{"id":63411,"date":"2017-09-13T16:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=63411"},"modified":"2017-09-13T17:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T21:22:20","slug":"post-gazette-holly-lott-a-presbyterians-lament-our-church-is-forsaking-core-values-with-reform-that-deforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=63411","title":{"rendered":"(Post-Gazette) Holly Lott&#8211;A Presbyterian\u2019s lament: Our church is forsaking core values with &#8216;reform&#8217; that deforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>this effort to keep apace of the progressive culture is happening at the expense of tens of thousands of members each year. In the face of this, we are told that \u201cwe are not dying, we are reforming.\u201d What exactly we are trying to become, though, is thoroughly ambiguous at best.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth considering what exactly this \u201creformation\u201d looks like. In recent years, we have witnessed, for example, the church adopt same-sex marriage. There is, of course, no biblical basis for this course of action, quite the contrary in fact. Yes, we love and respect the dignity of each of God\u2019s children, but we also accept that God created man and woman, separate, distinct and purposeful.<\/p>\n<p>At the most recent conference of our denomination, we were offered a Muslim prayer, referring to Jesus Christ as merely a prophet alongside Muhammad. Yes, we love and respect the dignity of the Muslim community as children of God, but ought we invite a person to reject our savior at a conference allegedly intended to decide how best to spread his teachings?<\/p>\n<p>On abortion, we are told by PCUSA only that the decision is \u201cdeeply personal,\u201d and should be made based on \u201cScripture.\u201d Naturally, though, the statement offers no guidance as to any particular piece of Scripture that a person ought to reference. To do so would risk lending support to the inherent value of each human life. In fairness, however, it should be noted that PCUSA at least disapproves of partial-birth abortion. How bold.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of these travesties, it should come as no surprise that our Christian brothers and sisters are vacating the denomination in droves.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/opinion\/Op-Ed\/2017\/09\/09\/Reform-that-deforms\/stories\/201709090016\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>this effort to keep apace of the progressive culture is happening at the expense of tens of thousands of members each year. In the face of this, we are told that \u201cwe are not dying, we are reforming.\u201d What exactly<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=63411\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,162,168,98,361,108,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-christology","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-marriage-family","category-presbyterian-pcusa","category-religion-culture","category-theology-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63413,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63411\/revisions\/63413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}