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Showing posts with the label Presbyterianism

Canadian church abandons the Gospel to appease LGBTQ lobby

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In the backrooms of the increasingly powerful LGBTQ activist movement, high-fives are no doubt still being exchanged liberally today as they celebrate yet another massive victory over Christianity and traditional values. In a shocking act of apparent complete symbolic prostration, the Presbyterian Church leadership of Canada set up a commission last year and named it the "Rainbow Communion," with the intent of researching the idea of having the church officially and publicly repent for its sins against the LGBTQ community. To the average non-Christian the creation of a "Rainbow Communion" might seem on its face to be rather innocuous in nature, but this is only true because people today are so used to seeing the LGBTQ community draping itself in the rainbow flag. But within the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, the rainbow has served as one of its most important and enduring symbols for several thousand years.  The rainbow was not an arbitrary symbol...

Homosexual Marriage: If anyone’s on the ‘wrong side of history,’ it’s the West

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US President Barack Obama now on the wrong side of history (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) We hear a lot about “the wrong side of history” these days—usually from those who want to convince us we’re on it, and that everyone in the future will think like the New York Times editorial board. But if we want to understand where history is  really  headed, we’ve got to  look at the big picture —the global picture. President Obama —someone who’s used the “right side of history” trope  more than once —got a glimpse of that picture last month when he spoke in Nairobi. Addressing Kenya’s strong cultural aversion to homosexuality, the President warned that “treating people differently” not because they’re harming anyone but because  they’re  “different,” erodes freedoms and leads to “bad things.” Well, in a nation where 96 percent disapprove of homosexuality, that didn’t go over so well. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta was quick to express the feelings of his c...

Megachurch pastor: Denominations that allow gay ‘marriage’ are ‘Satan’s church’

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In the wake of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent decision to celebrate same-sex “marriages,” celebrity pastor John MacArthur of “Grace to You” has come out with some strong statements condemning “false churches” that abandon Biblical teachings against homosexual behavior. “They have no allegiance to the Bible,” MacArthur told  The Blaze  online news service. “You go back to every one of those seminaries … for a century [they] have been deniers of biblical authority, they have no relationship to scripture, they are the apostate church, they are Satan’s church.” While it seems clear MacArthur was implying that self-professed Christians who accept gay “marriage” are doing Satan’s work, not necessarily worshiping the devil, it is worth noting that the actual  Satanic Temple of America  has called same-sex “marriage” one of its “ sacraments .” MacArthur, who is Baptist, believes in the teachings of John Calvin regarding the inerrancy and literal truth of ...

NZ ignores majority to ban immoral homosexual marriage

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Church leaders are making a last-minute appeal to MPs to protect teachers who believe marriage should only be between opposite sexes even if Louisa Wall 's gay marriage bill is passed tomorrow. National leaders of the Catholic , Presbyterian , Baptist and several Pentecostal churches issued an open letter yesterday asking MPs to vote down the bill. Failing that, they want them at least to amend it to prevent discrimination against any teacher or other person who believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Christian Network director Glyn Carpenter said it was still possible for the bill to be defeated when it comes up for a second reading about 8pm tomorrow. But, after a vote of 80-40 at its first reading last August, he urged MPs to at least amend it. He proposed an amendment that "any person or organisation shall retain the right to hold the belief (on cultural, religious or other grounds) that marriage should only be between opposite sexes, and per...

NZ Presbyterians urges vote against same-sex marriage

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English: Roslyn Presbyterian Church, in Dunedin, New Zealand (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A conservative group within New Zealand's Presbyterian Church has urged Parliamentarians to reject the same sex marriage bill next week, dismissing the views of other Presbyterians who support the bill as "isolated voices." Presbyterian AFFIRM today released a statement opposing same sex marriage, saying that the concept was "spiritually offensive to many Christian people , who still constitute a very significant proportion of this country's population and its voters ." Its spokesman Dr Stuart Lange said Affirm was a "widely supported conservative network" within the Presbyterian Church, although the Church as a whole had no formal position on the bill. The statement was issued after at least 12 Presbyterian ministers voiced support for the bill by co-signing a letter from 57 clergy of the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist Churches rejecting the Catholi...

NZ bishops attacked by clergy for damning gay marriage

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A letter to young people from Roman Catholic bishops condemning gay marriage has been rejected by other liberal Christian leaders. The letter to " Kiwis of Generation Y " from all six of New Zealand's Catholic bishops advises against allowing same-sex couples to marry in the eyes of the law for the sake of "society as a whole". "This is no small matter, nor quibbling about words; this is an attempt to re-engineer the status and structure of family life in New Zealand," they wrote. Fifty liberal clergy and laity from Anglican , Presbyterian , Methodist and Quaker denominations lashed out at the bishops and called on them to reconsider their position on the Marriage Amendment Bill. I think it's time the Church recognises and encourages those in same-gender relationships who wish to pledge their love and fidelity to each other in the rite of marriage," the group wrote back to the bishops, ignoring scriptural injunctions. "To suggest, ...

U.S. Presbyterian Church assembly rejects proposal to redefine marriage

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Stamp of the General Assembly. With the words "Ardens Sed Virenes" - "Burning but flourishing". (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) PITTSBURGH, July 9, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - True marriage won a temporary reprieve in the US Presbyterian Church , as its general assembly  rejected  a proposal to redefine marriage as “a covenant between two people.” The decision, affirmed by 52% of the church’s General Assembly during an annual meeting in Pittsburgh on Friday, sustains the church’s existing definition of marriage as a “civil contract between a woman and a man” and its ban on performing same-sex weddings . In 2010, the Presbyterian Church  censured  the openly lesbian Rev. Jane Spahr of San Francisco for officiating sixteen same-sex weddings in violation of that ban. Clergy are, however, permitted to bless same-sex unions without calling them marriages . The assembly also voted to conduct a two-year study on the theology of marriage, and figures on both side...

Calif. Presbyterian Church Leaves PCUSA for Not Embracing Homosexuality Enough

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Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) As the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues struggling with internal theological issues pertaining to the ordaining of gay priests and same-sex marriage, one Presbyterian Calif. church is leaving the denomination because it is not liberal enough. The West Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles will formally join the more liberal United Church of Christ on Saturday, and is claiming that the larger, 2-million member (PCUSA) has not done enough to accept homosexuals though it lifted its ban on the ordination of openly gay clergy last year. The West Hollywood Presbyterian Church has had a progressive congregation with about 57 members since the 1980s, and is ready to be "set free," according to gay pastor the Rev. Dan Smith. "It's like being released from an abusive relationship," he shared with Reuters . The church will also be allowed to keep the property after a regional governing body called ...

Church of Scotland tells government ‘no’ to homosexual ‘marriage’

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Image via Wikipedia SCOTLAND, December 6, 2011  – The Church of Scotland has said “no” to homosexual ‘ marriage ’ in its official response to the Scottish Government ’s questionnaire concerning the country’s marriage legislation. “[It is our] bona fide belief that homosexual practice is contrary to God ’s will,” stated the Church of Scotland ( CoS ) in  its answer  to the questionnaire. The CoS also said is “contrary to God’s will that Christians should be hostile in any way to a person because he or she is homosexual by orientation and in his or her practice,” adding that it views “homophobia as sinful.” The CoS based its response on Scriptural references to marriage, saying that scripture operates under the understanding of marriage as being between one man and one woman. The Church also argued that redefining marriage to include homosexual couples may have “significant and, as yet, inadequately considered repercussions” for the well-being of families, communities,...