Linkathon!
Sexual harassment went unchecked at Christianity Today…
The former CT editors response…
How our expectations influence our interpretation of Scripture…
Aimee Byrd responds to critics…
Don’t be afraid to bother God with your prayers…
Shelter theology and the wounds of poverty…
When you think God is on your side: the fall of the Russian empire…
Support for LGBTQ rights higher than ever…white evangelicals lag…
The true story of St. Patrick…
The crazy stories about St. Patrick that are actually true…
The frightening side of baptism…
Russia’s Ukraine invasion splintering Orthodox church…
So, here is my take on LGBTQ rights from my possibly very skewed perspective:
I don’t believe adultery is right, according to the Scriptures. I don’t believe that sex before marriage is right, according to the Scriptures. I don’t believe in the LGBTQ lifestyle according to the Scriptures. I don’t believe in denying the genetic sex into which one was born, according to the Scriptures. I also believe that all of these people deserve to be shown the love and mercy of God via the the message of the Gospel. My own sins are no better than theirs; Jesus died for the sins of all mankind.
So, I work on being kind and compassionate, and at the same time I am not afraid to speak out about the truth of God’s Word (emphasis on truthful, loving, polite). At some point, it may get me into trouble at my school, which is becoming more and more “woke”, and that may cause me to appeal to a higher authority. But, I think the church is losing out on important opportunities to share God’s love with broken people when they a) major on one sin, and b) fail to deal with the sin in their own house, mainly the shocking number of people in spiritual authority caught in abusive relationships.
Over the years I have had students with parents in all kinds of interesting relationships. I have always loved those students and interacted respectfully with their parents. It has gotten me a hearing for the Good News on more than one occasion, and I’ll continue to follow the caring, respectful way.
Brave, true words, Linn
God keep
Lia Thomas is the epitome of the tyranny of empathy. The day is likely here that posing such a thing is a basis for banishment. It is cultural heresy to state simply that a transgender person is a separate category and does not belong in the simple male/female world. Those binaries have relevance and to banish them on the basis of kindness is nothing less than linguistic totalitarianism, What I have just stated is enough to cost a person a job in most public and many private spheres.
It matters. Being kind to Lia is necessary and moral but it is not justification for being oppressive to women. We are all required to live in some kind public denial about the kings wardrobe. The fear to speak these things is palpable. Yes, there has been some pushback, but the fear to express it reigns. You have to be some kind of insular voice to express such things, nothing to lose. But we are on a trajectory with which ones personal resources could be at stake if you dissent. Yes, that is the cynicism with which I view our national apostasy. Welcome to deconstruction all who want to make that beautiful and natural without cautioning the unwary.
Dread,
I’m seeing a lot of pushback on social media.
Slandering empathy is unwise and unfair.
What is actually happening is that mainstream America is seeing the results of a radical sexual agenda and they do not like it…especially when their daughter is beaten in athletic competition by a chemically created “man”.
Far from being silenced…the most watched news programming and the most visited sites on Facebook are all of one voice on this matter…
I have suspected for a while that the athletic field would be where the trans train wrecks…because a wreck is inevitable.
Obviously, you are all right, but I’m wondering if we’ve traded in the opportunity to reach our neighbors for the chance at being right. LGBTQ is a loving, welcoming community. There are no hurdles to entry, no hoops to jump through. Hey kid, don’t you feel weird and alone? We’re here for you, no questions asked.
The church, despite all our lip-service to grace, sets up miles of hurdles, and then lifetimes of hoops to keep jumping through to belong. The LGBTQ crowd don’t need us. They’ve found community elsewhere. We can take comfort in being right, but we’ve lost a generation in the process.
Well said, Josh.
Maybe, but I also don’t know the answer.
As Phillip Yancey likes to say, way too often the Church is not a place of grace but just the opposite — a place of ungrace.
It’s true, we say “Meet these criteria, and you receive grace”.
Which isn’t grace at all.
Question: âdoes grace trump what the scriptures say? Are there any boundaries to grace? As a garden variety Christian, how am i to decipher between grace and what the Bible clearly calls sin? Regarding the LGBTQ people, are there any boundaries? Guide lines? I know i am a sinner and in that regard, no different than me so i would refrain from judging them or anyone to condemnation.
Iâm not talking about walking down the street with a âgod hates fags signâ. But if i view the LGBTQ thing as wrong, yet treat them with respect and kindness, am i then a non graceful person?
Iâm a bit confused. I think i lean more towards Linnâs camp.
It is not slander to tell the truth. It is not love to partner with lies. Empathy is not sovereign and it is malleable to the extreme.
Michael engaged my comment and thinks this issue will tank the matter. Itâs not in evidence so far.
People who speak as I am speaking in the institutions are in actual peril.
Nor is it ungracious to speak the truthâŠIMO
BD,
Let me clarify.
I am perceiving an attack on empathy from certain ideological sources…and I will fight that with my last breath.
There is nothing more needful at this time than true empathy for others.
The issue is a lie about human sexuality, not empathy.
The lie is indeed deadly and yes, some in the institutions could be in peril for speaking against it.
However…this lie holds within it the seeds of it’s own destruction…and the cost to those who embrace it will be manifest in the years to come.
I personally believe there will be carnage made of broken people who made terrible decisions for the pleasure of culture.
Michael @1:23…. I agree
I had a good friend some years back who chose the LDS-so called over the Church because they were so much more friendly!
sigh
God keep the Phoenix peeps
Grace is a theological term…speaking primarily of God’s unmerited favor toward humans.
“Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless. God is gracious in action.”
” Through divine initiative, human alienation from God is turned by him into a state of unmerited acceptance that opens the way for reconciliation and redemptive usefulness.”
Bilezikian, G. (1988). Grace. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 898). Baker Book House.
It has no limits from the side of God…it is only limited by human ability to desire and accept it.
Em,
Mormons take good care of each other…
Iâm thankful for voices of reason and grace from Linn and Babylonâs Dread. We donât have to believe lies and acknowledge delusions to walk in grace and love to others.
I haven’t seen anyone here disagree with Linn or BD.