Posted on 12/11/2014 3:45:08 AM PST by rhema
May I make two requests? Love me, but remember that you cannot be more merciful than God. It isnt mercy to affirm same-sex acts as good. Dont compromise truth; help me to live in harmony with it.
Over thirty years have passed since same-sex attraction rushed up from deep within my twelve-year-old frame. This attraction was unbidden and unwanted, yet simultaneously forceful and compelling.
As a Christian, the conflict between my sexuality and my faith would become the deepest and most intense of my life. Now in my forties, Ive gone from being closeted to openly lesbian to celibate to heterosexually married. The fact that I need to qualify my marital union as a heterosexual one reveals how much the cultural landscape has changed in that timejust as much as my own personal landscape has, though in very different ways.
During my upbringing, I heard a few fiery sermons on homosexuality. These days, I hear declarations of love instead. They make me shout for joy. Amen! It always should have been so! At the same time, however, many pastors have begun accompanying this love with an eschewal of Biblical sexual morality as oppressive, unreasonable, or unkind. Hence, loving homosexual persons also comes to entail affirming and encouraging them in same-sex sexual relationships and behaviors.
Although I appreciate the desire to act in love, this isnt the genuine love that people like me need. Love me better than that! Thomas Aquinas scholar Josef Pieper put it this way:
love is not synonymous with undifferentiated approval of everything the beloved person thinks and does in real life. . . . [nor is it] the wish for the beloved to feel good always and in every situation and for him to be spared experiencing pain or grief in all circumstances.
(Excerpt) Read more at thepublicdiscourse.com ...
Seven things we wish ELCA, PCUSA, UCC, and Episcopal pastors knew biblically about homosexuality
bump
This immediately reminded me of Paul's discourse on the power of the flesh in Romans Chapter 7.
I really don't care which style genitals you like to rub.
Really, I don't.
You go on with your life and I will go on with mine. Don't be an attention whore, don't act like your preference in genitalia defines your being and we will get along just fine. Act like an ass and demand special treatment and we have a problem. The problem is yours because you make the choice to act out like a 12 year-old that hasn't gotten over puberty.
Grow up.
Thank you for posting this.
The context of the headline is understandable if you read the article.
Anybody who has kids knows you can love somebody without approving everything they do.
Actually, a lot of people do care.....this is a big issue politically, and inside the church, in case you haven’t noticed.
Read the article, it’s pretty clear from what the OP wrote and mentions in experience that the behavior isn’t right.
This is an important issue in the church today, even in more conservative denominations. It seems the church either falls into apostasy, denying that homosexual acts are sin or it falls into hellfire and brimstone by practically declaring homosexual acts unforgivable.
There is a middle ground, just like there is with all sin. We must forgive those who repent, we must encourage them to flee the sin of homosexual conduct. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ alone. The church must never tolerate the acceptance of this sin as normal or even desirable. The flip side is that it must not shut out a group of people who are in desperate need of Christ.
I’m guessing you didn’t read the article.
Have you ever confronted your abuser?
How about the pastor responds with “7 things I wish homosexuals knew about the gospel”
hmm, incoherent poetry?
I think they used to use electro-shock therapy
Interesting - thanks for posting. Point #5 is one that I wish was emphasized more often, but in today’s world of self-gratification, it is the ultimate sin to suggest that a person refrain from same-sex desires...
Good article overall, but the author incorrectly disparages fire-and-brimstone preaching about proud, unrepentant sin. This used to be the default in much gospel preaching. Jonathan Edwards stands out as a well-known example. We should shy away from rejecting this method for the culture’s sake.
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.