Thursday, July 3, 2008

Lesbians at the Ball Park - Part 5

I had an interesting conversation recently. A relative was traveling on Sunday and wanted to attend church, so he stopped in a Presbyterian church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What he heard in that church he found appalling. And I don't blame him.

The sermon was about "justice" which in some churches now means that everyone should be equal in everything -- the amount of money they have, the rights that are theirs, etc.

In other words, it is wrong for some of us to be wealthy when others are poor. (Wealthy is defined as having more that someone else, so we're all wealthy compared with somebody else.) It means that everyone in the United States (or perhaps they mean the whole world?) has the right to the same rights as U.S. citizens -- whether or not they are citizens or are in this country legally or not. What this amounts to is socialism. And it's being preached from many pulpits in liberal churches today.

My relative said if that nonsense had been preached in his home church, people would have been getting up and walking out.

Many of us have walked out. My husband and I are no longer attending a Presbyterian church because the ones we've tried in the city where we now live preach the same liberal thoughts in a wide variety of topics -- and we just can't stand it.

The Christians who teach this stuff seem to find in Scripture (meaning, the Bible) portions that support their position -- especially in the stories about Jesus. What they don't seem to get is that everything, and I do mean everything, that Jesus did was for one purpose and one purpose only:

To point people to His Father.

The feeding of thousands with only a little food, the parables (fictional stories with a point) that Jesus told, including the outcasts...everything Jesus said and did...had meaning to point people to God.

Some church leaders seem to think it's better to include everyone than to tell them the truth. Like those lesbians in the ball park. We just need to "love" them, right? Well if we truly love them, we will tell them the truth: that homosexuality is wrong. We don't have to be mean about it. It doesn't have to be a big to-do, causing a big scene (although it may become that). We've been scared off about saying any truth about Jesus, but many, many people will respond well if we just tell them the truth. (And those who respond negatively may well respond differently later.)

Shall I say it again? Everything Jesus did was about pointing people to His Father. He started provocative conversations (arguments, really) with people like the Pharisees just to challenge their wrong ideas and point them to Truth.

Nothing in the Bible was ever intended to be used to defend today's ooshy-gooshy, whimpy, everbody's-included-no-one-can-be-left-out, we-can't-tell-them-the-truth-because-it-might-be-offensive-so-just-love-them, sickening sweet, all-inclusive liberality of many of today's churches.

And some wonder why the membership numbers in mainline denominations are plunging. Not all mainline denominational churches are like this, but more and more are becoming so.

God is a God of laws. You obey, you're good with Him. You ignore, weave around, contort, rationalize, twist, or turn upside down His laws, His Word, or His Truth and, well...you're in deep doo-doo.

1 comment:

Jan Verhoeff said...

I agree with what you're saying Dianne. It's hard to stand up for what you believe when you feel the whole world is telling you, you're wrong. But isn't that what Jesus did when he threw out the Money Changers?

Sometimes I shiver in fear of what might happen if I don't listen to HIS voice, and stand and be counted. Then I wonder what will happen if I do stand for what I believe.

If we truly believe our God is BIGGER than the world, then we can stand for HIM. If not, what hope do we have?

I feel torn at times, when I find myself in situations where I'm not sure what God's saying to me. I believe there are times when we are to simply give HIS love and pray, and also times when we are to stand up and speak out against wrong.

And more than anything else, what am I saying to my children if I don't stand up and speak out. We just had this conversation this weekend.

I'm still concerned about the way a situation was handled, however... My prayers were answered almost immediately and the situation changed. I didn't have to say anything, the people I was concerned about left. So, where did that leave me??? Did anyone know I prayed before acting? Does it matter?

I don't know what God would have me to do in that situation again, but this time, HE took care of it.