Posts Tagged ‘homosexuality’

Calamities

Friday, July 8th, 2011 by JEL

Gay marriage is now legal in New York. Some people are thrilled, others think it’s one more sign of the world’s collapse. I think you can safely put John Piper in the latter category. He’s the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the author of several books. Here are his thoughts:

“Homosexuality has been here since we were all broken in the fall of man. What’s new is not even the celebration of homosexual sin. Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia. What’s new is normalization and institutionalization. This is the new calamity.”

Racism has been around since the fall of man, yet slowly progress has been made. Women forever found/find themselves second-class citizens merely by being born, yet slowly, at least in some countries, progress has been made. Ask any homosexual since the fall of man whether he or she was gay by choice. They’d probably give you a funny look and reply something to the effect of “why would I choose this persecution?”

The calamity is not the normalization of homosexuality. It is the rejection of Jesus’ message of love and tolerance and acceptance by people who, judging from their job titles, should know better.

Faith in the LGBT Community

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by JEL

Representatives from Judaism and the Baptist, Episcopal and Unitarian Universalist churches recently met at the University of Maryland to discuss how homosexuality has affected their personal lives, their own congregations and their faith. The panelists’ viewpoints were scattered across the spectrum, but I found this quote quite powerful:

“Jesus doesn’t say anything about orientation in the Gospels. Instead he teaches love and compassion. If anything, the only thing he speaks out against is divorce, and you don’t see them trying to outlaw divorce. What we’re dealing with are anthropological issues about human dignity and human worth.” – Reverend Peter Antoci of the Episcopal-Anglican Campus Ministry