The Truth in Print Vol. 24 Issue 12, Jan. 2018
A Publication of the Valley church of Christ,
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364 (928-782-5058)
Website
Address ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
A Review of “‘Love Wins’ at same-sex
conference” by Bobby Ross Jr.
The above title appeared in the mailed “The
Christian Chronicle” Vol. 75, No. 11, Nov. 2018. Its alternate title is “How to
keep LGBTQ people from becoming ‘spiritual orphans’” by Bobby Ross Jr. - “E3 Conference at Highland Oaks Church of
Christ, Dallas TX.”
“Our” young people should be able to see the
vast differences in a sound church of Christ and unsound churches calling
themselves churches of Christ.
Consider these introductory headings and
remarks:
PARENTS
OF LGBTQ children and leaders of Churches of Christ tackle faith and sexuality.
How
to keep LGBTQ people from becoming ‘spiritual orphans’
DALLAS
— Carrie Underwood’s “Love Wins” video played on the big screens as the E3
Conference opened at the Highland Oaks Church of Christ.
“I
believe you and me are sisters and brothers. And I believe we’re made to be
here for each other,” Underwood sings in the country hit. “And we’ll never fall
if we walk hand in hand, put a world that seems broken together again. Yeah, I
believe, in the end love wins.”
Scripturally Tackling Faith and Sexuality
Do you really think playing Carrie
Underwood’s “Love Wins” video is tackling faith and sexuality!
The Scriptures teach you to expect that “not
all” who hear the Gospel will obey:
Rom
10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO
HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?"
Rom
10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I
Cor. 6:18 says concerning sexual immoralities, “Flee fornication.” Thayer’s
Definition: “fornication” [G4202 porneia]: 1) illicit sexual intercourse, 1a)
adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
So what do you tackle when you deal
scripturally with sexual immoralities even if you might have a child involved?
Organized by “CenterPeace”
Sally Gary is the founder and executive
director of CenterPeace. “Helping parents of LGBTQ children and leaders of
Churches of Christ ‘better understand and love unconditionally’ was the goal of
the recent conference organized by CenterPeace. The Dallas-based ministry
provides support for people who experience same-sex attraction.”
“‘Nobody’s asking you to change what you
believe,’ Sally Gary, CenterPeace’s founder and executive director, told the
350 attendees who came from across the United States and Canada. ‘Nobody’s
asking you to change what you think about the morality of sexuality. But what
we are going to have to change,’ she added, ‘is how we provide community for
the entire body of Christ.’”
The entire body of Christ — isn’t that about
the same meaning given of “entire” that any human organization in town would
give of the “entire body of Christ”? Look up the word “community” and you’ll
find as a definition: “sharing, participation and fellowship.” A sound church
would not allow such an organization to conjoin with its work to begin with.
“E3 aims to “equip, empower and encourage”
Christians to engage in more thoughtful dialogue about faith and sexuality.”
Dialogue is defined in the American Heritage
Dictionary “5. An exchange of ideas or opinions.” Our duty is to go to God’s
Word rather than opinion i.e. man’s ideas or thoughts (Rom. 10:17). In Is.
55:7-9 God’s thoughts are higher than man’s and must prevail. WHAT NEEDS BE
FORSAKEN IS YOUR OWN THOUGHTS (OPINIONS). The thing about “dialogue” with those
espousing error is it allows error to get its foot in the door!
Man’s Sinful Sexual Arrangements:
1.
Sex before marriage (I Cor. 6:18).
2.
Fornicators and adulterers (Heb. 13:4).
3.
Homosexuality and lesbianism (Rom. 1:26-27).
4.
Planning a child outside of marriage as the result of fornication (Gen. 1:28,
2:23-24, 4:1).
Statistics Often Display a Lack of Faith in
God’s Word (Rom. 10:17)
“At a time when national polling shows
younger Christians increasingly open to gay marriage (47 percent of
evangelicals born after 1964 favored it in a Pew Research Center survey,
compared with 26 percent of older evangelicals), the conference brought together
people of faith with differing beliefs.”
Statistics are lacking in presenting the
“scriptural truth” about the church of Christ, as well as who and what a true
Christian is. And do you suppose that the “center” part of CenterPeace is the
old compromising offer of let’s agree to disagree? And isn’t providing
“community” really a push for acceptance and fellowship?
Fellowship Is Based Upon Keeping the Word (Eph.
5:11)
What the Scriptures teach on fellowship is
not peace by occupying a “middle position” of compromise with error. I Jo.
1:6-7 is clear. We can’t have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness; if
we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we are liars and not
practicing the truth; if we walk in the light we have fellowship with one
another.
This love wins. To love the children of God
is when we love God first and keep His commandments (I Jo. 5:2, 3). If we say
we love God and do not keep His commandments we are liars and without the truth
(I Jo. 2:3-4). That’s why Paul told the church at Corinth to withdraw from the
sexually immoral person that he might be repent and be saved (read I Cor.
5:1-2, 5, 11, 13; 6:9-10).
Isn’t “center” peace really the kind of
“peace” that Jeremiah warned about? Jer 6:14 They have also healed the hurt of
My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. Jer 6:15
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all
ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those
who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down," says the
LORD.
A Participant’s “I am not an argument to be
won.”
This came from Justin Lee who is said to be
of a Baptist background and the author of “Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the
Gays-vs.-Christians Debate.” “He told attendees that friends can challenge his
view that God blesses same-sex marriages.” “‘But if that’s all we ever talk
about … that doesn’t make me feel like your friend. It doesn’t feel like you
love me. It feels like you want to win an argument,’ said Lee.” “‘I am not an
argument to be won. I am not a project,’ he added. I am a person.’”
Did the Corinthian Christians considered
Paul as their friend? The Corinthians heard, believed and were baptized into
Christ for the remission of their sins (Acts 18:8, 2:38). In I Cor. 6:11 some of them had (in the past
prior to their baptisms) practiced sexual immoralities including homosexuality.
They are reminded that those who practice such things will not inherit the
kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9-10). Paul told them should he come and find some
practicing such “I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found
by you such as you do not wish” (I Cor. 6:20-21). He plainly states such can be
repented of, and some needed to repent, and to find such practiced and not yet
repented of by the time he comes will cause grief over their sinful conduct (I
Cor. 6:21). Was he their friend?
The “weapons of warfare” we use, Paul says,
are designed to cast down imaginations (human reasoning, thoughts held in the
mind, arguments) brought to bear against the knowledge of God, and to bring
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He ends this with
being ready to punish those who did not repent (2 Cor. 10:4-6; 13:2, 10).
There is an argument to be won here. It is
repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins, and then live faithfully
without going back to immoralities!
Other Participants:
Don McLaughlin minister, the North Atlantic
Church of Christ in Georgia is quoted: “Too many LGBTQ people, McLaughlin said,
get the message from Christians that ‘this family must no longer be for me, and
that makes them orphans.’”
For members of the church at Corinth
practicing such they must repent and stop practicing such. If one continues in
immorality they must be withdrawn from and not associated with to bring them to
repentance (I Cor. 5:1-5, 9-11; cf. 2 Th. 3:6, 14).
Parents Speak of Their Own Children
“Identifying”
One participant is quoted as saying that her
daughter who identifies as lesbian left the church because “She just doesn’t
feel comfortable coming on Sunday and facing people who are judging her.”
We are told to judge righteous judgment (Jo.
7:24). The Lord said men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
are evil. They don’t come to the light lest their deeds be reproved (Jo.
3:19-20). What is learned from Paul’s instruction to Corinth? I Cor. 5:1-7,
12-13 speaks of the church (collectively as a church) judging and withdrawing
fellowship from one continuing in sexual immorality. Individually they were not
to associate with such (I Cor. 5:10 -11). Exceptions weren’t made for members of
one’s family.
Another participant explains that she grew
up believing homosexuality was a sin. She says “Her world was rocked, however,
when her son ...now 20, informed his parents he was gay. ‘Mom, being gay is as
much a part of me as the color of my eyes, so I know it can’t be a sin or God
wouldn’t have made me that way,’ he said.”
“When you are raised in and attend Churches
of Christ or other traditionalist churches, …When your child comes out as gay
or LGBT, that is the last place you feel you can go.” “‘The fear of shame and
rejection is so overwhelming,’ she added.” “And that isn’t what church should
look like. No one has been talking about same-sex attractions within the
church, so when you face that with your precious child, or as an individual,
you feel incredibly isolated and alone.”
This son said he knows it is not a sin but I
Cor. 6:9 says it is sin, and those practicing such will not inherit the kingdom
of God. You can’t “comfort” scripturally a parent who loves their child more than
Christ and His word (Matt. 10:37-38). Read Heb. 10:24-25; I Th. 5:11, 14 and
see that there is always comfort for those who do love His word and
worship.
The Dr. Who Is Still Working Through It
“Another attendee, Adams Mearse, former
youth minister for the Naperville Church of Christ in Illinois, wrote his
doctoral dissertation on teaching sexuality in biblical and healthy ways.
‘I’m still working through it. I really am,’
he said of his Bible study on sexuality. ‘I wish I would come to a more
definite conclusion because it would take a lot of stress off my life and
brain. But I’m still working through it, and it’s a real and legitimate
challenge.’”
I Cor. chapters 5 and 6 are just not that
hard to understand, even for someone who has a doctorate degree. Culture and
the world’s wisdom often hold some back from the truth.
CenterPeace’s Director “Loves God, Likes Girls”
What
a finale, and the author saved it to the very last.
“CenterPeace’s Gary is the author of the
memoir “Loves God, Likes Girls.” She often tells audiences about the shame and
humiliation she felt as a girl experiencing same-sex attraction while growing
up in the Tenth and Broad Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Gary said Christians must learn to love
people and invite them to the table, regardless of whether they are divorced
and remarried or involved in a same-sex relationship.”
“‘You can hold to those traditional sexual
ethics,’ said Gary, who completed her final chemotherapy treatment in May after
a year-long battle with breast cancer. ‘You don’t have to change those to love
people well and include those people in fellowship.’”
Apply what John says is necessary for
fellowship (I Jo. 1:6-7) and what he says scriptural love is (I Jo. 2:4, 5:1).
Do not leave out Paul’s teaching on withdrawal (I Cor. 5; 2 Th. 3:6, 14).
Remember who will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9). Compare the
lesson on toleration in the church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:20-23).
“You
can embrace people in a way that allows them to use the gifts which God has
given them and further the kingdom without approving everything in their
lives.”
Rom 1:18 says “For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” What does Rom. 1:26-27 say? Rom. 1:32
says “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
What
does Rom. 1:26-27 say? Rom. 1:32 says “Who knowing the judgment of God, that
they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but
have pleasure in them that do them.”
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