Posted on 05/05/2012 3:26:01 PM PDT by fwdude
AMPA, FLORIDA, May 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the nation’s largest mainline Protestant church voted to maintain the doctrine that homosexual actions were “incompatible with Christian teaching” on Thursday.
The United Methodist Church voted down two proposals to water down its stance on homosexuality on Thursday. One proposal called homosexuals “people of sacred worth” and acknowledged differing viewpoints on the issue, while another said humans did not know enough about human sexuality to prefer one lifestyle over another.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
Amazing
However, the idea that "humans did not know enough about human sexuality to prefer one lifestyle over another" is shocking beyond all reason.
Does this mean the Methodist churches in my area are gonna hafta take down the rainbow flags on the side of their chapels?
I don't doubt God intends for all of us to be people of sacred worth, and who can deny that there are differing viewpoints on the issue? But enshrining such terms into the Methodist Book of Discipline is the “nose of the camel under the tent.”
Oldplayer
Though the margins were comfortable, the fact that so many are ready to let evil completely overcome a major denomination is horrific. And it's believed that much of the opposition vote was from overseas, mostly Africa, where true Christian understanding hasn't been sullied like it has here in North America.
LoL indeed they seem to have an interest in voting on the most obvious of questions. Had they decided to go the other way, I’m not sure we could call them a “christian” faith anymore.
The bible says sodomy is wrong, end of story.
Good question. I can't claim more than very cursory understanding of the UMC organizational structure and rules, but from what I do know individual denominations are given extremely wide latitude in autonomy, and any flagrant apostasy is either ignored, or the offending party is merely compartmentalized as a "faction."
Conversely, Southern Baptists, who also value autonomy among member congregations, have some very strict guidelines on adherence to orthodoxy. At least two affiliated churches within the denomination were "disfellowshiped" - basically kicked out - because they either affirmed homosexuality, or were ambivalent to expressions of it in their midst without appropriate censure. One was in my large Texas city.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a reversal of a 30-40 year creep of homosexuality into mainline Christian denominations.
Correction to previous comment: “individual congregations”
I’m with you. I can’t see how the Episcopal Church can be saved, but the Parent Anglicans in Great Britain are fighting like never before against overwhelming odds to make them either homo-affirming or illegal. It is a very dire situation over there. Pastors face prison.
Oh, no! Another church reaffirms hate! /s
Including photos and reactions of the angry sodomite losers.
Not reaffirm, but it will incur a huge amount of hellish hate now. Expect sodomites in Methodist churches to really get "in your face" now in the most uncivilized displays imaginable.
If the UMC doesn't deal with this hellish backlash firmly, they are lost.
I've also witnessed an ever more intense trend toward socialism aimed at my nieces and nephews. My father and grandparents, who all helped build the local church, would be ashamed.
The vote comes up every four years, and the margin remains about the same. I always point the ultra libs in the church, who get all sweaty over this... well the UCC church up the road maybe a better fit for them...
I normally don’t attend any denomination.....I attend the “Where two or three are gathered together” church of the body of Christ.
But, this is good news in a time of doctrinal erosion.
I thought she was Jewish. ;P
Interesting that the Bible uses the term homosexual offenders, where apostles of tolerance use homosexual strictly in the modern sense of just-another-group-of-folks who are "people of sacred worth".
It is true that all sinners are people of sacred worth, but that worth is defined by GOD and not open to reinterpretation. There MUST be agreement with GOD concerning our sin, its penalty, and its cure (Jesus).
Good approach, that. At the beginning of the Odyssey, Odysseus is portrayed as a Greek who’d lived in many places among other men, and learnt their mind. Or, the old Chinese saying (citing from the X-Files, but anyway), keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Ping for your comment.
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