Chasing the Wind

News. Faith. Nonsense.


Anglican Church Splits Over Gays

I’m not surprised. Although gays and lesbians have been successful at convincing the secular world to accept their lifestyle, it’s a lot harder to edit the bible to accept your lifestyle. Christians should never allow any sort of unrepentent sinner to lead them.

The vast majority of people going to church share conservative values, but the US and Canadian Episcopalian churches have moved away from conservative values when they appointed Gene Robinson as an openly gay bishop.

This quote tells me that the liberal side of the church doesn’t have any idea what’s gone wrong with their church – or worse, they’re intentionally leading the church in an errant direction:

In the liberal camp, American Bishop Steve Charleston said the North Americans were unlikely to change their position.

“I think Gene is something of a champion of human rights,” he told BBC Radio.

“Like people of color before him, they got tired of sitting at the back of the bus and it was time to stand up and say ‘Here I am, I am an honest decent human being and you must treat me with respect.’ That is essentially what Gene is doing and I honor him for it.”

This has nothing to do with human rights. They’re not being asked to sit at the back of the bus. God’s Word teaches that sexual immorality is a sin. Any form of sexual immorality.

The point of that is that Christian churches may differ on interpretation of God’s Word, but they may not pick and choose from God’s Word. Sin is death. True Christian churches would no more allow a gay pastor than they would an adulterous pastory – it is a sin, and all unrepentant sin defies God and denies the sinner from salvation.

Should churches welcome sinners, even if they’re gay? Of course – all men and women are sinners, and we are not to judge whether some sins are acceptable and others are not. But the sin is not welcome – that’s the whole point of seeking God. A healthy church doesn’t seek to bend God’s will to accept their behavior; a healthy church bends their behavior to God’s will.

Romans 1:24-32
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.



6 responses to “Anglican Church Splits Over Gays”

  1. The problem is this: what if a liberal hears “They are gossips, slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” and seens a conservative who is arrogant about scripture, boastful about their piety, ruthless in their politics, and meets gay people who exemplify none of these things. What if it is not lust that motivates a gay person [just as it may not motivate a straight person] but a feeling of freedom in Christ to love someone freely? That’s the problem. When we read scripture, we don’t recognize the gay people we know. Perhaps when some meet a gay couple, they see that the couple must be heartless and faithless. Liberals do not have that kind of arrogance towards the human hearts of others.

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  2. That’s misunderstanding the Word of God, and it happens with both hardline conservative (who forget they are supposed to love the sinner) and liberals (who forget they are supposed to hate the sin).

    Remember, this isn’t about whether gay people should attend church. This is about who should lead the church and what the church should teach. Here are the two misperceptions in your argument:

    1 – if a conservative leader is arrogant and boastful, fellow christians are to bring it to his attention. If the leader agrees that he has been arrogant and boastful, then he should repent. If a liberal leader is gay, the same rules apply: repent.

    2 – just because you see a conservative sin doesn’t mean any or all sin is acceptable. All sin builds a wall between the sinner and God and should be removed.

    3 – freedom in Christ to love someone freely has absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation. You’re confusing agape love with sex.

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  3. And from today’s headlines:

    Super-HIV man
    had sex with 100

    BY PAUL H.B. SHIN
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

    BOSTON – The New York man who sparked fears of a powerful new strain of HIV had drug-fueled, unprotected sex with more than 100 men in the months before his diagnosis, a top researcher said yesterday.
    Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan will unveil today a case study of the unidentified man, who his team believes may harbor a mutant strain of the deadly virus.

    Skeptical AIDS researchers from around the world believe the case is isolated and not the beginning of a new epidemic.

    In a preview of the study, Ho said the new strain is resistant to 19 of 20 drugs used to fight the HIV virus and becomes full-blown AIDS in months, not years. The development led city health officials to send out a dire warning earlier this month.

    “We don’t know if this is an isolated case or if there are more cases out there,” Ho told the Daily News.

    The victim, who’s in his mid-40s, participated in wild orgies fueled by crystal meth before becoming sick, Ho said.

    City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said yesterday health workers have been “working to identify [the man’s] sexual partners, and urge them to be tested.”

    But he declined to say how many of those partners they’d been able to reach.

    Despite the fears of a superbug, other experts have pointed out that rapid progression of HIV is not new, nor is resistance to multiple drugs.

    Instead of being a new strain, the virus could have rapidly developed into full-blown AIDS because of something unique to the patient, said Dr. Douglas Richman of University of California at San Diego.

    But even officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have acknowledged the case is alarming.

    >> Sean

    From a strictly non-religious viewpoint, nature itself does not permit actions such as these to continue without consequence. The sex can be natural or unatural, but there has to be a line somewhere to say “This is good, and this is bad”. Nature does not care about the PC of the aids virus, like many do, but is it any wonder this individual got sick? Can anyone deny that at least this type of activity has bad consequences? Perhaps this is just good common sense expressed by the scripture above. Another good idea is to not point loaded guns at youself – your life expectancy decreases when you do…… Even if you deny the scripture on religious grounds, you must admit that it is telling you the truth about the consequences of pursuing these types of desires of the heart.

    And, I refuse to give you permission to make me feel guilty about it.

    Sean.

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  4. Well written, Sean.

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  5. I admit, Sean, I generally don’t think of diseases as punishment for sin, but there are plenty of people who do.

    That said, this only tells me that gay people should have one partner and use condoms.

    My issue is one of biblical interpretation. What we are reading in scripture is plain – homosexual people as slanderers and haters of God. That’s who the scripture is referring to. Arrogance is, as a category, part of what being a homosexual is for Paul, as is evil, greed and depravity. That is not what a liberal sees in your average homosexual couple.

    As far as “agape” vs. physical love, I don’t buy that the distinction is absolute. Orthodox Christianity protects marriage against just a spiritual reading.

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  6. I’m not sure I buy into disease as punishment for sin, but I do agree that AIDS is a repercussion for a particular sinful lifestyle. Even an infant with AIDS is a repercussion of the adult’s sinful life.

    Just because a homosexual is otherwise kind and good and generous doesn’t excuse the sin of hmosexuality. The BTK killer was a church leader and a boy scout leader. He also murdered 10 people. Being good does not excuse the sin.

    Your “orthodox christianity” position I’m not familiar with. If you’re claiming that we’re free from such a “spiritual reading” under Christ (freedom from legalism), I agree. But if you’re saying we don’t have to follow the letter of the Word of God, I disagree. The entire chapter of Romans is devoted to the concept that as Christians we are free from the law, we still must uphold the law, but it is grace through faith that saves us.

    “Agape” love isn’t just an interpetation, it’s the love described in the bible. The New Testamant was primarily written in Greek, and Greek had three words for types of love. “Eros” has to do with sensual passions, or sex. This word is not found in the New Testament. “Phileo” describes affection and brotherly love, and the bible warns us that even phileo love can be misused when we are not to yoke ourselves unequally. “Agape” is primarily used in the New Testament, and reflect’s God’s love and the type of love we are to have for one another. It basically means wanting the best for another, a self-sacrificing love.

    The fact that the English translates all three as “love” doesn’t mean that’s what the Bible is saying. Self-sacrificing love for one another has nothing to do with sex.

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About Me

Michael, a sinner saved by grace, sharing what the good Lord has shared with me.

Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, said, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

If you’re not living for the glory of God, then what you’re doing is meaningless, no matter what it is. Living for God gives life meaning, and enjoying a “chasing after the wind” is a gift from God. I’m doing what I can to enjoy this gift daily.

Got questions? I’m not surprised. If you have any questions about Chasing the Wind, you can email me at chasingthewind@outlook.com.

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