I finally got a chance to listen to Wade’s sermon, “Antihomosexual”. I’m going to have to listen to it again before I can comment though, because he said so much.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking on a couple of questions which, I’ve felt like I’ve had answered for a while, but have popped up recently, so I’ve been giving them some more attention. You’ll probably be able to infer the answers I’ve reached in the past by the way each question is framed, which is ok.

1. How do we deal with sin in the body?  Greed, gossip, and sexual immorality bounce around the church like so many pinballs, and nothing seems to be interfering.  What do we do about it?

Are we only responsible for our own sin, or are we responsible for keeping one another accountable?

2. Is there any sin that isn’t hurting anyone? (continue reading…)

I missed Wade’s sermon today, but we had a pretty lively discussion about it this evening. There was so much for us to talk about, but we had to get out of there early to put the little one to bed. The sermon was on the church’s approach to and treatment of homosexuality. Tonight we talked about homosexuality, sin, accountability, and a little church polity.

I’ve been thinking about the conversation all evening and have decided to dig up everything I’ve written on the subjects, each with a link and an excerpt. So here it is!

You Call That Protection? August ‘06

The institution of marriage has been around a looooong time. It’s survived centuries of men treating women as property. It survived the dark ages, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. It survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two Great Wars, and Vietnam. And it has stood strong through our society’s turn towards cohabitation and parents who avoid marriage. But it’s suffering some staggering blows. The traditional family in the US has been on the decline for 40 years. It’s almost rare for a child to be raised by both biological parents. People are choosing to stay single (but not celibate), and those who do get married do it much later and with much less commitment than in past generations. Even when they’re married they have a bag packed in case they aren’t “satisfied”. The marriage bond is weakening and prenups and no-fault divorce are just making it worse. Thank God someone figured out how to protect this sacred institution from further damage; by focusing our energy on making sure gay people don’t get married.

On the Narrow, October ‘06

In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession, Jesus rebukes him fiercely, calling him Satan. “You do not have in mind the things of God,” he says, “but the things of men.” Peter was working from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow his Son, the Messiah, to be killed. We, much the same way, work from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow someone to be born in a way that forces them to resist their natural desires.

Across the Board, November ‘06

I think that the church should take a more Biblical stance on sin. We tend to single out sexual sin as the only one that is bad enough to keep people out of the church: homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery. And adultery has to be really egregious to get real attention.

(continue reading…)

I’m in a pretty sour mood right now. At first it was because I’ve been hurting for that poor girl in Florida who got beat up for a YouTube video. Now I’m ticked off at her dad.

Her parents blamed the Internet for the incident.

“These Web sites are creating a space for criminal activity, beating, fights,” Patrick Lindsay said. [...]

“I’m very upset with these Internet sites,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children. I’m going to carry this as far as I can.”

Talk about tilting at windmills. How about blaming the girls that did this? How about blaming the people who watch the videos, thereby encouraging things like this? Even some indirect blame on the parents would have been acceptable…but blaming the internet and MySpace?

Granted, there’s plenty wrong with MySpace, which is why my profile still has a picture of my wife about 4 months pregnant. But when it comes to six people deciding to beat up an innocent person - Hell, even a guilty person - let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the perpetrators.

Ok, now that I’m over that, here’s the real point of this post. There are some Christians who believe that the task of the Church is to restore the world, whether that be through service or control. The group who truly believes that we are to do it by control (Dominionism) is so small that it barely merits discussion. Sure, you’ll hear people, particularly those like Andrew Sullivan (though he prefers the term “christianist”), attribute these qualities to “many evangelicals”…that’s bollocks.

Those who believe that we are to do it through service and love have a larger following. They believe that as a result of the influence of Christians, and good people from other religions (or no religion), the world is getting better. Progress has been, is being, and will be made. They are Progressives. (continue reading…)

I was watching the Republican debate the other night…ok, I was watching the clips on YouTube last night, but it’s the same, right? Anyway Charlie Gibson went around the circle at one point pointing out that each candidate (except Ron Paul) was accused of changing their views to move into the mainstream of the party. My question is this, if these are the best the party has to offer, and none of them were “mainstream”, does the mainstream really matter? Does it even exist? Besides, with them all running to the party’s middle, how are they different? There is a rare exception here and there: McCain and campaign finance reform, Huckabee and the Fair Tax, Romney and that hairdo… But they mostly seemed to be arguing about who believed the “mainstream” thing first. (continue reading…)

I’d like to start a new feature here: my Rules for Life. I’ll post two or three a week starting today.

• Rule #1: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength.
• Rule #2: Love your neighbor as yourself.

These two don’t need a whole lot of explanation. The main thing I want to point out is the order and the separation. Many people in the church today forget that loving God is the greatest commandment, “and the second is like it.” That means we must love our neighbors without compromising our fidelity to God.

The problem with the first two rules is that they’re just nebulous ideas that sit in the back of my mind. They’re always with me, but they don’t provide a lot of specifics. But that’s part of the beauty of them as well. They’re always there, and they have no limits.

We often talk about ways to glorify God and worship Him outside of church services. TheResurgence.com recently posted audio in their “Continuous Worship” series with the topic “Is ‘worship’ the only word for worship?” It’s something that I’ve struggled with. We’ve put our worship of God into the church box, and have excluded it from the rest of our lives for so long, that when we realize we need to set it free, we don’t know how. (continue reading…)

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