I am writing this trying to be calm and write this clearly, I hope I manage to convey my feelings properly.
I have just been checking news on the BBC website, I like to keep up with home life. And one of the subjects was the division caused in the world wide Anglican church because of the US church's Bishop-elect Gene Robinson, who is a practicing homosexual.
Now before I have people yelling I want to make sure that people know where I stand. I have/ had gay/lesbian friends, I viewed them the same way I view everyone else, no-one is perfect. I know that all sin is detestable to God, whether it be lying, murder, lust, adultery....it all hurts Him.
But, I do feel that there needs to be some standards when picking our leaders, like accountability, like openness to their sin, and a want to change. I would feel the same way if a compulsive liar was asked in to leadership, or someone who lived with their partner without being married, or someone known to be violent, if any of these people were in leadership and were not repentant and seeking the Lord I would have HUGE issues. Why then is this different? Why is it that people in the US episcople church feel that they can ignore Gods word, I find it offensive that Gene Robinson said "You can't elevate a piece of historical scripture to give it a modern significance it does not have," he said. "The Bible is the story written by us about our love affair with God," he said.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God, I truly believe that it is the guidelines of how to live my life, and I really try hard to live by it. I believe that when you fall in love with Jesus you want to change. That through the growing friendship with Him, you have a desire to get rid of all things that hinder that friendship, and the Bible clearly states those hinderances. It makes me sad that this is happening in our world wide church, not only that the Bible is being ignored or twisted, but that it is causing so much anger and hurt. I am praying that God shows me His heart on this subject, I am praying that any anger that is felt is a righteous anger. I am also praying that we would unite as a church and deal with this issue, with Jesus as our judge, not ourselves.
I do believe that the Bible is the our guidelines, but I am also very aware of God's views on not judging others....so how do we deal with this?
Any comments would be welcome.
2 comments:
I completely understand where you are coming from, Chris. And I agree with your comments on having an open homosexual in leadership. I often wonder what God is thinking when we humans twist His Word to make it suit our selfishness. Unfortunately, there is no one either brave enough or convicted enough within that denomination to stand up for what is right - at least no one with much power. I just wish the world would understand that we as a church are not gay-haters. We just hate the sin the same way we hate any sin. On the other hand, there are those "Christians" who ARE gay-haters and that destroys us. It's not about what the Bible truly says anymore; it's about being on both sides of the fence. Just not possible.
I find that there are certain elements of Biblical teaching that Christians pick on, such as homosexuality, yet ignore some of, for example, Paul's more objectionable statements about women (e.g., 1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Timothy 2:9, etc.). Now there is a historical reason for this, which is that Paul's statements, when taken in context, are relatively progressive. We don't believe them nowadays, but we can recognise their place. Those espousing them nowadays are seen to be anachronistic.
Equally, those contentious verses about homosexuality (Genesis' springing instantly to mind) are easily interpreted from a historical standpoint to being either about something else (e.g., lust, rape) or not relevant today.
It seems sad that this kind of cherrypicking of scriptures causes such rifts. To be ideologically consistent, you must either place everything in the historical context in which it was written, or assume that it is all correct for all time (meaning, for example, that women should not speak in church).
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