GAY TRUTH

Adam and Eve (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Someone accused me on Facebook recently of "being quiet" on the issue of same-sex marriage. While that's not been the case, I have chosen not to engage in the vitriolic rants and raves between Christians and LGBTI people. It appears to me that some Christians are dug down in one trench and some LGBTI people in an opposite trench and they're just shooting at one another. I'd like to declare a ceasefire – shooting at each other is achieving nothing other than causing hatred and anger to be stirred up – and the Christians should stop firing first! I can't see anywhere in the Bible that teaches God sent His Son into the world to raise up a people to be the world's moral police. In fact, He sent His Son for just the opposite of that – to bring peace, forgiveness, salvation, redemption, grace and new beginnings. Firstly, let me clearly state my views on Biblical/Christian marriage. In Matthew 19 some religious lead

I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because “they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.” Most often I hear, “Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts—about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t you just picking and choosing what you want to believe from the Bible?” I don’t expect everyone to understand that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God ’s plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological adviser) before leveling the charge of inconsistency. First, it’s not only the Old Testament that has proscriptions about homosexuality. The New Testament has plenty to say about it as well. Even Jesus says, in his discussion of divorce in Matt

Attempts to preserve the fundamental rights of religious freedom and conscience have been met with scorn by many for different reasons. Some simply don’t understand the issue. Others refuse to accept the rights of religious people whose values leave no room for their sexual practices .  There are some Christians who, tired of “culture-warring,” seem eager to bend the knee to ideas and behaviors that conflict with biblical values. What is religious freedom? How does it relate to conscience? Is it biblical or is it a notion with no basis in scripture, contrived by right wing religious radicals to serve selfish ends? The debate over these issues is just beginning. It will affect the Church from within and without. We faithful Christians need to know what we believe and why. Below is the religious liberty section of the  Manhattan Declaration , written by Princeton professor Robert George, Baptist theologian Timothy George , and evangelical ministry leader Charles Colson in 2009. Th

Attempts to preserve the fundamental rights of religious freedom and conscience have been met with scorn by many for different reasons. Some simply don’t understand the issue. Others refuse to accept the rights of religious people whose values leave no room for their sexual practices .  There are some Christians who, tired of “culture-warring,” seem eager to bend the knee to ideas and behaviors that conflict with biblical values. What is religious freedom? How does it relate to conscience? Is it biblical or is it a notion with no basis in scripture, contrived by right wing religious radicals to serve selfish ends? The debate over these issues is just beginning. It will affect the Church from within and without. We faithful Christians need to know what we believe and why. Below is the religious liberty section of the  Manhattan Declaration , written by Princeton professor Robert George, Baptist theologian Timothy George , and evangelical ministry leader Charles Colson in 2009. Th

Image via Wikipedia By Elodie Ballantine Emig The final references to homosexuality, or should I say to Sodom and Gomorrah, we shall study are II Peter 2:6-8 and Jude 7.  We will examine them together because the second chapter of II Pet. is so similar to Jude. In fact, most scholars believe that there is literary dependence between them.  Most compelling to me is the notion that Peter used Jude as the springboard for part of his letter. Having mentioned Peter as the author of II Pet., I should address, albeit briefly, the question of authorship. Fairly few modern scholars think the apostle Peter wrote the second epistle bearing his name.  The general and liberal consensus is that the letter is a pseudonymous product of the late first, or early second, century. Since as far back as the beginning of the third century, there has been doubt concerning II Pet. Therefore, “more hesitancy accompanied its acceptance into the New Testament canon than any other book” (D. Edmond Hiebert, S