A Different Perspective

[Gregory Matthews]

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/july-web-only/revoices-founder-answers-lgbt-conferences-critics.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=16245031&utm_content=596837222&utm_campaign=email

The above article will stimulate thought.  As for me, I am not certain that I even understand it at this point in time.

 

 

[Gustave]

On the surface it looks like good stuff.

The group acknowledges being same sex attracted isn't a sin - however acting on those urges IS. The high cost for these folks is there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. Due to the way I lived my early life I'd be the last one to judge a queer as I can only imagine that their drive for the same sex was at least similar to mine for the opposite!

Being stuck in a situation that is correctly described as abnormal (compared to most everyone else) is bad enough and being looked down on and ostracized for it by members of a faith tradition you also share has to be REALLY BAD! 

I got to know a gay guy at work pretty well, he was the type you would NEVER know was gay but he was. This person wasn't Christian but Jewish. He told me when he was younger he prayed himself to sleep countless times - wanted to be like everyone else, etc. etc.  This person was 15 years my older and society wasn't kind to folks like this in the 50's!

These same sex attracted folks should have all the support the rest of us have grown to expect. If some married guy in the church gets caught with a hooker in Las Vegas is he tared and feathered and sold down the river? Or does he / she have a shot at forgiveness? My guess is the latter. A queer that does what's natural to them is no less deserving of being forgiven repeatedly just the same as the rest of us. 

We all fall short - the difference in this case is that homosexuality is such an offensive idea to many people they fail to see that God looks at their gossip, lies, cheating, stealing or whatever in just as negative way as He would at a gay sex act. 

Just my .02

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Homosexuality is no more a choice than is my being a heterosexual a choice.

You and I do not choose our gender preference.

[JoeMo]

On 6/26/2021 at 9:55 PM, Gregory Matthews said:

Homosexuality is no more a choice than is my being a heterosexual a choice.

You and I do not choose our gender preference.

No; but we do choose on acting on that preference.  When the LGBTQ activists come to my church doors insisting that our church accept them with open arms - having LGBTQ people on staff, teaching our kids and leading our young adults - or they will sue us and shut us down, my response is "do your worst".  This is coming, folks!  If you remain faithful to the morals specified in the Bible, you will not allow your congregation to be forced into compromising Bible principles by having LGTBQ folks into leadership; or maybe not even into church membership.  They want to visit and worship with us, fine. they want the pulpit, not fine.

I have no problem with gays.  I do have a problem with giving them a platform in church.  That being said, homosexuality is only a small part of the purposeful sins that could very well keep us out of the Kingdom.  the difference is, we don't celebrate murder, adultery anger, unforgivness, gossip or any of the other sins that could keep us out of the Kingdom. Why should we celebrate gayness?

Another thing - while the proposed Equality Act - which has already passed the House - is signed into law, All LGBTQ activities will be protected - including men who "identify as females" to compete as females, shower with females, and be admitted to women's shelters.  Do you want some guy who "identifies as a woman showering in the locker room of your local community center right next to your wife? I don't.

 

Guess who's not protected? Jews and Christians.

[Gregory Matthews]

*  Yes, we choose how we act.

*  A celibate homosexual remains a homosexual.

*  SDA policy allows celibate homosexuals to become both clergy and a SDA member.

[GHansen]

On 6/29/2021 at 9:56 PM, Gregory Matthews said:

*  Yes, we choose how we act.

*  A celibate homosexual remains a homosexual.

*  SDA policy allows celibate homosexuals to become both clergy and a SDA member.

There was a celibate homosexual conference employee posting on Spectrum a while back. The  life he described was a living hell. He had serious health problems both of a physical and mental nature. He was taking medication for both e.g., antihypertensives and antianxiety meds. Requiring people to live celibate lives is an invitation to sexual perversion. I doubt that many of the RC priests and brothers implicated in pedophilia set out to become pedophiles. Some people, perhaps all,  do choose to act out on homosexual desire just as heterosexuals act out on illicit sexual activity such as premarital sex, masturbation, etc. Many do so through ignorance. The conference employee appeared to be a lost man, sexually active or not but his "celibacy" did allow him to keep his job at the SDA conference office.

 

[JoeMo]

I'm confident that there are many gay members (including pastors and conference employees) in the SDA Church.  As long as they are not in leadership or teaching positions and are discrete, they are welcome as far as I am concerned.  If they become vocal gay activists and insist on celebrating their gayness by stuff like PDA's in public (or at church) or making an public issue of supporting gay rights at church, they are welcome to find someplace else to worship as far as I'm concerned.  However, hostility against them should never happen.  Jesus loves us all; no matter what our "pet" sins are.

[GHansen]

On 7/3/2021 at 11:29 PM, JoeMo said:

I'm confident that there are many gay members (including pastors and conference employees) in the SDA Church.  As long as they are not in leadership or teaching positions and are discrete, they are welcome as far as I am concerned.  If they become vocal gay activists and insist on celebrating their gayness by stuff like PDA's in public (or at church) or making an public issue of supporting gay rights at church, they are welcome to find someplace else to worship as far as I'm concerned.  However, hostility against them should never happen.  Jesus loves us all; no matter what our "pet" sins are.

By definition, a pastor or conference employee would usually be a "leader." Perhaps not the support staff but any one employed in a conference office is also usually a leader, more or less. SDA have never really been much on church discipline when it comes to personal life. No one really knows what is going on in people's lives outside of church. If there are problems in one congregation, people simply move to another congregation. No one in that new group will know about the adultery, the divorce, the remarriage, the gay lover, the pedophilia accusations. Disfellowship meant to not associate with those so judged. They were put out of the congregation, people not allowed to deal with them. The ban or shunning, practiced by certain groups, captures the sense of the idea as set forth in the Bible, both testaments. This was a controversial issue during the Reformation among Anabaptist/"Spiritual" groups, perhaps others. Disfellowshipped individuals were not welcome at Church meetings or Communion services. The peripheral nature of the Lord's Supper in SDA congregations means that being banned from participating isn't a big deal. In the past, it was a big deal. It was like being shut out of heaven, more or less. Until there is greater individual accountability among church members, who does what is a non issue, unless criminality comes into play.