GAY TRUTH

"Whether you're gay or whether you're straight, to follow Jesus will demand a taking up of your cross. When we start to throw out clear teachings of scripture about the lordship of Jesus over sexuality and what marriage is and what celibacy is and what singleness is--and we begin to change those to fit into culture thinking that we're gonna make the church relevant to the masses--what you actually do is make the church offensive to Jesus, the head of the church. Gay or straight, you can't do anything to earn your salvation. It's done. Jesus did it. Gay or straight, to follow Jesus means he will relentlessly pursue every bit of your soul because he loves you too much to let you have lesser gods. This obedience that we're talking about to Jesus, (here's the big idea), this obedience is actually not burdensome. It's actually a light yoke because He loves you. He said, 'My yoke is easy; my burden is light.' What does that mean? It means that

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFT) is holding its annual two-day  Banquet and "Teach-In"  later than month. "If you have a loved one or friend who was caught up in the homosexual or transgender lifestyle, this is the conference for you," AFT founder Peter LaBarbera said. "If you want to learn how to refute the lies of so-called 'Gay Christianity,' then come to this conference." The featured speaker is ex-gay author  Stephen Black , who lived the gay lifestyle for eight years but since has repented. The conference is scheduled for Oct. 20-21 at Grace for Life Bible Church in Naperville . Black is now a Christian family man and the director of First Stone Ministries, which helps people overcome homosexuality. First Stone Ministries also works with people of all backgrounds toward healing and restoration from any sexual brokenness, including sexual abuse , pornography addiction, and homosexuality. Another featured presenter is D

Recently I was reading sociologist Mark Regnerus’s insightful new book Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy. His premise is that the Pill and ubiquity of pornography have caused sex to be more widely available, which drives the cost of sex down and makes real commitment more “expensive” and difficult to navigate. Essentially, Regnerus examines sex in today through an economic lens. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book was his final eight predictions for 2030 in regard to sex, relationships, and marriage. He admits that these are “educated guesses” and that the evidence for some is more better than for others. Even though he is confident they won’t all come true, they are based on his best reading of current numbers and trends. Prediction #1: Sex Will Get Even Cheaper.  Regnerus considers this one “easy.” Fertility control is improving and there is little risk of pregnancy with sex. Porn use also continues to grow and shows no signs of declining.

The Northern Territory government has released a discussion paper called  Modernisation of the Anti-Discrimination Act  (Sept 2017). It invites comments by 3 December 2017. You can almost get the tone of the paper from the title! After all, who in this fast-changing age could oppose anything called “modernisation”? But there are a number of concerning recommendations and comments made from the law and religion perspective, and there are some real doubts whether the proposals properly reflect religious freedom principles. My colleague  Dr Alex Deagon  from QUT has graciously provided a guest blog post in which he outlines his comments on two major concerns with the proposals to amend the Act. Those who are interested in the interaction of discrimination law and religious freedom should find them very helpful, and may wish to make their own comments in response to the discussion paper. There are other controversial proposals in the paper which may be the subject of future post