Who would you allow in your church directory?

[Christian Post]

Homosexuals have been part of a Baptist church in Texas for decades but a new pictorial directory of membership has divided the church over whether homosexual couples should be pictured together.

Members of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth postponed a vote originally scheduled for this past Sunday that would have determined the layout of the directory – with options including photos of gay couples, photos of gay people individually but not as couples, or photos omitting all individual and family photos, according to The Dallas Morning News.

“We will continue to discuss this issue together as a church family,” Kathy Madeja, chair of the deacons, said in a statement. “We do not want to rush to make a decision, but rather to continue to listen to each other and for God’s leading for our church.”

A decision is expected after deacons make a recommendation on Feb. 24.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Wow, this one is sticky. How many adulterers, overweight people, gossipers, liars, cheaters, pornography readers/watchers, etc… are in church directories? The only directory I worry about being in is Jesus’ directory.

What do you think?

What is the agenda?

[Christian Post]

Two homosexual groups plan to launch a national campaign targeting the most influential megachurches and its leaders in an attempt to change their views on gays and lesbians.

Soulforce, which promotes “pro-gay” interpretations of Scripture, and COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) are currently recruiting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parents and their children along with other supporters for “The American Family Outing” in 2008. Selected families will visit six major megachurches to “educate” the public on the issue of homosexuality.

“Through our visibility we hope to peacefully challenge the false stereotypes about LGBT people and same-gender families, and educate the public through authentic and personal conversations – real parents sharing their stories and describing the hurtful effects of prejudice and religious condemnation,” said a statement describing the national campaign, which will run from Mother’s Day weekend in May through Father’s Day weekend in June.

Churches being targeted are those led by Joel Osteen, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Rick Warren, Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., Bill Hybels and Bishop Eddie Long. Along with most Christian leaders, all have expressed to some degree an opposition to the homosexual lifestyle.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I’m glad there is talk among the Christian community and homosexuals. I pray that believers will do a better job expressing the love of Jesus to others. Discrimination is wrong period. But what is the agenda here? Why “target” a church? Churches are places of worship not politics. If a person attends a Christian Church they should expect the Bible to be taught.

Check out this from the soulforce website:

1. Most people have not carefully and prayerfully researched the Biblical texts used by some people to condemn God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children.

OK, what does sin mean then? It isn’t just homosexual sins– all detestable to God!

2. We should be open to new truth from Scripture. Even heroes of the Christian faith have changed their minds about the meaning of various Biblical texts.

Oh that is scary. The Bible is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I would hate to lead someone astray from a faulty exegesis.

3. We miss what these passages say about God when we spend so much time debating what they say about sex.

Huh? Sexual immorality is sexual immorality whether is is gay or straight.

4. The Biblical authors are silent about homosexual orientation as we know it today. They neither approve it nor condemn it.

Have they read Romans 1:24-27?

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In 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.

5. The prophets, Jesus, and the Biblical authors say nothing about homosexual orientation as we understand it today. But, they are clear about this one thing. As we search for truth, we are to “Love one another.”

We should love everyone unconditionally. But if a believer is sinning it is our responsibility to correct them. People outside the church are out of my control. However, it is my responsibility to love them.

What do you think?

Is this kind of tolerance coming to the US?

[Daily Mail]

As devoted foster parents, Vincent and Pauline Matherick have provided a stable family home for almost 30 vulnerable children.But the couple’s latest foster son is being taken away from them by social workers because they have refused to promote homosexuality. They say that to do so would go against their Christian faith.

The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will be given no more children to look after. The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, first became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset.

Earlier this year, Somerset County Council’s social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.

Read about it here.

[From me]

When is Social Services going to start taking children away from their natural parents because of their Christian beliefs?

What do you think?

More tolerance for Biblical beliefs?

[Inside Bay Area.com]

A gay rights group has urged Barack Obama to cut ties with a gospel singer who it says spreads false information about homosexuality being a choice.Donnie McClurkin is among several gospel singers scheduled to raise money for the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate at a concert in South Carolina this weekend.

McClurkin has drawn attention from gay rights activists for his views on homosexuality.

“I don’t believe that it is the intention of God,” McClurkin said Monday in a telephone interview. “Sexuality, everything is a matter of choice.”

“We strongly urge Obama to part ways with this divisive preacher who is clearly singing a different tune than the stated message of the campaign,” Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, said in a statement.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I guess tolerance only applies to the left-wing liberal agenda not for those who hold to a Biblical view.

What do you think?

The gospel according to MySpace ‘Queen’ Tila Tequila

[Christian Post]

Tila Tequila, whose bisexual reality dating series premieres on MTV next week, recently exposed her personal spiritual journey on how she found God. Her testimony was posted last week on her popular MySpace blog in reaction to conservative Christian comments opposing the upcoming show – “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” – where she stars with 32 straight men and lesbians who compete to impress her.

Tequila said she didn’t meet God in a church, which she had avoided going to with her “‘gay’ problems.” And she didn’t meet the God worshipped by churches that preached condemnation. Instead, she said she made amends with “the God that I can feel and hear in my own heart.” “This is what saved my life,” she wrote.

“I stopped feeling bad about myself because I was told that I was a ‘bad’ person for whatever reasons and opinions,” Tequila explained. “That’s when I turned my life around. I accepted me for who I am in all my glory. I accepted the fact that God would love me as long as my heart is good.”

With that, she blasted churches for “bashing” on the gay community.

“The church should understand that they have a higher responsibility to teach the youth about unconditional love, and how we can spread the love, not why being gay is a bad thing,” she wrote. If churches don’t spread the love, Tequila says she will. “Now that I’ve endured all of that pain, maybe God put me on this path so that I would be able to share with everyone else who may be going through the same things?”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Queen, bless your heart.  I’m sorry you have been treated with hate by some.  But not all of us who believe and teach what the Bible says about all sins hate people.  I don’t hate anyone.  I have been called by God to warn people if they don’t change their ways they are going to spend eternity in a place called hell.    If you knew someone was caught in a fire in a house would you worry about hurting their feelings or tell them the truth?   God loves all of us but Jesus also told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more.”  Whether it is fornication, adultery, lying, cheating or homosexual behavior–if we go against what the Bible says we are sinning.

What do you think?

Ex-Gay Study: ‘Conversion’ is Possible

[Christian Post and Religion and Spirituality.com]

Change for the homosexual is difficult, but still possible, researchers of a newly released study say. A new four-year study concludes homosexuals can become heterosexual through the help of Christian ministries. The data was released Sept. 13 at a news conference in Nashville, Tenn., and will be published in the book, “Ex-Gays?” (InterVarsity Press) by psychologists Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse.

Thirty-eight percent of the subjects followed in the study said they successfully left homosexuality, while an additional 29 percent said they had had only modest successes but were committed to keep trying. In another significant finding, Jones and Yarhouse said attempts at conversions do not appear to be psychologically harmful, Baptist Press reported Friday.

Read about it here and here.

[From me]

This just goes back to the Bible says in Philippians 4:13:

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The reality is this–no one can whip any sin on their own.  The only way to be successful in living a holy life is to give everything to God.  What I have found in my dealings with people is that sexual sins have a stronger hold on people than others.

What do you think?

MTV to Air Controversial Bisexual Dating Reality Series

[Christian Post]

MTV has given the green light for a new reality show starring a bisexual woman dubbed “the Madonna of MySpace.”

“A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” is another dating competition series but with a controversial twist. The competitors vying for internet sensation Tila Tequila, a 25-year-old entertainer whose real last name is Nguyen, are 16 straight men and 16 lesbians. The 32 “suitors” will live in Tila’s house and compete to impress her as the competition narrows each week.

The bisexual dating show is a first for a network that doesn’t specifically target the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) crowd. It’s slated to premiere Oct. 9.

MTV is one of the most watched networks by teens and its staggering levels sexual imagery, foul language and violence already have parents and evangelicals concerned.

Read about it here.

[From me]

{Begin rant}

What can I say…When MTV first came out in the early 1980′s it was just about the music. It was music that my generation listened to and now could watch. When I was in a Frat in college we would sit around and watch Martha Quinn and the other VJ’s. Then they started doing TV shows like Remote Control and then it just got sleezy! Last I heard they don’t even play videos anymore. I haven’t watched MTV in at least 15 years. It is blocked at my house even from me. There is nothing, I mean nothing good that a follower of Jesus could get from any of their liberal, trashy programing. Uggh!

{End of rant}

What do you think?