Mollie at GetReligion has posted a really interesting entry about Protestants and Natural Family Planning. This is typically a Roman Catholic practice, but it seems that quite a few Protestants, my wife and I included, have taken an interest. I don’t really have any commentary to add to what she posted, so give it a read.

In a (somewhat roundabout) introduction to the story, she posted this:

Last week, Ruth Gledhill at the Times (U.K.) wrote about Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ view that gay relationships can be comparable to marriage. Part of his reasoning was the ubiquity and official acceptance of contraception:

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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.

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Greg Peters over at The Scriptorium has a good analysis of the ECUSA House of Bishops Statement. This line is a home run: “Of course, we are going to veil all of this under the guise of ‘pastoral care,’ but we’re going to do it anyway.”

GetReligion also has some thoughts. Apparently, “The New York Times gets it.”

If this isn’t news, I don’t know what is:

“Over the past 29 years of my life I have been an aggressive, creative and strategic supporter of gay and lesbian issues,” Cothran wrote. “I’ve organized and participated in countless marches and various lobbying efforts in the fight for equal treatment of gay and lesbians.”

A few paragraphs later Cothran dropped her bombshell, “But now, I must come out of the closet again.” She continued, “I have recently experienced the power of change that came over me once I completely surrendered to the teachings of Jesus Christ.”

Yeah, I hadn’t heard about it either. Her conversion is being questioned by some. I don’t know what to think, yet. Maybe if the media would pay a little attention to it, as the SBC Baptist Press think, then we might find out if she’s legit or not. Of course, that’s probably not likely.

H/T Jacke.

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