Posted on 05/21/2014 6:16:52 AM PDT by marshmallow
Some Christian denominations around the U.S. have been slowly warming to the idea of gay marriage. A few have even made an about-face.
Not so with the country's largest protestant group, Southern Baptists. The Southern Baptist Convention still preaches that marriage can only be between one man and one woman. But some pastors are softening their message.
A Change Of Tone
The Southern Baptist Convention held a gathering of pastors at its Nashville headquarters in April. For an organization that has previously used opposition to gay marriage as a rallying point, statements here from church leaders, like Kevin Smith of Kentucky, shocked the auditorium of pastors into silence.
"If you spent 20 years and you've never said anything about divorce in the church culture, then shut up about gay marriage," Smith said.
Pastor Jimmy Scroggins of Florida went even further.
"We're all in agreement that the cultural war is over when it comes to homosexuality, especially when it comes to gay marriage," Scroggins told the pastors.
Officially, Southern Baptists aren't backing down from their belief that homosexuality is sinful. Gays and lesbians are still barred from church membership without first repenting. But Scroggins says they're sitting in his pews and shouldn't be the butt of preacher humor. He calls that "redneck theology."
"Let's stop telling Adam and Steve jokes and let's be compassionate, because these are people that are in our community," he said at the convention. "These are people that are in our churches."
Baptist voices in the recent past were not known for compassion on gay issues. Richard Land was the church's chief spokesman for 25 years, and while no longer speaking for the denomination, he can still be heard from time to time on Christian talk radio saying things like this:
"I know that the dirty little...........
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(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Very misleading headline. Nothing has changed.
Shorter: The Church is in retreat.
Let that camel’s nose in the tent, and she’ll soon be wearing a clerical collar with her “wife” in the front row applauding Baptist “diversity.”
It seems that the “news” media and the “entertainment” media would have it that everyone is a homo. Does anyone know the actual percentage of people who are homos and the percentage of marriages that are by homos? The media wants to make everyone who is normal to feel abnormal (and vice versa).
Well, it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, and I don’t mind saying so. We love the homosexuals the same way we love the thieves, addicts, and wife beaters. Sin is what it is. And I get tired of hearing the divorce comparison. There are some scriptural grounds for divorce. There are no scriptural grounds for sodomy.
Of course a call compassion gets translated as acceptance of the deviance. There’s no time for nuance or even a full discussion of the difference. But, of course, neither is there an interest in hearing that.
Interesting thing that I see is mention of heterosexual divorce. Back in my Baptist days, he would have heard, “You have left off from preaching and gone to meddling.”
Softer? Like a spiked baseball bat vs. a steel mace? That’s softer!
I have heard the percentage is 1-3%. The impact as a “movement” is far beyond the percentages.
Kind of like wondering what the Eskimos will bitch about next. But, the Eskimos lack a compliant, guilt ridden Hard Left media to support them.
On a personal level, having gotten to know them, I find them deserving of prayer, but I cannot condone their lifestyle.
I cannot aid and abet them in their self-destruction. So, I can’t and I won’t. To do so would be to abandon them.
Flame away all you “gay” freepers. I can take it.
Or not.
Regardless of what comes of this, it illustrates one of the reason’s I’m not a Southern Baptist.
Nothing, absolutely nothing has or is changing about SBC's stance on sexual sins, all are wrong, each and every one is a serious problem both in and out of the church but as believers, if one is consistently committing sexual sins, then one is out of fellowship with Jesus Christ and THAT is the problem, not the specific sin one is committing.
We still stand on the view that as followers of Christ, we hate the sin but love sinners, as we all are and continue to be as sons and daughters of the first sinner, Adam. When we are in fellowship with Jesus, we need to continue to search our hearts for sin in our lives to pray and continue to ask for forgiveness from them. It is impossible for humans this side of Heaven, to live without sinning but we need to look to our walk with Jesus as our example of a sinless life and model our lives on Him.
Our only approach to the unsaved is and should be the message of Jesus Christ died for you (and me) and without Him, eternity will be spent far from God (Hell). Repent and come join with Jesus today and live eternally with Him!
No serious believer and follower of Christ, is ready to respond to demands from the homosexual activists by now claiming that the Bible is now wrong!
Our stance on all sin is that they are wrong, need to be examined in one's own life, repented of and asked for forgiveness from to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
As to NPR, liars still lie, what's new about that.
“These are people that are in our churches.”
Spit, puke. NPR found their ear-scratching false prophet. Maybe we should try just preaching the Word of God. KJV!
Not, it isn’t. The SB are still the most conservative church in the nation. However, we don’t bar the door to anyone. Come as you are, but don’t keep your sinful lifestyle.
Roger that. Such preachers should be preaching fire and brimstone, the eternal habitat for homosexuals unless they repent.
You can’t pick the parts of the Bible you like and ignore what you don’t like or want to make it inclusive of everyone.
I’d prefer if they brought homosexuality into a broader discussion of promiscuity vs. sexual purity. Promiscuous heterosexuals and homosexuals have the same issues of disease, broken hearts, hardened hearts, messed up children, rape, abortion, etc. Pastors need to stress that sexual sins hurt people. Adam and Steve aren’t just sweetly holding hands. And their propensity did not arise from thin air— one or both were likely the victims of abuse before they met each other.
Sexual purity— saving yourself for marriage, as a gift to God and your spouse and your children, needs some vocal support. People have to get back to aspiring to holiness.
“Very misleading headline. Nothing has changed.”
The article is referencing a conference that was held in April. Here is an article from The Blaze on the conference:
“At a panel discussion Monday night, five pastors spoke to faith leaders affiliated with the denomination, delivering some very specific pieces of advice when it comes to handling homosexuality.
“Those on the panel told pastors to ‘stop spreading falsehoods,’ and to consider becoming friends with gay people regardless of whether Christians believe their sexuality aligns with the Bible, according to Nashville Public Radio.
“’We’ve run off at the mouth, said things we shouldn’t have said. We’ve run around like a peacock all over the platform,’ said Pastor Greg Belser of Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss. ‘We have said things because we were playing to the home team, and they all liked our act. On this issue, nobody likes our act, except the redneck factor.’”
That is a tactic currently in vogue. Don’t allow divorce? Then you are a hateful priest/pastor/church who is out of touch with the majority of people in the pews.
Allow it? Then how can you say anything about homosexuals since you can’t control your own people.
And if that fails, bring up that there are a lot of fat rich people in your church, and the church should force them to give up their McDoubles and Buicks For The Greater Good (tm) and stop talking about homosexuals.
In short, the people driving this really want you to stop talking about homosexuals. When I run into them in a church function (which is rare for me now, but not as rare where I used to live) I often wonder who they know is homosexual.
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