The moves have other pastors defending against what they believe is an abandonment of the Bible’s teaching about homosexual behavior.
“God loves people regardless of their sexual orientation. ”¦ But the departure is a departure from biblical authority,” said the Rev. R.E. Lybrand Jr., pastor at Lake Wylie Lutheran Church.
“There may be things in Scripture that we may wish weren’t there ”¦ but when they are there, even when we are uncomfortable, we must bow to that with obedient hearts,” he said.
Lybrand was one of three local pastors who placed an ad in last Sunday’s Herald in the form of a letter to “disassociate ourselves” from the actions taken by the national Lutheran and Episcopalian groups. In the letter, the pastors said they wanted to affirm that their beliefs about the gay issue and other church matters were based on the Bible’s authority.
Please–Get Religion blog–jump on this one. The reporter does the classic move of quoting the local conservative (I use the word advisedly) yokels , and then turns to an authority from Duke to clear everything up. After all, do you want a book of rules or one of loving relationships? Sheesh!
And what an “objective” authority she was indeed, Gator. ; > )
Apparently, not allowing some people to engage in leadership of an organization is “not recognizing that they are fully human.”
Nice passive agressive use of language there.
Clearly it needs to be addressed by someone bright and clever. Gator — have you ever considered blogging?
“There may be things in Scripture that we may wish weren’t there … but when they are there, even when we are uncomfortable, we must bow to that with obedient hearts.â€
Of course, if conservatives truly believed or even adhered to that philosophy — and lets be honest, few if any do — their side might be taken more seriously.
Not sure I understand what FFV means. Is he saying there are no single heterosexual Christians who do *not* engage in sexual relations with others because they are unmarried, for instance, and know that scripture teaches against sexual relations outside of marriage?
Be careful how you answer. ; > )
FFV #3, do you seriously believe that conservative Christians are almost all hypocrites?
I think he’s saying that hypocrisy is the worst of all possible sins, we had best do away with the standards that make people hypocrites rather than have them falling short of those standards of behavior. It’s like eliminating crime by repealing all laws.
You go, Lake Wylie et alia! Stand, and having done all, stand fast. Makes me proud to be a Rock Hill and York County native son. Blessings in the name of Jesus on you all!
Reply to #3.
First Families of Virginia (FFVA) Virginians, for those not ‘in the know,’ are persons descended from the first families to settle in colonial Virgina.
I have question to ask you First Family Virginian.
If a significant percentage, say more than 10% to 20%, of the first Virginian colonists and their descendents had been GLBT active and heterosexually disinterested in their actual behavior, just how many First Family Virginians would exist today?
Here’s the final quote from the article:
“When determining their views on issues such as homosexuality, churches must identify how they view Scripture as a whole, Fulkerson said: Is the Bible a book of rules and lifestyle requirements, or is it a narrative on the virtues of loving others and helping the outcasts?”
Of course, the Bible is neither one of those. Fulkerson posits a false dichotomy. The Bible is the story of God’s activity in the world that He created to bring it back to right relationship with Him in His kingdom through the incarnation of His Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus the Messiah, in his life, death and resurrection.
(Besides the obvious fact that if the Bible was a narrative on the virtues of loving others and helping the outcasts, that also makes the Bible a book of rules and lifestyle requirements.)