Some Clarification

***Advisory: This, like all my posts, has been written in haste, and was not reviewed prior to posting . . . please forgive any misspelled words . . . and the sarcasm . . . the sarcasm is supposed to be there ;-)

Friends . . . a recent email and a not-so-recent comment has prompted me to file a statement of clarification (i.e. not a retraction). Both have to do with the hot topic of homosexuality and specifically my post earlier in December regarding the United Church of Christ and the Southern Baptist Convention. While y'all are not privy to the complete correspondence I've received on this post I will do my best to clarify some of the more controversial points.

In essence, many comments I've received have used the premise, "If we do it for one, we need to do it for all of them." Specifically, if we let homosexuals into our churches, then we, too, have to allow murderers, etc. Then, if said individuals are in church ANYWAY, why not allow them to have positions of leadership in our church, etc. God WILL turn sinners away from heaven. Those are the basic elements of the debates.

So, let me clarify. I am not condoning homosexuality. I believe the bible when it says that murderers, homosexuals, et al will not enter the kingdom of heaven. I believe the list continues to include gossipers, those who take the Lord's name in vain, alcoholics, pornographers and pornographees, voo-doo priests, un-believers, etc. I fall into at least some of the categories that are listed here in and in Scripture.

I also believe that God knows best for each of us, each of his perfect creations. Just as he called some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be teachers, he also designed us (perfectly, mind you) to be more susceptible to depression, to alcoholism, to schizophrenia, to cancer, to homosexuality, to lying, to cheating, to stealing, to murdering, to staying up late browsing for porn on the internet. He's given us all thorns that keep us humble, I believe, the effects of which are only alleviated when we go to Him for help, for salvation, for grace, and for mercy.

The last paragraph can be read simply, "God made us who we are, good and bad, and has a way for all of us to be saved."

If I had an addiction to alcohol, and you didn't, you could only reach me by first understanding, or attempting to at the very least, the scenario and life-history from which I am coming. If I'm an alcoholic wishing to conquer my sin and you've never been addicted and the best advice you can come up with is "Just stop it." and you don't love me . . . I'm going back to the bottle that never turns me away. If I'm a Christian addicted to pornography and you are not, and you say to me, "What you're doing is wrong!" and kick me out of band or praise team or corps cadets or whatever program, I'll say, "You think I don't know that what I'm doing is wrong? I'm not an idiot. But you know what? I can't stop. I need you're help, you're shoulder, your love, not your words."

If I'm a Christian that has only ever dated those of the same gender, what I don't need is your ridicule, nor do I need words, or hate, or coldness, what I need is to know that I'm welcome to enter into a friendship with you, that you're concerned about my life, my well-being, that you will allow me the freedom to come into your church and you will even allow me to speak to God while I'm there. I don't need your conviction. The Holy Spirit is quite talented enough to handle convicting those who need it. That's why I can say without hesitation that I don't agree with my homosexual friends marriage, as noted in the December 3 comment. But fortunately, it's NOT MY JOB to go to him and convict him of what I have known or interpreted to be true. I don't understand his position because I'm heterosexual. I don't know the ins and outs of his relationship with Christ. I tell him God loves Him. I show him that I love him too. I tell him to continue to seek God's will. To read the scriptures, to meditate on it day and night. I tell him to meet with his husband and pray about it, for hours, to seek the Holy Spirits leading. God handles dealing with their hearts, because I can only communicate with Him in the language of the heart . . . and maybe Kristy . . . but even then I usually need words.

All Christians need to do is preach the gospel. All over the world. Go tell people that God loved them so much that he's provided a way to get to heaven to spend eternity in BLISS and it's a free agreement for WHOMEVER so chooses to take advantage of it. Find a way to get the world to realize THAT.

Finally, I still support the UCC's message. Jesus didn't turn anyone away . . . neither do we. In EVERY church I've ever been a part of we've had people from all walks of life. I've been in congregations with lesbians, with convicted child molesters, with alcoholics. Let me take alcoholics as an example. I'm in the SALVATION ARMY. A huge part of what we do is to help, or attempt to help Alcoholics break their routines, their enslaving addiction and restore them to their families, to productive lives and eventually, hopefully, to reconciliation with Jesus. Now, we spend MILLIONS of dollars to do this. We bus them to our corps. We have many of our corps people that minister at our Adult Rehabilitation Centers. We spend lots of time and money to make this happen. What if THEY wanted to be a leader in the Army or in a church? Lets get the elders of the church together, pray for discernment, commit the matter to Christ in prayer and see what he comes up with. But make sure that we only get the priests, and elders, and deacons that have proven themselves worthy by having well-behaved respectable kids. If your kid is on Ritalin, your prayers don't count.

Church administrators have the responsibility of reviewing each persons "application" to lead a church in whatever capacity they wish to do so. Some people get turned away, for many different reasons. Why do I have a prophet teaching a Sunday school class? Can't we find a teacher to do that? Our praise band leader has no heart for ministry nor musical competence. But she wears a uniform. Having standards in place regarding ones spirituality seems a little odd to me anyway . . . who am I to say you're Christian enough? I masqueraded as "a perfect Christian" for many years. No one caught me. Looking back, doesn't make it right. I don't think I led anyone astray.

So, again, having standards in place makes sense. Not giving people the chance to commune with Christ because outside of the doors of the church they're "evil sinners" is completely ludicrous to me.

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

I wonder what he meant by that? All I know is that someone Christ loved tried to get to Him and when the disciples tried to turn them away, Jesus got mad and said not to hinder them. He met with them and then He left.

Grace All.