Gay couples trigger debate at church (Southern Baptist - Fort Worth)

Fort Worth Star Telegram ^ | Nov. 16, 2007 | MAX B. BAKER

[Between the Lines]

This week, Myers Park Baptist Church in North Carolina was expelled from the state's Baptist Convention for welcoming gays and lesbians into the church without trying to change their orientation. The church is led by the Rev. Stephen Shoemaker, a former senior minister at Broadway Baptist... Broadway Baptist has struggled with the issue of gays in the church since the early 1990s, when Shoemaker was its pastor.

It would seem that Shoemaker is leaving a legacy of division everywhere he goes.

[Between the Lines]

It's not really a "situation", it's an opportunity.

Well said, excellent post!

God gives us numerous opportunities, yet too often we see only problems.

"Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' - Matthew 25:44

Some see being gay as a disease, others as being imprisoned by sin. Either way, we are to minister to them, and ministering to them includes telling the truth through the Word of God.

When we minister to alcoholics we do not exclude drunkenness from being sin; when we minister to prostitutes we do no exclude prostitution from being sin. Why is it that some insist that in order to minister to gays we must excluded their sin?

[fwdude]

Gays should not be allowed to “become” members.

You need to define your terms. By "Gays" do you mean those living that lifestyle unabashedly, or merely those with same sex attraction but that don't act on them?

[uptoolate]

You need to define your terms.

Gay =

Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

Rom 1:27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

Rom 1:32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.