In the midst of 10A, ‘we may have forgotten the many other issues in our world’
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
In the midst of “the issue” we may have forgotten the many other issues in our world. The devastation of communities in our country calls us to respond in prayer and action. It also reminds us that any given day may be judgment day for a number of people. The urgency of the Gospel is clear. Thank you for this article.
Rev Bill Wisneski, pastor Honey Brook Presbyterian Church
The future of the Presbyterian Church (USA) seems bleak
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
The Presbyterian Church (USA) provides a lot of statistics on its website.
A review of these statistics, which date back as far as 1992, shows that in 1992 the Presbyterian Church (USA) had 11,456 congregations with a membership of 2,780,406. In 2009, there were 10,657 congregations with a membership of 2,077,138.
This is a seven percent decline in the number of congregations since 1992, however, the decline in membership was 25 percent in the same period.
Congregations had a mean membership of 243 in 1992, but by 2009 the mean membership had declined to 195, a decline of 20 percent.
The median membership also declined. In 1992, the median membership stood at 134, however, by 2009 the median membership stood at 97, a decline of 28 percent.
Congregational statistics show a greater percentage decline in membership than do those of the denomination as a whole. There are fewer and fewer members to make tithes and offerings and fewer and fewer hands to bring in the sheaves. It must be more and more difficult for individual congregations to maintain the programs that attract members, such as programs for children and youth and adult Sunday schools.
One wonders how many ever shrinking congregations no longer can afford a teaching elder and can do little more than turn on the lights and air conditioning on Sunday mornings. One imagines that families with children would be likely to go elsewhere. One imagines that such congregations have a limited life span as the aging members die off.
The annual membership loss had been about 1.5 percent per year, but in recent years, membership loss has increased to more than 60,000 per year or more than 3 percent.
It is too early to tell what the effect of the recent vote on 10-A will be, however, it seems clear that the total membership soon will slip below two million.
No reversal of these trends is in sight, so the future of the Presbyterian Church (USA) seems bleak. George Hill Port Allen, La.
‘For the majority of Presbyterians this is not a time to celebrate but to mourn’
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
Supporters of the passage of Amendment 10-A are celebrating. Organizations like Covenant Network, More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve are rejoicing with the affirmation of this amendment. It is a fact that every mainline denomination that has moved away from the clear teaching of Scripture on sexual standards for church leadership is experiencing significant decline. The PCUSA will experience a great schism in the next 12 to 18 months. For the majority of Presbyterians this is not a time to celebrate but to mourn. However, in the midst of our denominational decline there is cause to rejoice. God’s Spirit is still moving men and women away from the sin of homosexual expression. Read the moving words of Gwen Smithburg”
“I struggled with same sex attraction for nearly 20 years. I am not certain at what point I was aware of the attraction. It had been a part of my life so early that it was some time before I noticed that my interests were not like the girls my age. My struggle continued into college and into my twenties. I hung around lesbians during my twenties and developed lesbian friendships. Finally one asked me, “If you aren’t homosexual, why do hang out with lesbians?” It was like she held a mirror up to my face and said, “Who are you, and why are you here?”
“In my twenties, the struggle over my sexual identity increased. I felt out of place in church and stopped attending. I never felt like I belonged, and I had no one to talk to about my struggles. I was barely able to admit to myself how I felt. When I had a sexual relationship with another woman I thought, finally, the barrier was broken, surely the happiness would follow. However, I came to discover over a period of months that whatever the need was that I had, this was not touching it. I remember thinking to myself, I am not sure what I am longing for, but this isn’t it.
“I longed for God. I would attend church, but sit in the back. I felt so distant from everyone around me. While my grip on God was slipping, He in turn was holding all the tighter to me. I would read my Bible every night. I would search the pages for the justification of how I felt, and how I was living. What I found instead was a deep conviction that I was walking further and further from the Lord.
“I could not find a passage that justified the life I was living. Being healed from homosexuality seemed to me to be an impossibility, but I could not give up Jesus in my life. He was the touch of life in me. On the pages of the Bible the Spirit was speaking about who God is for me and could be in me; He was saying, ‘Nothing is impossible with God.’
“The weight of my homosexual relationship was becoming too much for me to bear and I was beginning to feel a tearing of my spirit, a pulling away from the Lord. I reached the decision that I could live without a lot of things, but I did not want to live without God. So covered in tears and in deep distress I cried out to the Lord. I gave my life back to Jesus and asked if He would have me. It was unconditional surrender. I didn’t bargain with him on any account, I just knew I wanted Jesus more than I wanted anything else, and if He would forgive and take me back, that was enough.
“I began a steady walk toward God, and by his grace I have not turned back. I have been greatly tempted, but have no desire in my heart to return to the prison from which I have been freed. My journey has been more than a decade long. I have seen counselors both licensed and Spirit-filled. Each has contributed to my healing. The landscape of my internal world has progressively, but radically, changed. He who does the impossible, has given new life and freedom to me in my sexual identity. Once the Lord surfaced a childhood emotional trauma, I spent time in counseling. It was in this time that I gained true freedom from the draw of homosexuality as the Lord healed and closed the door in my soul that had so long been opened by the deep hurt.
“Healing is a progressive journey. Each year brings more revelation of how Jesus Christ’s work on the cross has wrought healing and freedom for my soul. As I continue forward in this journey with Him, I know life like I had never before known – in abundance. My true identity as a woman in Christ is being restored into my life in new dimensions. I am grateful for the love of Christ – the transforming, life-giving One that does not leave me as He found me.”
The Presbyterian ministry, OnebyOne, can help you and your church learn how to minister the healing grace and power of Jesus Christ with those who have same-sex attraction. To find out more please call 508-687-9097.
Jeff Winter, Board member of OnebyOne and Pastor, Faith Community Church of Martha’s Vineyard
We all do well to learn from Job
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
I am grateful for the responses to my query of May 19, “How do we move forward together in this new spiritual landscape?” At the same time, of course, I am sobered. Sobered by the challenge the comments pose to our being friends in ministry as we promised when ordained. Sobered by the challenge of how we can disagree, yet let the world know we are Christians by our love. Sobered by the ad taken out by The Presbyterian Layman which seems to me so focused on what divides us, instead of calling for unity in Christ.
With all these sobering challenges in mind, perhaps a way to start is for me to respond to Mateen Elass’s question, “What evidence do you have that God is in this?”
The evidence I have is the foundation of our Reformed theology: That God is sovereign over all. Everything has to be God’s will; if that were not so then God’s sovereign power is undermined. It seems to me that this is the primary point about God in Job. God is active in everything in a way that is mysterious – beyond our understanding. In the face of God’s sovereignty our job is to be like Job: humble.
While I was trying to associate myself with the compassion Job’s friends show at first, I walked right into the observation that they are chastised by God for not having the humility Job comes to in the end. Point well taken.
We all do well to learn from Job.
Perhaps we can agree that humility has been one of the virtues sorely lacking on all sides over the course of the past 40 years. One difficulty with humility is the possible disconnect between how we see ourselves and how others perceive us. I do not understand myself to be gloating or mean to be patronizing. And yet, Noel Anderson sees me in these ways.
I may not come to full agreement with Noel on the matters we discuss, but I am grateful that we are engaged in this dialogue. I want to understand him as he desires, not by my presumptions about him. I can only do that through dialogue with him. And, of course, I want to be treated with the same respect.
How others perceive us, especially in this volatile atmosphere around 10A, is mostly beyond our control. I can only commit myself to humility – being, to the best of my ability, in right relationship with God and with other people (that’s how I understand humility). I invite others to join me in emulating Job’s humility as one way to move together into the future.
In 2008 on Amendment 08B the vote count across all presbyteries was 48.8% Yes, 51.2% No. As I write the vote on 10A stands at 55.02% Yes, 44.98% No. I trust we, as Reformed Christians, can agree that the Holy Spirit is and was at work in both these votes. What I see is that God inspires our disagreement so that we will talk with one another. God is simply not giving to the church the clarity we desire, forcing us to seek God’s will by sharing with one another – humbly, respectfully.
The primary thing 10A does is remove the backing of the Book of Order from any one position on ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Presbyterians. It requires us all (and William Stacy Johnson has found among us seven different Biblically rooted positions regarding same gender love) to articulate our conclusions based upon Scripture, the Book of Confessions and the ordination questions. It requires us to talk. And I fervently hope we do it with the humility of Job.
Reverend Janet Edwards Co-Moderator, More Light Presbyterians
‘I disagree completely with your inference about a crisis in our church’
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
I am appalled by your huge ad in the Los Angeles Times on 5/25/11. I disagree completely with your inference about a crisis in our church. Your ad will confuse most readers who do not know the history of our 33 years of trying to change our ordination rules to include all Presbyterians who feel called to serve our church.
Your ad asked why we have lost 1/2 our members. One reason is our exclusivity and discrimination, making many good Christians feel unwelcome. The ad also asked why PC(USA) abandoned Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian faith and moral teaching. I truly believe the church was not following the moral teachings of Christ when we excluded people who were born with a different sexual orientation than the majority.
Those of us who remained faithful to the PC(USA) despite the exclusive language of the constitution have felt we were in a divided house but we stayed to work together for a better future of a church united in trying to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Betsy Barnhart, elder Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) is on the wrong path
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
After several some very poor – likely political – actions by our local Presbyterian Church and approved by the synod in Minnesota, we have dropped our membership. That action destroyed or seriously damaged the lives of three very good pastors in the church. Presently, we have no church and thus we cannot address any elder. My wife, before leaving, was a deacon in the church. A very sad day for an individual raised a Presbyterian from birth and would like to remain a Presbyterian throughout this life. I am now over 72 years old. This latest action only confirms my view that Presbyterian Church (USA) is on the wrong path and should have taken close look at what similar actions have done with both the Lutheran and Episcopal churches in America.
I will accept that if two people wish to live together and how they act with each other is a personal choice for the individuals but marriage to me will always be between a man and a woman. I believe that the Presbyterian Church (USA) has to stand firm on this issue without any compromise. Therefore, the Presbyterian Church (USA) should not alter or modify their constitution just to accommodate the far left. The Presbyterian Church (USA) really needs to take a deep look at what they are and what do they really stand for if they want to be a real church under God and not just an instrument of man.
George G. Bemis, Jr., LT COL, MC, USAF, Ret. Lakeville, Minnesota
‘Mainstream’ churches have been taken over by a very liberal view
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
I commend you for standing your ground on this issue. It is extremely disheartening to see the churches break apart. Unfortunately, the “mainstream” churches have been taken over by a very liberal view. The forces that are engaged in this have appealed to the Christian guilt, it’s “love the sinner hate the sin” and the golden rule taken to the extreme. The intent is to destroy Christianity in America and the homosexual stance is not the only issue that the churches have been sold a bill of goods. Look at the Interfaith Coalition. Since when do we bring Islam into our churches? And the illegal-immigration issue. When do we give a pass to law breakers and where is the compassion for the victims of illegal aliens?
Why has Christianity in America lost so many members? What’s being taught on these three issues alone is not Christian. The churches need to get back to the Bible on all of these issues. Janet Thomas
Clearly God has the right to redirect our thinking
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
The writing of the Bible is inspired. This is true. The reading of the Bible must also be inspired to avoid error.
Jesus gave an example of inspired interpretation in Mark chapter 12 when He taught that the dead rise again. His example from the burning bush: “I am the God of Abraham” together with his conclusion: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” provides irrefutable proof of the resurrection to come.
In Acts 10 Peter saw a vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven, containing “unclean” animals and heard a voice commanding him to disregard the Jewish dietary laws. He received a teaching that the Gentiles were also accepted by God. This was evidenced by the gift of the Holy Spirit. This idea of having Gentiles in the church was so controversial that it had to be defended in two church councils (Acts 11 and 15).
When we see homosexuals in the church living by the Spirit, and exhibiting the fruits of love, joy and peace, how can we not accept them? The Bible does have some teaching against homosexuality that seems clear. As clear as the Old Testament teachings about diet and about not associating with Gentiles. Clearly God has the right to redirect our thinking, and God does so by providing the Holy Spirit as our guide.
Some argue that homosexuals in the church must be celibate to be accepted. This recalls Jesus’ words in Luke 11, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” See for yourselves the homosexuals among us, married in our church, who live by the Spirit. Why do we wish to deny the evidence before us?
Others argue that this conclusion cannot be true because it contradicts too much of Scripture. This recalls those experts in the time of Jesus who plotted to kill Him because He healed on the Sabbath. We cannot start with a conclusion and then argue backward to a principle.
Let us prayerfully be open to whatever teaching God has for us. Rodger W. Hardy, Ph.D. Chesterfield, MO
Without the Word as the absolute foundation, we have no foundation at all.
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
It seems from many of the letters to The Layman that so many are either failing to grasp essential issues or are purposely distracting from them.
The fundamental issue is not about “love.” It is not about sexual behavior.
As many have written, directly and indirectly, the battle began when any in authority in the church first challenged the inerrancy and authority of God’s Word, as the Rev. Russ Westbrook stated plainly in his May 25 letter.
Love is an outgrowth of our Christian faith, but our love is not its foundation. Though Scripture tells us “God is love,” we need, as always to understand the concept in context.
Let us look at a declaration of God’s love in the Bible:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-10 ESV)
Verse 10 gives us the context: we need redemption from our sins!
Clearly, the church needs to teach law and grace to clearly contrast the depravity of man with God’s unblemished holiness and to demonstrate from the Word God’s Law and His plan of redemption.
However, without the Word as the absolute foundation, we have no foundation at all.
Love toward homosexuals has to do with Christian service and ministry. It cannot, however, condone sinful sexual behaviors any more than it can condone lying and murder. Christian “love” is never permitted to mean acceptance of the fallen culture within which we live.
Again and again, the only foundation is God’s inerrant Word. Without that inerrancy and authority, there is no way any argument for any form of belief can be established. All belief would revert to the present and whimsical will of man. This is the sort of thought that gives rise to dictators and every form of vile cruelty and perversion.
Once that road is taken, there is ultimately no basis, for example, to defend the innocence of children from those who would prey upon them – and we are seeing this being accepted in public schools as more and more are seeking to teach young children about “sexual lifestyles.”
Even atheist Ayn Rand understood the dangers of “moral relativism,” and Rand was my teacher before I came to faith. If an atheist can see that there must be a foundation in one absolute truth, how is it that people raised in the church have come to deny it?
The ultimate issue is truth and that truth is found in God’s revealed, inerrant, authoritative Word, our Holy Scriptures, faithfully delivered to us through the ages by His Holy Spirit. To debate this is to build your house upon sand before a rushing flood. Paul Hubert
Jesus Christ is the source of all Scripture not only the words He spoke on earth
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
In Response to Bill Couch [letter to the editor, posted May 25]:
Because Jesus Christ is fully God and all of Scripture is God breathed, Jesus Christ is the source of all Scripture not only the words He spoke on earth.
Hebrews 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word…” Jerry Iamurri Springfield, Pa.
Now is the time for pastoral care of deeply wounded churches and ministers
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
I appreciate all the time and effort that has gone into letters presenting one perspective or another. However, no one is changing their minds at this point so don’t waste your time. I would really rather see some thoughtful reply’s as to what pastors and churches are going to do … if anything. I wonder are there hurting, angry pastors out there who love their local churches and don’t want to leave them? Are there some who might be saddened, and disgusted with the evil and wickedness that has infiltrated the PCUSA in the past 40 years? Whoops, did I just say “evil and wickedness?” Are there churches that can’t muster the energy to leave but just don’t know what to do? Are there pastors who want to leave but see few options before them?
Maybe this is not the site to share our very personal thoughts. But I have a suspicion there are many pastors and churches that just feel trapped. That does not sound like a formula for effective ministry. So, when and where do we share our “trappedness?” I appreciate the theology behind all of this mess we are in (not too thrilled with the politics however) but it seems that now is the time for pastoral care of deeply wounded churches and ministers. How do we care for ourselves? Who wants pastoral care from G.A.!? Nobody I know. Plus, they have their heads way too far into the sand to be very effective. Depending on your presbytery, well, who knows. Truth be told I’m not sure anymore.
The thing many of us are called to do, i.e. be pastors, has somehow gotten lost in these murky waters we find ourselves in. God help us! Bill Little Mt. Vernon Community Church, McKeesport, Pa.
Fundamental disagreements about sexual morality are tearing the Church of Jesus Christ apart
Posted Friday, May 27, 2011
In his May 25 letter, Bill Couch wrote, “Jesus never had much – if anything – to say about ‘sexual morality.’ I believe there are more important issues to worry about.”
This statement is not credible. We live in a society that is awash in sexual immorality, which is contributing significantly to the erosion of the marriage covenant in the 21st century. Moreover, fundamental disagreements about sexual morality are tearing the Church of Jesus Christ apart. Indeed, I would suggest that there are few issues more important than sexual immorality for the Church of Jesus Christ to concern herself about today.
To begin with, consider Jesus’ claim in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5.17-19)
Do not underestimate the gravity of what Jesus is saying here. He is putting His stamp of approval on the Law and the Prophets – the entire Old Testament – and is wholeheartedly endorsing the Old Testament Law, going so far as to say that those who relax the least of them and teach others also to relax them will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And should we relax what He purposefully said that He will fulfill? If we do, we risk incurring the judgment of God.
Consider, then, what the Old Testament Law says about sexual morality. First and foremost, adultery is forbidden (Ex. 20.14, Lev. 18.20, 20.10, Dt. 5.18, 22.13-27, Prov. 5.1-23, 6.20-7.27, Ezek. 18.6, 22.11). Likewise, pre-marital sexual intercourse (Ex. 22.16-17, Lev. 19.20-22, Dt. 22.28-29), prostitution (Lev. 19.29, Dt. 23.17-18), incest (Lev. 18.6-18, 20.11-12,14,17,19-21, Dt. 27.20,22-23, Ezek. 22.10-11), engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period (Lev. 18.19, 20.18, Ezek. 18.6, 22.10; which is a moral wrong distinct from being engaged in sexual intercourse with her when her menstrual period starts, which, in turn, is part of the ceremonial law, not the moral law, Lev. 15.24), homosexuality (Gen. 19.4-11, Lev. 18.22, 20.13, Dt. 23.17-18, Judg. 19.22-25), and bestiality (Ex. 22.19, Lev. 18.23, 23.15-16, Dt. 27.21) are all proscribed as well. These sins are all sexual in nature, and all are violations of God’s moral law. Hence, they are referred to collectively as sexual immorality. And in His statements in Mt. 5.17-19 and Lk. 16.16-17, Jesus proclaims that all these commandments are still in effect.
Also in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt. 5.27-28) Notice that the Lord Jesus makes this commandment without regard to the marital status of either the man doing the looking or the woman being looked at. Even if neither is married, it is still adultery that he is committing in his heart, indicating that irrespective of marital status, God regards sexual intercourse outside the covenant of marriage as adultery.
Moreover, contrary to the “interpretation” of some, the Lord Jesus is not here abolishing the sin of adultery and replacing it with the sin of lust, as if it were permissible for a man to engage in sexual intercourse with a woman to whom he was not married, provided that he did not first look at her “with lustful intent.” Rather, He was clarifying that it is not merely the act of adultery that God considers to be sin, but also the thoughts and intentions of the man’s heart that provoked him to sin. And these thoughts and intentions, Jesus is here saying, themselves constitute sin against God’s Law regardless of whether or not they lead to the physical sin of adultery. As the Lord Jesus later said when debating the Pharisees, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” (Mt. 15.18-20, Mk. 7.20-23)
And finally, the Lord Jesus said that sexual immorality was the only legitimate ground for divorce (Mt. 5.31-32, 19.9, Mk. 10.11-12). We must be mindful of the gravity of this concession, for the Lord Jesus had a most high view of marriage. “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mt. 19.4-6) The marriage covenant is sacred to the Lord, for in it, He brings one man and one woman and joins them in a lifelong union, indeed, to “become one flesh.” And this is why Scripture uses the Hebrew word yada and the Greek word ginosko, both meaning “know,” to refer to sexual intercourse (Gen. 4.1,17,25, 19.5,8, 24.16, 38.26, Judg. 11.39, 19.22,25, 21.12, I Sam. 1.19, I Kg. 1.4, Mt. 1.25, Lk. 1.34), for it is a deep, intimate knowledge that a husband and wife share, becoming a binding trust, and sexual intercourse outside of the covenant of marriage is a violation of that trust upon which the marriage is built, seeking to build intimacy without the binding commitment of the covenant. Therefore, in light of the severity of the destruction of the trust that forms the foundation of marriage that is wrought by sexual immorality in all its manifold forms, the Lord Jesus grants sexual immorality alone as sufficient cause for divorce.
And even if we regard these teachings of the Lord Jesus as not “much – if anything,” there is the matter of His apostles, whose words we must not revere less than the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself, for He has invested them with the authority to bind our consciences to their teachings (Mt. 16.19, Jn. 20.22-23). The apostles speak by the Holy Spirit of God, and the words they speak are the very words of God Himself (II Tim. 3.16-17, II Pet. 1.19-21), although “the ignorant and unstable twist (them) to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (II Pet. 3.16) And the apostles, especially the Apostle Paul, teach that sexual immorality is a sin against God (Acts 15.19-20,28-29, 21.25, Rom. 1.24-27, 12.13-14, I Cor. 5-7, 10.8, II Cor. 12.21, Gal. 5.19-21, Eph. 5.3-8, Col. 3.5-6, I Thess. 4.3-8, I Tim. 1.9-10, Heb. 12.15-16, 13.4, Jude 7, Rev. 2.14,20-21, 21.8, 22.15). “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Heb. 13.4)
Sexual immorality is the besetting sin of our wicked and perverse generation, and it is at this point (with the possible exception of Christ’s claims to be the exclusive way to be made right with God) where the truth of God is most under attack in the world and the Church today. And to quote Martin Luther, “If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
Loren Golden Overland Park, KS
People of faith are neglecting what God states over and over in the Bible
Posted Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I sent this petition out to other friends and members of my local Presbyterian church. My pastor father predicted this in the 1970s as he saw nonclergy running parts of the church government. I just can’t believe that people of faith would neglect what God states over and over in the Bible. To me that is blasphemy. My local church session at Central College Presbyterian, wrote a letter stating basically the same thing and sent it around to the members. I was never so proud of my congregation when I got the letter on my email. I was going to be very disappointed if my church went the way of the USA organization.
Thanks so much for sending this around to us, the true believers.
Virginia Smith
Congratulations PLC for taking a public stand
Posted Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I saw your announcement in the LA Times this morning. I congratulate you for taking a public stand to affirm the original and fundamental principles of true, unadulterated Christian faith. What has been happening in traditionally fundamental churches with respect to embracing and even promoting sinful lifestyles and practices is surely tragic.
We cannot expect God’s blessings to continue to be poured out on our nation when His own people forsake Him for worldly idols and pursuits.
I will pray for the Layman Committee as you make a stand for fundamental Christian truths and values. You will certainly be challenged and attacked for taking this bold and courageous position. May the true and good Lord greatly bless your efforts.
Bruce Sechler Huntington Beach, Calif.
To equate ‘I was born this way’ to ‘God made me this way’ is to fall into a trap
Posted Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Following up on the letter of John McWilliams of May 20, we need to take this a step further. Whether or not one is “born gay” or whether or not there is actually a “gay gene” is not the point at all. Where the debate on this issue has missed the point is on the devastating impact of the Fall. Yes, we affirm that God created and all of His creation is good. We human beings continue to come into the world with His good creation stamped on us as we are created in His image. But we also come into this world with the stamp of the Fall on us in that there is brokenness in each of us that is manifested in many ways. Just as the beauty of God’s creation that we see in nature is actually marked in huge ways by the Fall (the majesty of the Rocky Mountains comes out of shifts under the earth that have pushed barren rocks up into jagged shapes, the beauty of the Grand Canyon comes because the Colorado River has eroded the walls and washed huge amounts of soil into the sea, etc.) the beauty and perfection of God’s creation of human nature is distorted and Fallen.
To equate “I was born this way” to “God made me this way” is to fall into a trap, as well as to water down the Reformed understanding of the total depravity of our world and of human nature. We try to affirm our children of their importance and value as God’s creation (think Mr. Rogers) and that is as it should be, because “God doesn’t make junk” and our children need to know that they are truly special and loved by us and by God. At the same time, though, we must reject the popular notion (Lady Gaga among others) that says “this is the way I was made and thus God’s design for me so I’m not going to change because I’m just fine as I am.”
There are many elements of “human nature” (born that way) that we reject and seek to redeem and make right. We have made tremendous strides in dealing with many birth defects, and we still have many more to conquer. Clearly there are some things that we don’t accept as “God’s plan and design for me or my child” just because they come as part of the package. The package is Fallen.
We need to work at peeling away the brokenness, allowing God to work to redeem and make it right, and finding His good and perfect design in each person.
I wish that some of our great theological minds would take on the issue of the Fall and its impact. Sadly, in some (even Reformed) circles, the Fall is being downplayed to the point that it is not longer mentioned in discussion of a biblical world view. For some, we have moved from Creation/Fall/Redemption to Creation/Redemption/Reconciliation. This shift in theological understanding is the only way that we can come to the conclusion that “born this way” equals “God made me this way” and that’s an unbiblical and dangerous conclusion.
Rev. Harper Brady Monroeville, Pa.