Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
First off Mr. "I feel like a Jew", there are many things in the world today "that are not biblical". You know like the the email system you so like or the inter-web that "hosts" your despicable lies. But seriously dude, you may want to consider finding a more powerful god to worship as it seems us "homo-homo-sexuals" wield so much more power. Apparently
"we" cause hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts. Maybe its time you
stopped fucking with us!
“Al Mohler has given credence to the idea of homosexual sexual
orientation,” LaBarbera said. “And we know that sexual orientation is a
political construct, it’s something that’s helped the homosexual
movement advance. Because if people feel that people who struggle with
homosexuality have a natural so-called orientation, they of course
believe that they’re not really responsible for their behavior as much
as they would be for any other sin. So, once again, we start treating
this particular sin as a special sin needing all sorts of special
terminology and semantics and caveats that are not biblical. And I think
he’s starting to go down that route and it troubles me, because he’s
probably regarded as the leading intellectual, one of them, in the
evangelical Christian movement."
A second point, a bit more nuanced - which explains why Mr. "I feel like a Jew" - may have missed it. Mohler et al did a very good job of veiling their true message. They may sound all loving, but 'ya' still gotta change'. So I'm not sure why Peter's panties are in such a twist:
In other words, for Southern Baptists — the largest Protestant body
in the United States — the theology hasn’t changed. Homosexuality is
still a sin, and gay people are still expected to renounce their
sexuality, even if they spend their whole life “struggling” in that
“battle.” The result, a celibate ex-gay life, if not a man-woman
marriage, is the same. They’re just skipping the therapy step.
Transgender people are expected to find the same kind of change through
faith.
Mohler’s position isn’t new; he made the same rejection of reparative therapy at a conference on homosexuality last year hosted by the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). And at this year’s ACBC conference,
like last year’s ERLC conference, the rest of the messaging contradicts
this progress by promoting “change” and highlighting “change”
narratives.
,,, This message that “change” is possible was particularly evident in Tuesday’s keynote address by Stuart W. Scott,
associate professor of biblical counseling at SBTS. Describing the
Bible as a “command,” not an “invitation,” Scott spoke in generalities
about all of the ways Christians can change to suggest that changing
homosexuality is no different. “To say a person is a gay Christian is an
affront to the Gospel,” he explained, “or a Christian alcoholic or a
proud Christian.”
,,, Condemning conversion therapies doesn’t change the fact that Southern
Baptists are still teaching that LGBT youth should be condemned and
rejected unless they change. The only difference is that they now expect
that change to come through “Biblical counseling” instead of
psychological therapy. As a recent study found, family acceptance is the biggest factor for determining positive outcomes for LGBT youth.
For those that may not remember, Mahaney was one of several officials of Sovereign Grace Ministries named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit
for allegedly not reporting alleged sexual and physical abuse of kids. To be included in this church conference once again shows the utter lack of understanding within the church (whether Catholic or Protestant).
The problem is that pedophilia is seen as merely another flavor of
“sexual immorality”. In the eyes of most purity teaching adherents, lust
is lust, period. It doesn’t matter if a person’s lust is directed
toward a child, because there is no concept of consent-based sexual
ethics.
,,,
But this would explain why if a predator expresses appropriate
contrition for any kind of past “moral failure”, he becomes a living
testimony of god’s redemptive power. The apostle Paul was a murderer after all, so anyone can be used of God. [Regretfully the original cite for this article appears to have been lost
as I believe Gerencser's blog site was hacked and postings were lost.]
It is also a point echoed by Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian, grandson of Billy
Graham and a Liberty University law professor focused on sexual abuse
in the church. But it's this whole idea of, how did I put it in response to Badash's article on Tchividian, "Criminality is suppressed and restoration of the 'guilty' party back into leadership is the typical modus operandi of the evangelical crowd as recent headlines have shown (ie. Dino Rizzo and Sam Hinn)."
,,,it encourages wrongdoing. Giving roles of prominence,
prestige or power to those accused of hiding possible crimes encourages
others to hide possible crimes.
Men like Mahaney should be ostracized, not elevated, by church colleagues and in church circles.
__
A speaker sidelined two years ago by a sexual abuse scandal at his former
church is back at center stage for an upcoming conference featuring
prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.
C.J.
Mahaney, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Ky.,
joins Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and
International Mission Board President David Platt as scheduled speakers
at the biennial Together for the Gospel conference scheduled April 12-14 in Louisville, Ky.
Mahaney, who in 2006 along with Mohler and two others founded the
confab popular among young Calvinists, sat out the last conference in
2014, saying
he didn’t want publicity over a high-profile lawsuit alleging a
cover-up of child abuse at his former church to subject the other
founders to unfair criticism. Criticism nevertheless followed, after a
photo taken at the gathering showed Mahaney seated alongside conference
headliners on the front row.
Mahaney was one of numerous leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a
church-planting network he helped start in the 1980s, named in a
class-action lawsuit for allegedly failing to report alleged sexual and
physical abuse of children. The lawsuit was dismissed due to statute of
limitations, but in 2014 a volunteer at Mahaney’s former church was
convicted on criminal charges similar to acts alleged in the civil suit.
Problems at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., originally the
mother church of Sovereign Grace Ministries, prompted Mahaney to move
the organization to Louisville, Ky., in part to strengthen informal ties
to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
