Christians in America may be soon witnessing a larger push to reveal the love of God in their lives and to think twice about how they confront sin – especially after a recent Barna survey found that just 16 percent of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a “good impression” of Christianity.
More specifically, most young non-Christians who The Barna Group approached said they felt Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent), among other negative perceptions.
Furthermore, 91 percent of young non-Christians and 80 percent of young churchgoers say present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual."
"As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians," the Barna report stated.
Young Christians largely criticize churches, saying they have made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else and that churches have not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians.
Amid news of the report, many Christian leaders are reminding believers of the greatest commandment given to them by God.
"Often Christians think that to love a homosexual is a compromise of their Christianity, that somehow their love would be misconstrued as condoning homosexuality," according to Christine Sneeringer, director of Worthy Creations, a ministry of Exodus International – one of the nation's largest organizations dealing with homosexuality.
But Christians are called to love their neighbor, she recalls, while also pointing out that a Christian's message must balance love and truth – the truth being that homosexuality is a sin.
Tim Wilkins, an ex-gay Baptist, also teaches congregations across the country that the Church has a responsibility to proclaim that homosexuality is a sin. At the same time, however, he tells them they have a responsibility to share the redemptive message of Christ.
"Homosexuality is a sin and freedom from same-sex attractions is available through Jesus Christ," he says.
Some more liberal Christians, however, in their push to embrace homosexual persons, have gone too far and have strayed from the foundation laid by the Bible.
Presbyterian theologian Jack Rogers, for example, is visiting several churches this fall refuting the common Christian interpretation of the Bible that Jesus and Scripture opposes homosexuality.
The professor of Theology Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary is trying to get a positive word out in Christian churches about the gay and lesbian community and thinks churches should be leading the charge for their equal rights.
“I’m trying to help people understand that the Bible rightly interpreted, which I would think is through the lens of Jesus’ redemptive life and ministry ... does not condemn Christian people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered," said Rogers, according to The Lawrence Journal-World.
Rogers acknowledges in his book, “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church,” that he has not specialized in the issue of homosexuality as a biblical scholar. Still, he says those who argue that the Bible condemns gays and lesbians are taking biblical literalism too far and feels there is excessively negative words in the religious community, according to the Journal-World.
Another Christian leader who is making a push for the equal rights of homosexuals is Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose denomination has riled the worldwide Anglican Communion with its unwavering support for sexually active gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex couples. Continue >>
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aberdeen,
At best, you are confused. God did not say all sexuality is sinful. He said some types of sex are sinful.
Romans 14:23b
everything that does not come from faith is sin.
James 4:17
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Ephesians 5:11
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
1 Corinthians 5:11
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
Psalm 361:-3 1 An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. 3 The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
This is from the mouth of Christ:
Luke 16:15 He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.â
According to the Letter to Romans, all human beings are sinners and thus, all human sexuality is sinful. It doesn't surprise me that non-Christians believe you condemn homosexuals, because anytime you place your own sexuality as being better than anyone else's, you are condemning them, as most certainly the author of the Letter to Romans agrees: "Therefore, you are inexcusable" whoever judges another.
One might also ask, Who Would Jesus Bomb?, Who Would Jesus Hate and brand an "illegal"?, Whose Health Care Would Jesus Cut?, Would Jesus Pretend to Care About the Unborn While Ignoring the Sick and Poor Who are Already Born? Would Jesus Ignore the Environment of Our Children's Future? And, etc...
Richard Aberdeen
www.FreedomTracks.com
The Bible wasn't written by God nor was it written by Jesus. The bible was written by men. It has it's strengths and it's discrepancies. You should take in with a grain of salt. In addition, there are thousands of ways to interpret the bible.
Jesus was never "cool with" any form of immorality.
Lev 20:13, If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death....
One day the Lords says gays are an abdomination and shall surely be put to death, the next day Jesus is cool with them. Sounds like a flip flop to me...
Of course Jesus wouldn't stone a homosexual; He didn't advocate the stoning of the woman who was caught in adultery. (It should be noted that her accusers did violate the Jewish law by bringing only her and not the adulterous man, as well.) What Jesus WOULD do is what He DID do. He would offer forgiveness of sin and, if it were received with repentance, He would then say, "Go and sin no more."
ifeelfine72, you are mistaken when you say there are no Bible-believing Christians. Every supposed example you gave was derived from the old covenant, to which present-day Christians are not subject. You neglected the new covenant entirely. A study of the book of Hebrews would be very helpful for clarification.
ifeelfine72 i hope this answers your question>
to the author of the above article and those who agree with him.
"Some more liberal Christians, however, in their push to embrace homosexual persons, have gone too far and have strayed from the foundation laid by the Bible".
ithess says test everything, keep the good. slavery which was acceptable under the
with covenants before christ and socialogically, slavery was an acceptable means for the distribution of wealth and power. but with the covenant of christ came, in addition to loving ones neighbor, came loving ones enemy as well. and no more was credit given for loving those who loved us , but instead for loving those who didnt love us. because of this the understanding of the commandment was now,.. to love everyone. thru this came the umderstanding of individual rights. tested thru all this, slavery now became an unacceptable evil. however it took almost 2000 years, for that love understanding not to be limited by ethnicity or nationality.........ergo the unacceptability of slavery.
note the testing came not from a remunerating of scripture or traditional teaching but came thru fellowship with those who were victims of our limitating understanding of love. because test comes thru fellowship........"which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—"
continued
1 john "if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellow3ship with one another.........."
"john16:12I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
so, aside from the fact those who condemn homosexuality as a sin cannot explain, how the scriptures they stand on, say homosexuality is a sin. or say what is the spirit of the essence of the spirit of homosexuality, that it would come against the spirit of christ and love your neighbor as yourself.
my question is again. in the spirit of "test everything , but keep the good." what is your fellowship test ( thru the holy spirit) with those who you condemn as sinners
have you really looked at them............have you listened to their hearts.......allowed them to touch you, and allowed yourself to touch them. emotionally,physically, etc, ( honoring their life experiences)
"Some more liberal Christians, however, in their push to embrace homosexual persons, have gone too far and have strayed from the foundation laid by the Bible".
these christians who were labeled in an attempt to discredit them, have made a fellowship test with homosexuals, and have found no essence of sin in the orientation.
the author who wrote the above article, and those who agree with him........ what is your test?
Someone earlier noted that Jesus stood up to the money changers, etc. He did. Notice that he always stood up for the least amongst us (the blind, crippled, poor, etc) and spoke out against those in power (money changers, the rich, etc). He spoke Truth to power and that is why he was killed.
As for the actual content of the article:
"More specifically, most young non-Christians who The Barna Group approached said they felt Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent), among other negative perceptions."
I'm a Christian and couldn't agree more with that assessment.
chk555 - where did you get your psychology degree from? Pre-homosexuality? That is absolutely ridiculous.
Nobody takes the Bible literally. No one. Show me a "Bible believing Christian" and I'll show you a liar.
The fact is, we all interpret it according to our own agenda. Mainstream Christianity doesn't endorse polygamy, marrying the very young, widowed women getting pregnant by their deceased husband's brother, slavery, concubinage, no intercourse within seven days of menses, stoning women who commit adultry, etc and yet the Bible endorses and in some instances even mandates these things.
Look, abolitionists during the mid-1800's certainly didn't have the Bible on their side (it was more on the side of the slave owners) and yet that movement was rooted in Christian faith. All I'm saying is that the cultural interpretation of the Bible has changed over time and based on our understanding of things.
I'm sure someone will trot out a passage about the inerrancy of the Bible or how it never changes - but it has and our interpretation of it does too.
homosexuals marry. so are so merely speaking against the unmarried. if heterosexuals can sinfully lust why should not homosexuals do the same. in either case does that invalidate the orientation.
if you think homosexuality is a sin, what is the spirit(our battle being against powers and principalities) of the essence of homosexuality that it would come against love of the father, love of neighbor and self, and fulfillment of the law, which is love.
in regard to obedience we obey that which we love, and obedience, according to scripture that is without love, is nothing. scripture says we see in part through a glass darkly, a poor reflection. why is it that believers knowing this, allow their understanding of the law to influence who they will fellowship with, when scripture says.....................
"if we walk in the light as he is in the light we will have fellowship with one another, and the blood of christ purifies us from all sin"
when we fellowship, regardles with whom we fellowship, we are covered and protected by the blood of christ.
part of fellowship is honoring the life experiences of another............that is ,yes,........ this was felt, this was received, yes, this was experienced
"That's the will of the Father to abstain from sexual immorality, which equals no sex outside marriage for anybody striaght or gay. It is a sin."
how do you make the leap from hebrews and mark............................and without any annotation.
sexual immorality would be any sexual behavior that comes against love of neighbor and love of self.
." In John 15 He says If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as i have obeyed my Fathers commands and remain in His love. What are Jesus commands? Same as Gods. John 1 sasy that Jesus is the word and again Jesus said not one jot or tittle will go away till heaven and earth pass away."
Romans 13:10
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law
if love is the fulfullment of the law then anything.............anything that is without love, ....ANYTHING DONE without love of neighbor and self, love of god, and loving ONE ANOTHER. is against the fufillment of the law. with love comes fellowship...........loving that which god loves and gave his son to save.
yet heterisexual believers refuse any fellowship with homosexual believers.
1 John 2:9
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
1 John 2:8-10 (in Context) 1 John 2 (Whole Chapter)
1 John 2:11
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
1 John 2:10-12 (in Context) 1 John 2 (Whole Chapter)
1 John 3:15
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 3:14-16 (in Context) 1 John 3 (Whole Chapter)
1 John 4:20
If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he
the response of believers to those who are gay, even gay believers, those, who share the same inheritance. instead of fellowship in christ acknowledging the glory that both share, they deem pariahs, over a disagreement on a point, on an interpretation, in the law. rejecting without any witness(which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched), without any test of the spirit.........................for a belief system that stands on the law which scripture says is imperfection, instead of on christ which is perfection.
my personal opinion is that because of centuries of institutional and societal bashing passed from generation to generation,, apart from anything to do with the law, some believers refuse to believe that anything homosexual, lesbian, or transgender could possibly be acceptable to the god of the faith they have invested their lives.
Continuing on Now what about this love thing that has been battered about. In Hebrews it says that Jesus became the author of eternal life to those who obey Him. What does this obey mean? Jesus said in Matt 12:46-50 and in Mark 3:35 "While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, waiting to speak to Him/ Someone told Him your mother and brother are standing outside, wanting to speak to you. He replied to him Who is my mother and who are mr brothers? Pointing to His disciples, he said. Here is my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. What is Gods will--- Some of His will is explained in 1st Thess. 4:2-4 "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexaul immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is Holy and honorable" That's the will of the Father to abstain from sexaul immorality, which equals no sex outside marriage for anybody striaght or gay. It is a sin.
So now about love. 1st commandment, greatest commandment, Love the Lord God with all your heart,soul,mind,strength. How do we do this? Jesus said Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21. In John 15 He says If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as i have obeyed my Fathers commands and remain in His love. What are Jesus commands? Same as Gods. John 1 sasy that Jesus is the word and again Jesus said not one jot or tittle will go away till heaven and earth pass away. So it all seems simple to me. I am not thiinking for God or reading His mind or judging anybody., but this is what God's word says. You can reject it or accept it but I will stand on His word for I know that it is true. Gods Blessing on you and ypurs
In Christ
Tom
To continue on. 1st Is Homesexuality a sin? If we all agree that even lusting in our thoughts can be a sin as Jesus says in Matt 5:28, and if we can say that any sexaul sin outside of marraige is a sin whether it be and actual event or just thinking about then we can come to the conclusion that yes Homosexaulity is a sin. How? Jesus said in Mark 10:8 and Eph.5:31 The we were created female and male and the man will leave his mopn and dad to be untied with his wife and the two will be one. Seems pretty simple to me.