Emergent Church and Homosexuality

Posted by johnhouk on Nov 23, 2008
 John R. Houk
© November 23, 2008

Conservatives have an acronym for Republicans that lean toward the Left. That word is RINO for Republicans in Name Only.

I just finished reading a story in WorldNetDaily about the Emergent Church movement. According to that story a principle figure in the loose Emergent Church movement supports the alternative lifestyle of homosexual and transgender as lifestyles that should be fully supported and embraced as normal by Christians.

Yes friends this is Counter-Biblical.

Since there are so many Churches that are considered Mainline Churches that have obviously abandoned the moral standard of the Bible, I thought it is time to have an acronym for these pseudo-Christians – Christians in Name Only or CINO.

Here is a list of Denominations that are fully or divisively CINOs in relation to alternative lifestyles contradicting Biblical Morality:

    • Anglican (Episcopalian)

    • Canadian and American Reformed Churches

    • Christian Reformed Church

    • Church of the Nazarene

    • Lutheran (Marin Luther rolling grave)

    • Mennonite

    • United Methodist Church (UMC)

    • Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA)

    • Metropolitan Community Church

    • Moravian Church

    • New Apostolic Church

    • United Reformed Church

    • Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

    • Swedenborgian Church

    • Unification Church

    • Unitarian/Universalist Church

    • United Church of Canada

    • United Church of Christ (UCC)

    • Uniting Church in Australia

    • Unity School of Christianity

    • Waldensians

    Source: Wikipedia.


This is obviously not an exhaustive list AND there are conservative Congregations within many of these Dominations which reject homosexuality because the Bible pronounces the practice as sin.

The point though is this: Including the Emergent Church way too many Denominations that call themselves Christians reject the Good Book as a foundation for morality. This is a sad state of affairs for the Institutional Body of Christ.

As a clarification of my stand on homosexuality, I do not believe those individuals who practice this alternate lifestyle should be treated as pariahs to the point of expressing hatorade. That is not the Way of Christ.

The Way of Christ is to share the Good News of deliverance from the dark wiles of the adversary – The Devil or Satan. Christians should not slip into animosity because of the rejection of the message of deliverance. The Bible says not to be unified with sin; however it also says to pray for those despitefully use you and abuse. Ephesians is even more specific:

    16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding[a] being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
    22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1: 16 – 23 NKJV)


Christians should reject loudly any acceptance of the practice of homosexuality; however it is incumbent for Christians not to render evil for evil by shouting demeaning comments back toward homosexuals even when goaded to do so. Understand that homosexuals are deceived by darkness and pray the Holy Spirit illuminates the souls of homosexuals and convinces them there is a better way.

Emergent Church leaders such as Tony Jones who wish to validate homosexuality need to get in tune with the Word of God and eschew the pressure human-centered moral relativity.

JRH 11/23/08
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Emergent church leader says 'gay' can be biblical lifestyle
Cutting-edge Christianity debates: Should we accept homosexuality?

By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Posted: November 23, 2008 1:00 am Eastern

One of the key leaders of today's most cutting-edge church movement has opened an Internet discussion on the issue of same-sex marriage with the bold proclamation that he believes "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and queer" individuals can and should live out their sexuality in – and blessed by – the Christian church.

"I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!)," writes author and church leader Tony Jones, "and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state."

Jones is an author and former youth pastor who holds a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also the national coordinator of Emergent Village, a loosely-formed friendship of churches that derive their descriptive name from having "emerged" from postmodernism to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into a post-Christian culture.

The "Emergent Church," as these mostly young, community- and mission-driven congregations are collectively known, is criticized by some for being "theologically liberal," praised by others as the best hope for passing the torch of Christianity to future generations.

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In his "The New Christians" blog, Jones opens up a discussion and debate on the issue of homosexuality with his readers and with a fellow theologian/blogger, a self-described political conservative, Rod Dreher.

Jones quotes a former professor of his, who Jones says was active in the civil rights movement:

"Civil rights and abortion will be nothing compared to how the church has to deal with homosexuality," his professor said. "I'm glad it's your generation and not mine who'll have to figure that out."

In Jones' blog, he tells his personal story as a straight man trying to understand homosexuality: from his mother's assurance that she will love him "no matter whom he loves," to a high school friend who was likely a closet homosexual and who died of AIDS.

Despite recounting his earlier days of arguing that "biblical prohibitions to homosexual sex should be taken seriously," Jones admits his experiences and feelings led him toward a different conclusion.

"And yet," Jones writes, "all the time I could feel myself drifting toward acceptance that gay persons are fully human persons and should be afforded all of the cultural and ecclesial benefits that I am."

Jones acknowledges that detractors against the somewhat nebulous and hard-to-define Emergent churches will pick up on his statement and repeat a common refrain of criticism.

"'Aha!' my critics will laugh derisively, 'I knew he and his ilk were on a continuous leftward slide!'" Jones admits.

Some of the comments show he was correct in his prediction.

"So, your statement is that you believe this. ... Why do you believe it? Because it seems right to you?" asks a respondent identified as Michael C.

"I suppose if you re-define Biblical Christianity to mean: whatever I believe is biblical Christianity, and there is no outside authority to judge it – then yes it can be in accord. If however you mean biblical Christianity as judged by the Bible, then no it cannot be in accord," Michael C. writes. "I'm sorry to say but these arguments that I've heard from the Emergent movement seem to rely a whole lot more pleading and a lot less on Biblical exegesis (our rule and faith – especially when you say 'biblical' Christianity)."

Other comments, naturally, supported same-sex marriage.

"Gay people exist," writes Public Defender. "Gay families exist. Society cannot stop gay people from having sex or raising families. Why do you want to discourage monogamy and stable homes for these children?"

Fellow blogger and theologian Rod Dreher, whom Jones invited into a "blogalogue" on the subject, summed up his argument this way:

"Emotionally, I'd just as soon say, 'Let everybody marry, it's nothing to me.' I want my gay friends to be happy," writes Dreher. "But truth is not determined by emotion, as I see it, and certainly I find it epistemologically arrogant to assume that an early 21st-century white American bourgeois male can stand in judgment of Scripture and the Church, and the long, long experience of humankind on marriage."

The continued debate between the two can be followed at Beliefnet.com on Tony Jones' blog.
______________________________
 Emergent Church and Homosexuality
John R. Houk
© November 23, 2008
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Emergent church leader says 'gay' can be biblical lifestyle
Drew Zahn is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.
Copyright 1997-2008 All Rights Reserved. WorldNetDaily.com Inc.

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