Posted on 03/18/2015 7:07:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to make the 1.8-million-member, 10,000-congregation denomination the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage allow same-sex weddings.
The Presbytery of the Palisades in New Jersey cast the necessary 86th vote Tuesday night to establish that a majority of the churchs 171 regional presbyteries now support an amendment to the church constitution that redefines marriage, the Associated Press reported.
Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives, the churchs Book of Order will read, effective June 21, according to an announcement on the Presbyterian Churchs website.
Gradye Parsons, the stated clerk of the churchs General Assembly, posted a video pledging that nothing in the amendment would compel those members who do not approve of same-sex marriage from participating in the weddings.
The approval allows teaching elders wider discretion whose wedding they may conduct and sessions wider discretion whose weddings they may host, Parsons said. That discretion could include same gender marriages in states where thats permitted.
The Assembly approved the language last summer, but activists who have been pushing for the change for years had to sweat out the votes among the churchs districts.
So many families headed by LGBTQ couples have been waiting for decades to enter this space created for their families within their church communities, Rev. Robin White, a leader of More Light Presbyterians, told AP.
Yet 41 of the regional bodies have voted to disapprove the measure, according to AP. The church approved gay ordination in 2011 and 428 congregations had either left the fold or disbanded two years later, the outlet noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Gresham Machen was right.
its a not a challenge...its a race to the bottom....
then just leave....big old churchs are going to be a dime a dozen and let the big elite presyterians take them over and pay the bills....
this strange bizarre culture we have no has no "givens".....no compass to go by....no rules/regulations/etc...
the churches are just winging it as the wind blows...
Let me see if I understand your bestiality argument.
1) Obviously, bestiality is immoral.
2) You are able to figure that out.
3) Jesus never specifically forbade it.
Therefore, whatever else is obviously immoral to you happens to coincide with the mind of God, barring any counter evidence.
On the other hand, it sounds like you are ready to dismiss direct scripture you don’t like, and that makes me a communist.
Nice bubble you’re living in.
Exodus 22:19 “Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.”
Leviticus 18:23 “Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.”
Leviticus 20:15 “And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.”
I did not write the Bible, I didn’t figure anything out. I’m basing my idea of right and wrong on the Bible.
Do you follow literally in everything in Leviticus?
I have never met anyone in my life who does, but I have heard many people quote select verses that reinforce their worldview.
By the way, most Christians believe Jesus superseded the code of Leviticus.
So now Christians are free to break the moral laws of the Old Testament ? That contradicts Jesus’ teaching:
Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
The Old Testament law contains both ceremonial law and moral law as well as prophecy and the special revelation of God’s commands to the ancient Israelites in specific situations, i.e., go destroy a city, etc., which are specific commands that applied to those specific situations.
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the OT moral law by living a sinless life, living perfectly according to the OT moral law.
Jesus fufilled the OT ceremonial law as it foreshadowed his coming, ministry, death and resurrection.
Jesus fulfilled the prophets, of course, by being the prophesied Messiah.
God is unchanging - the Bible consistently teaches this.
God’s moral laws are also unchanging, and the Bible also consistently teaches this as well.
For example, murder is against God’s Law - it always was and always will be.
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