody to feel good.”
Dr. Edgar, who has been general secretary of the NCC since 2000, was applauded by homosexual activist organizations shortly after his election for withdrawing his signature from an ecumenical statement in defence of traditional marriage, “A Christian Declaration on Marriage.”
Dr. Edgar also apologized to members of the homosexual community for originally endorsing the document, which was co-signed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the National Association of Evangelicals.
You're welcome. It really is marvelous. I grew up in the church, but was never taught about this while I was there. I finally learned it - at a different church - at age 24 (I'm 37 1/2 now), and it was life-changing. Glad it brought you out from lurking!
Episcopalians did that at their triennial convention last month.
I didn't reply to you directly, Mazda, but I had a long post that might give you some more perspectives. I don't recall the post number, but someone did respond to it later in the thread. I hope that God will work all of this together for your good. I dare say, though I don't want to speak for other posters, that there are those who are praying for you. Good on you for keeping an open mind!
This is all Wallis. The DNC hired gun who is there to say that conservatives have hijacked christianity and it really really does not say the 10 commandments are what they say they are.
This a lunatic fringe trying to say they are 1/2 of christianity. This is divide and conque politics.
Remember democrats need division in order to maintain power. A disperate set of groups to whom they can bestow government favors.
Yes, it is impossible for a Christian to know with certainty what God wants. We live the way we live based on faith that we are understanding God's scripture and God's communications with us correctly. I will never claim to have figured it out, nor will I believe anyone who says they have.
"Sin is not real, but only subjective."
WRONG. Scripture is clear about what is sin and what is not.
Will all Christians and supposed Christians ever agree? Absolutely not.
Apparently, this guy doesn't think Jesus is God. That means he's not a Christian, so what he has to say doesn't count.
Dr. Edgar "the bible has nothing to do with christianity. In fact christ has nothing to do with christianity..."
Seems the lunatics are running that assylum.
I thought they had pulled out of this a while back.
Matthew 5:17-18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
To conclude otherwise denies the deity of Christ and is patently un-Christian.
No, God just realized that slavery was a part of life. People sold themselves into bondservanthood when they couldn't pay their bills or didn't have a way to earn a living. They didn't have bankruptcy court back then. Of course, it was considered a sin for a man capable of working to sit on his butt and take charity. Other than that, slaves consisted of prisoners of war. Back in those days, you couldn't afford to have a bunch of prisoners sitting on their butts and getting the best food like those at Gitmo. They had to work to earn their keep.
Surely you don't condone keeping virgin girls as spoils of war; God did.
Would you rather that they have been killed, or that they be left without men to defend them and help care for them so that someone else could come along and rape/murder them?
Jesus corrected this.
In what scripture did Jesus directly address slavery? In fact, anywhere in the New Testament, where does it say slavery should be done away with?
Incorrect, but an interesting thesis.
A thesis which you immediately contradict by stating the following:
Scripture is clear about what is sin and what is not.
Correct.
Your position right now amounts to: "God's will is completely unknowable, except when it comes to how He wants us to act."
Scripture is clear about what is sin and what isn't and it is also clear about what God wants.
In fact, Scripture is nothing other than God telling us in human language what He wants and what He is doing to accomplish it.
Will all Christians and supposed Christians ever agree? Absolutely not.
Yet you just said that Scripture is clear about what is sin and what is not.
Or file-sharing!
The Bible condemmed people dedicating their babies to Molech.Sacrificed them into a firepit.
Now I ask one thing, what's the difference between that and sticking siccisors into the back of the baby's neck, throwing it in the garbage,then hauling it off to be burnt
these people are just wacked!!!
What's truly frightening is how many are either so ignorant or so corrupt and willfully blind that they can't figure out what Yeshua's teachings on homosexuality and abortion are. To wit:
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. --Mat. 5:18And on the subject of abortion, one could point out that the Master upheld (and even expanded) the commandment against murder, that He forbade anyone from prohibiting the children from being brought to Him, and pronounced a curse against any who would cause "a little one" to stumble (fall into sin; Mat. 18), let alone scrape them out of the womb like a cancer! One could also point out that He agreed with the presumption of the Sadducees that it was one's moral duty to bring children into the world (Mat. 22:24).
(Well, that pretty much covers whether the commandments on sexual deviancy and sacrificing children to Molech [or Convenience] still stand.)Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. --vv. 27-28
(So is someone going to try to claim that one's not allowed to lust after the opposite sex, but lusting after one's own sex is perfectly okay? "So let homosexuals marry," someone might argue. Ah, but there's a problem with that . . . )And He answered and said unto them, "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?'" --Mat. 19:4-5
(What, you mean that Yeshua defined marriage to exclude men marrying men or women marrying women? How politically incorrect!)
Pardon me, I need to go find a place to scream in incoherant rage for a few minutes.
Secondly, this argument assumes that the Gospels, specifically, were intended to operate as an exhaustive legal code of statutes. They weren't - they were portraits designed to introduce Christ to audiences unfamiliar with him. It is ridiculous to interpret the Gospels like a statute. At best, they are like case-law - precedents with which one's current situation and issue must be compared.
Tozer Devotional
Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The Divine Conquest
Chapter #9
Why the World Cannot Receive
Eternal Reward
In the First Epistle of John two words are used over and over, the words they and ye, and they designate two wholly different worlds. They refers to the men and women of Adam's fallen world; ye refers to the chosen ones who have left all to follow Christ. The apostle does not genuflect to the little god Tolerance (the worship of which has become in America a kind of secondary surface religion); he is bluntly intolerant. He knows that tolerance may be merely another name for indifference. It takes a vigorous faith to accept the teaching of the man John. It is so much easier to blur the lines of separation and so offend no one. Pious generalities and the use of we to mean both Christians and unbelievers is much safer. The fatherhood of God can be stretched to include everyone from Jack the Ripper to Daniel the Prophet. Thus no one is offended and everyone feels quite snug and ready for heaven. But the man who laid his ear on Jesus' breast was not so easily deceived. He drew a line to divide the race of men into two camps, to separate the saved from the lost, those who shall rise to eternal reward from them that shall sink to final despair. On one side are they that know not God; on the other ye (or with a change of person, we), and between the two is a moral gulf too wide for any man to cross.
Prayer
We assert, Father, that we are on Your side; we denounce this world and its temporal enticements.
Scripture
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
—1 John 2:15
Thought
Tolerance may be merely another name for indifference.
I'm not a Cristian either... but here goes..
"If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (Luke 16;31)
Acts 15.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.