Warning shots across American Protestantism
The Layman April 2006 Volume 39, Number 2, May 8, 2006
More than 330 Episcopal congregations have affiliated with the conservative American Anglican Council, including dozens that have already renounced their ties with the Episcopal Church (USA). Delegates from 300 congregations in the Pacific and Southwest regions of the American Baptist Churches in the USA were poised to vote in late April on whether to break their ties with that denomination. More than 100 congregations have left the United Church of Christ since its national governing body voted last year to endorse ordaining homosexual clergy and conducting same-gender marriages. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has had record-setting membership loss.
All four of these downturns are related to the advancement of a homosexual agenda.
But the prevailing issue is not homosexuality. It is the authority of Scripture, which is clear and consistent in its prohibitions against homosexual behavior as being destructive of God’s purpose for an abundant life – notwithstanding the skewed views of some Presbyterian leaders and the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. To paraphrase Isaiah 40:8, 31: “The denominations wither, their flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever … But those who wait on the Lord … shall run and not be weary.”