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Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 940 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Tue Jun 3rd, 2008 04:32 am |
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"...I've got heartaches by the dozen, headaches by the score ..."
Hi everybody,
You're going to love following this. I'm taking the liberty of quoting from some introductory notes I passed along to the pastor of the church I volunteer at.
Sad to say but I've seen many churches around here and elsewhere in New England say they welcome the sinner but not the sin, only to find themselves faced with more than a few activists who'll routinely take up the first part of the invitation while deliberately ignoring the latter. And of course, the lies about their sincerity follow and before the parish realizes it, the long-timers are finding themselves out-manipulated, out-politicked and out-voted -- and eventually out the door.
Nowadays it's the "good guys" who are getting "outted" -- out the door, literally! 
Yeah, now they're so brazen as to not even give the impression of being "offended" to think other people would have the audacity look at them as sinners. Not even "fellow sinners." Well, when you're being oppressed for bizarre conduct, however immoral, you can be just as equally bizarre to consider yourself as infallible as the Pope for a lot of different reasons than any normal Catholic would ascribe them to. So, nowadays they could be standing, arms raised, singing and swaying with the "worship team's" "music" like the rest of them and before they know it, the evangelical church has been infected, especially if all they rely on for authority is the Bible. Whose Bible, authority, etc,? One rejection for membership by the deacons and they'll be off to the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and begin their campaign to succeed by infestation and attrition. You don't want to get hit by that office in this state.
Source
The Gay Activists Are Headed For The Churches
Monday, June 02, 2008
Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr.:
The next two Sundays, a coalition of radical gay groups comprised of SoulForce, The National Black Justice Coalition, and Equality Riders have coerced two of the nation’s most influential leaders into a closed-door showdown. Two of these groups (Soulforce and Equality Riders) are known for civil disobedience - even getting arrested in the name of GLBT justice. Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church and Rick Warren at Saddleback Community Church will meet with these folks on June 8 and 15, respectively. Although Hybels and Warren will undoubtedly defend the faith boldly, SoulForce and company have set up a symbolic media campaign designed to suggest that conservative churches are bending on their gay relationships and marriage prohibitions.
The gay community is revving up its engines for an all out push to “mainstream” gays in three phases of life - marriage, politics, and religion. In some ways their “civil rights” agenda could make them even more equal than others. Research shows that gays are more highly educated and earn more money than other Americans. Therefore, gays have come out of the closet and are taking leadership in many areas of American culture. For these reasons, it is difficult for me, as an African American, to buy into their continual comparison with the civil rights movement and the struggles of African Americans. Their sense of cultural rejection is becoming less and less of a reality. In fact, the “velvet mafia,” as they are called in the entertainment industry, has won many battles in the so-called “culture wars.”
Let me be a little more specific. The militant gay minority has waged a war for recognition on four fronts:
1. The PR and image front – portraying gays as the boy or girl next door.
2. The legal front – fighting in the courts.
3. The educational/ generational front - introducing kids to their way of life at earlier and earlier ages.
4. The religious front – attempting to change the foundational beliefs of the Christian church and ordaining openly gay ministers.
The most difficult target for them on the religious front has been biblically conservative churches. For example on Thursday May 1, 2008, 300 people protested the United Methodist Church's General Conference ruling that the practice of homosexuality is "incompatible" with Christian teaching. The group demonstrated “peacefully” by stopping the conference proceedings for 15 minutes and singing the hymn “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”
Compared to the demonstration of 200 gay rights supporters in Cleveland at the General Conference eight years ago, the 2008 outburst seemed mild. Nonetheless, there is the tone of intimidation in the tactics of pro-gay religious activists.
With this kind of history, you can understand that when I first learned that the American Family Outing was planning to visit my church in the Washington, DC area, I assumed that they could picket my church or harass my members.
While their letters and discourse promised civility, we believed that the invitation carried a veiled threat of picketing or disruption if we did not “talk.” Because of our church’s activism in religious freedom disputes, I have received death threats and intimidating e-mails and phone calls from individual gay activists. In light of this history, our church had a feeling akin to those of US leaders who have to decide whether or not to negotiate with terrorists.
Two Saturdays ago (May 24) the radical gay rights group, SoulForce, showed up at our church in Beltsville, MD for a “discussion/debate ” with our pastors. The next day their group of gay “families,” including children, attended one of our worship services. The group of 31 kept their word to act respectfully this time.
So why did they come to our church along with TD Jakes’ Potter’s House, Eddie Long’s New Birth Community Church, and Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church? And why are they going to Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Community Church? The answer is simple. Their goal is to force us to accept their lifestyle by slowly desensitizing us to their aberrant theology and practices. This change in tactics is an attempt to play the pity card.
During the next ten years, I predict that gays will attempt to invade the conventional, Bible believing church. They realize that their plan will not affect the current evangelical movement very much. On the other hand, they can set the stage to mainstream gays into membership at the average Baptist or even Pentecostal church.
It is no accident that this American Family Outing began the week before the landmark gay marriage decision came down from the Supreme Court of California. The ruling, which declared that same sex marriage is a constitutional right for citizens of that state, overturned Proposition 22 - the state’s Defense of Marriage Act. Proposition 22 was passed in 2000 by 61% of the voters of the state. It made this declaration: "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California."
Although the mainstream media has played down the California ruling and New York Governor Patterson’s promise to honor gay marriage from other jurisdictions in New York, a battle about the marital status and rights of gays is undoubtedly about to occur. I expect a grassroots, political tug of war similar to the 2004 Presidential campaign. Evangelicals, be prepared for things to get rough.
Out of respect for the pastor, I'm not going to violate his privacy by posting his remarks on the boards. But I'm sure a lot of you will want to get your licks in! Go for it!
Response to a response at bottom of Harry Jackson’s column about gays trying to infiltrate evangelical churches.
Subject: So-called "persecution" of churches...
No church in the US can ever be forced to perform gay marriages against its will, in just the same way that no church in the US can ever be forced to perform marriages of divorced people, or marriages of people who are not members of the church in question.
This is a typical red herring, thrown into the mix to divide people and to turn people against gay Americans. The churches must be feeling very fragile indeed to permit this type of diversion...
PHILIP C Location: IL
Date 6/2/08
Subversion not persecution spb 6/2/08
Phillip C: You're right to believe Christians, both Catholics and Protestants aren't persecuted. It's against the law. But the law can be subtly subverted by a handful for horrendously selfish reasons, some of them outright murderous. Remember Roe v. Wade? The churches weren't persecuted per se, but many of their members who are actively pro-life have been since 1973. Thousands of them in fact, and their biggest "offense" was to stop the one of the largest legal genocides in history. If Roe isn't overturned, we'll eventually pass Uncle Joe Stalin and Mao's record. And how many people have been led to their deaths thanks to HIV/AIDS?
Bring on the persecutions. We've survived them all. But those millions of unborn kids haven't. Surviving persecution's one thing, surviving the legal subversion of the law to selfish and barbarous ends is another animal entirely.
If the will of the voters can be overturned by four justices and law can be twisted and turned to allow social abominations such as "gay marriage," it can be twisted and turned to allow a lot of other things; none of which I care to witness. Do you?
Didn't see much of a response. No doubt this "made the day" for a lot of evangelical conservatives. NOT! They'll be begging for a Pope now!  On the other hand they can settle for Warren, Hybels or  Joel Osteen!
GOOD NIGHT!
Edited per author’s request to fix formatting.Last edited on Tue Jun 3rd, 2008 12:13 pm by
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For anybody interested in reading commentary from a Catholic's socially conservative/fiscally liberal viewpoint, go to my new blog at http://www.politicsramble.com/ .
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