{"id":554,"date":"2010-08-16T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=554"},"modified":"2010-08-16T04:00:32","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T10:00:32","slug":"gay-marriage-debate-opinion-or-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=554","title":{"rendered":"Gay Marriage Debate: Opinion Or Truth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real people. Up with people.\u00a0 People, people, people.\u00a0 Death, terminal illness, divorce, drug abuse, financial difficulties\u00a0or gay marriage.\u00a0 What do all of these have in common?\u00a0 They\u00a0involve people.\u00a0 Regardless of the issue, churches and pastors minister to real people.<\/p>\n

A recent article, written by a Baptist pastor from Georgia,\u00a0 was titled, “With marriage debate, remember real people are involved.”<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 <\/a>No argument there.\u00a0 Real people are always involved in ministry.\u00a0 But, what if I told you that the pastor was a graduate of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology and that his opinion piece was published by Associated Baptist Press?\u00a0\u00a0Would you need three guesses to\u00a0figure out the conclusion that this pastor comes to regarding ministering to real people in the (gay) marriage debate?\u00a0 I didn’t think so.<\/p>\n

In what is becoming an increasing trend within some Baptist circles, there is a movement toward not just welcoming homosexuals into the public worship services of a church, but affirming their lifestyle as compatible with Christianity.\u00a0 This struggle, as it has done with Episcopals, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and others, will\u00a0eventually lead to schism within\u00a0moderate Baptist churches or fellowships.\u00a0 Churches and individual Christians cannot remain neutral on this issue.<\/p>\n

In a recent post, “Moderate Baptists: The Road Less Traveled,” <\/a><\/em>I observed that a positive view of women serving as senior pastors, while not heretical,\u00a0sometimes leads to more aberrant doctrinal beliefs, such as affirmation of homosexuality and a denial of faith in Jesus being the only way to heaven.\u00a0 For even mentioning this as a possible doctrinal trajectory, I was castigated by one commenter for linking these three beliefs.\u00a0 I am aware of others who have been similarly rebuked for the same “offense.”<\/p>\n

How does one come to the\u00a0belief that practicing homosexuals should be welcomed and affirmed within the church or that there are alternative roads apart from faith in Jesus Christ that lead to salvation?\u00a0 By relying upon our own opinions instead of the Word of God!\u00a0 Our opinions, more often than we would care to admit, are less than reliable.\u00a0 However, God-breathed Scripture is always reliable and trustworthy.<\/p>\n

Whether one believes that the Bible is divinely inspired and without error (inerrant) or believes that the Bible\u00a0“has\u00a0God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of\u00a0error, for its matter (1963 BF&M), there is no question that God’s Word is\u00a0an infinitely more perfect source for our faith and for putting our faith into practice.<\/p>\n

But, there is the rub.\u00a0 What is our faith and how do we put into practice this faith that we have in Jesus?\u00a0 I suppose that depends on who you ask.\u00a0 The issue of gay marriage and the church’s response illustrates, even more clearly than the issue of women pastors, what we believe, not just about homosexuality, but about the Gospel message, salvation, and redemption.\u00a0 We can afford to get the women in ministry issue wrong because it is not a matter of salvation.\u00a0 If we are wrong on what it means to be “saved,” then that becomes a matter of life and death, not just physical, but spiritual as well.<\/p>\n

Joe LaGuardia, the Baptist pastor, writes:<\/p>\n

In my own work as a pastor, I have realized that policies can change over time, but the needs of people never change. People need God’s salvation, compassionate embraces, enriching relationships, tear-absorbent shoulders and attentive ears. People need to feel safe and welcome. People need to have the opportunity to hear the gospel, experience God’s love and walk with God in the midst of humanity’s limits and failures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure there are many Baptists or other Christians who would disagree with the above statement.\u00a0 People do need the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0Regardless of the spiritual baggage that people bring with them (and most will not bring homosexuality), our churches need to be places that openly welcome and embrace sinners of all stripes and varieties.<\/a>\u00a0 If we need to transform our churches into faith communities that are more welcoming to sinners in need of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness, then we must by all means make any changes\u00a0needed to that end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In risking our reputations in our local communities, we must be obedient, joy-filled, and humble in serving \u201cthe least of these,\u201d notably same-sex couples who are looking for sacred and safe places to grow in Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure that Jesus had in mind gay couples when he taught about “the least of these.”\u00a0 But, for the sake of argument, assuming that Jesus did mean to include same-sex couples in this group, I believe that churches who will risk their reputations in the community will be those who continue to speak the truth in love to those who are struggling with sexual sin and brokenness in all its forms, including homosexuality, adultery, pre-marital sex, pornography, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This starts by transforming our holy places of worship from being merely \u201cwelcoming\u201d churches to becoming \u201cembracing\u201d communities of faith. We are not like a local restaurant I frequent, which has employees shout, \u201cWelcome!\u201d when people enter the doors only to have those same consumers eat at separate tables, segregated by families or cliques. Rather, we are to be communities of faith that welcome and embrace every one of God\u2019s children, inviting them to the table of fellowship and friendship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People do need sacred and safe places to grow in Christ.\u00a0 But those places must continue to speak the truth in love, welcoming sinners just as they are, without embracing them to stay just as they are.\u00a0 Our churches do not need to be as concerned with our transformation as much as we need to be concerned about sharing a Gospel message that is radically transforming.\u00a0 By all means, welcome people into your place of worship.\u00a0 Remember that they are all real people with real struggles.\u00a0 And remember what really matters is not our opinions, but a real Savior offering real forgiveness and real transformation for real sinners.\u00a0 That’s truth that will really set you free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real people. Up with people.\u00a0 People, people, people.\u00a0 Death, terminal illness, divorce, drug abuse, financial difficulties\u00a0or gay marriage.\u00a0 What do all of these have in common?\u00a0 They\u00a0involve people.\u00a0 Regardless of the issue, churches and pastors minister to real people. A recent article, written by a Baptist pastor from Georgia,\u00a0 was titled, “With marriage debate, remember…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,31,37,1],"tags":[252,431,450,3399,995,1039],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexual-agenda","category-ministry","category-southern-baptist-convention","category-uncategorized","tag-controversial-opinions","tag-gay-marriage","tag-gospel","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-transformation","tag-welcoming-and-affirming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-8W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}