![]() Additionally, by generalizing such a grievous sin to "we are all sinners" you diminish and confuse the responsibility of the sinner to take action/tackle some of their most damaging sins (to themselves and others). feel guilt, shame, or be anxious to repent for their homosexual acts) because "we are all sinners" and as you have said before, "it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict." This is a huge problem if this is your motive, because you are enabling practicing homosexuals to continue in their idolatry by continuing to find their identity in their sexuality and be led by their flesh. By "queer friendly" you are tickling the ears of PRACTICING homosexuals so that they don't feel convicted (i.e. trying to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God by denying your fleshly desires and appetites, and be led by the Spirit) and wish to turn away from the sexual immorality that all homosexual acts fall under (regardless if you are in a long-term, committed, and monogamous relationship), then we will be your friend here to help you along the way." (But they cannot hold any leadership positions in the church while they are still struggling with being led by their flesh just as those struggling with adultery would not be allowed to hold leadership positions) I have no problem with this, but if this was what you meant you should have clarified it because I am sure a lot of people listening to you interpreted "we are a queer friendly church" the way below (B). By "queer friendly" your message was something to the effect of: "If you are trying to detangle yourself from the gay lifestyle (i.e. ![]() One comment you said struck me as odd: "we are a queer friendly church." There are two ways to interpret this statement: So please Mike, if you are going to talk to Christians about how not to communicate, please just look to your nearest liberal Christian demonizing their Christian conservative brother or sister over gay rights, or abortion rights for plenty of examples. If you want to appeal to 1 Cor 5:11-13 that is fine, that is a verse I will bring up below but if your reasoning is because you were talking to "CHRISTIANS" not the world, then good so am I! Why don't you talk with that same fervor to "CHRISTIANS" who are practicing homosexuals? You go out of your way to handle their immorality with kid gloves so much that it's questionable whether they are even in need of repentance.īy the way, in my experience over the past few years, the "Christians" who need to learn how to communicate in a Christ-like manner toward those they disagree with/believe are sinning, are "Christian" homosexual advocates and "pro-choicers.” The bullying, harassing, name-calling, and overall vitriol today from Christians is OVERWHELMINGLY from those who support homosexuality and abortion (i.e. You quoted Billy Graham: “It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love.” If you are fine with leaving the task of conviction to the Holy Spirit, why did you find it necessary to convict Christians who might talk in an insensitive way toward practicing homosexual Christians? Shouldn't you have left that to the Holy Spirit? Why are you picking and choosing which sins you point out and which ones you leave to the Holy Spirit? Either we work with the Holy Spirit and affirm what He is working in the lives of sinners, or we never say anything regarding other sinner's behavior. ![]() However, your clarification on Eastlake's position regarding homosexuality/marriage got sort of lost in the constant reminders on how Christians shouldn't talk to/judge homosexuality. I appreciate you clarifying the orthodox stance of Eastlake Church on homosexuality and marriage, and explaining to the congregation that Jesus affirmed marriage as one man and one woman.
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