Gospel Of Inclusion: LGBT, Challenging Traditional Christian Values
April 20, 2012 by admin
Filed under General, Tough Issues
Homosexuality and Gospel of Inclusion
I recently read an article, Taking a Lead on Faith: Four Black Pastors at the Forefront of LGBT Equality that was featured at Ebony/Wellness & Empowerment.
The subject of the article, a discussion of the position taken by several prominent black clergy members challenging “THE STEREOTYPE OF THE ANTI-GAY BLACK CHURCH.”
There are many arguments supporting the notion of inclusion, namely a theological position that implies or suggests strongly that homosexuality is God’s design.
Impact of Gospel of Inclusion
Criticism of ideas behind the “Gospel of Inclusion” is one of the primary reasons biblical purist are labeled out of touch with reality and are considered to be conservative extremist.
Gospel of Inclusion. In Christian theology, universal reconciliation (also called universal salvation, Christian universalism, or in context simply universalism) is the doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God.
The Gospel of Inclusion‘ embraces LGBT individuals into the body of Christ, challenges traditional conservative theology, and denounces the threat of God’s plan to have his children burn in hell for eternity.
Biblical passages that plainly state that homosexuality is a sin are now seen as being out of context with the entire bible.
It is unacceptable to preach the scriptures on face value.
The revisionists see the Bible differently. Their version of the scriptures are used to celebrate God’s unconditional love. From their perspective, “true” servants of God display tolerance for everyone; even groups whose behavior or lifestyle blatantly opposed to the historical and traditional principles of the Bible.
Christians who adopt a fundamental or orthodox view of scripture are labeled as mean spirited, biased and even homophobic. Any mention of sin, is highly unpopular.
In a previous article, Does Being A Orthodox Christian Make Me Homophobic?, I wrote that as a Christian I love those who identify themselves as homosexual.
However, as a believer in Christ, I believe that any thought, attitude or behavior that transgresses God’s word is sin. Loving people who are homosexual does not mean to me that one must accept homosexuality.
People of commit adultery or fornication are also God’s children, but God is not pleased with their philandering. Adultery is a sin, but still I care deeply for the people who are adulterers.
Sin is a choice. It is an act of volition. People do not fall into sin. The Bible is clear in that Christ has given us the power, the ability to overcome sin.
The issue is one of principle. Contrary to what many people believe, God is not some celestial puppet master. Every human being is endowed with the freedom of choice. But with that freedom comes consequences.
The Gospel of Inclusion is a choice by some to mitigate Biblical principles to suit their political or theological agenda.
It is not the Gospel of Christ.
As believers we must separate the sin from the sinner. God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.
The bible states categorically that “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” – Proverbs 14:34.
The good news is that God can save anyone. Ignoring sin does not mean that it does not exist.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment…
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Christians And Addiction: Typical Elements of Addictive Behaviors
Recognizing Addictive Behaviors
As reported by Watts. M. Callier, in The Addictive Behaviors, an individual can come to be dependent, addicted, or compulsively obsessed with just about any activity, chemical substance, object, or simply action that gives him or her pleasure.
The aforementioned applies to Christians. All too often we see the signs and choose to look the other way; resolved to mind our own business. Whose ever heard the story of the “Good Samaritan?”
What are Addictive Behaviors?
There are actually similarities between physical addiction to liquor as well as other chemical compounds, and a mental dependence that occurs with such activities as compulsive wagering, sex, and eating problems. Lots of people with addictive behaviors report a blackout for the time they were engaging in the actions and don’t remember what amount or what these bought, and so forth. Endorphins are produced in the brain during an addicting activity plus a experience of well-being and euphoria outcome, that may cause some individuals getting into an paralyzing cycle.
Any behaviors of the addicted person can progress into negative overall health and/or societal repercussions because the man or woman will become obsessed and will eventually try to get the chemical substance or activity within the detriment for work or ethical connections.
Addictive Behaviors Can Be Compulsive
He or she will compulsively do the activity whether or not there’s no desire to do so, when not doing the activity alienation problems will regularly occur, like being easily annoyed, desiring, plus restlessness. The individual won’t feel like issues exists because of the habit forming conduct, and also deny that it is influencing them and even their livelihood, even though confronted by troubled relatives and buddies participants. He or she may feel like it’s merely a bad practice, they’ve got full deal with of the state of affairs, and that they are able to handle just how often these stick to any behavior, which is during direct opposition of the term compulsion.
Depression is typical during people who have addictive behaviors, mainly because is certainly low self-worth, and commonly come from psychologically or personally abusive families.
As per specialized literature, there isn’t well-known consensus as to the etiology, prohibition, together with treatment for obsessive conditions. Lots of individuals take into account these behaviors conditions while others think of them to get manners resulting from a mixture of heredity together with environmental factors.
Some disagree with the fact that addictive behaviors happen to be medical conditions simply because there isn’t certain produce together with course of treatment used by all experts. This scarcity of agreement among scientists together with health care individuals results in difficulties with deterrence together with cure solutions, because no one method succeeds for every single addict together with his or her addiction.
All this absent, there are various sorts of counseling that do succeed, together with continue to be a very good meant for medication for obsessive manners.
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- Addictive Behaviors and the Addictive Process (bariatricrecoverycoaching.wordpress.com)
- How To Tell Who is Right about Addiction (psychologytoday.com)
- Addiction Has A New Definition – It Is A Disease, Not Just Bad Choices Or Behaviors (medicalnewstoday.com)
Are we victims?
When Are We Really Victims?
There are many Christians who are continually plagued with the notion of being under attack. In their thoughts, unkind people, Satan, or the forces of evil have targeted them – they become victims!
I pose to you the following question. When really are we actually victims? The answer is more intricate when compared with what exactly many people decide to believe.
It really is a fact that Satan hates us and he is dedicated to our discomfort in addition to defeat. On the other hand, it is also legitimate that God is still developing your characters into that, which reflects Him.
I cannot with good conscious, call the “developmental plan of God” an attack from hell. Nor do I believe that life has not been fair to me because of what I am going through or what exactly I have gone through. “For all things do work together for the good to them that love the Lord”.
The truth about feelings and “victims”.
The perceptions of our reality are dictated by the state of our hearts.
Narcissism is the idea of being preoccupied with our selves. Narcissistic folks always feel victimized, never seeing that they often give more pain as compared with what they have received.
Too often the predicaments that we find ourselves in have been produced by our own choices, fostered by our faulty perceptions.
We are products associated with what we think. We will not be any better than what our imagination of ourselves allow us. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) Is it so inconceivable that we have thought our way into many of the unfolding dramas in our life.
The Bible cautions us about being led by emotions, feelings, or hunches. Our path should not be directed by circumstances, conditions, or surroundings. Things however, will happen. Failures will occur. We will make mistakes. Even so, we shall be guided by the Spirit of our Lord and not the spirit of pity.
Victims Can Become Slaves To Negative Emotions
We become victims when we are enslaved by the negative emotions in addition to feelings that have resulted from the attacks of people as well as other adversaries. Thoughts of victimization really are subjective, and are often based upon past experiences in addition to exposures.
Feelings are valid emotions not necessarily valid truths or facts. What you feel is your reality not necessarily “the” reality.
As believers we must struggle past the garbage around us (the actual garbage that causes feelings associated with victimization) in addition to the garbage in us (emotions that cause us to feel inadequate), and fight to pull down a direction from the Lord.
The people around us need us to release our hurts in addition to grudges. Your focus is to be on the prize of the mark of the high calling of God.
Our cause is just but not our emotions. The pulpit of our life is for Good news. Our lives are not to be a celebration connected with what went wrong with us. God has not anointed us to to celebrate pity. Charles Wesley said “a charge to keep I have and a God to glorify”. We would do well to remember these words in our times of feeling like a victim.
Are You An Angry Christian? The High Cost of Anger…
In your anger do not sin…
Most Christians are familiar with the above verse from Ephesians 4:26. This tells us something very important – there is an anger that is acceptable.
In Ephesians chapter 4, we have two seemingly conflicting statements. In verse 26, we seem to be commanded to be angry; in verse 31 we seem to be commanded not to be angry. Here is the resolution to what seems to be a contradiction.
The anger which is a manifestation of our flesh is to be put off. The anger which is a manifestation of God’s righteousness is to be put on.
There is the “anger of man”, which “does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:20), and the anger which is an expression of God’s righteousness. We are commanded in our text to be angry in a way that is righteous, that is a reflection of God.
Christians are people like everyone else. We hurt, laugh, and sometimes get very angry. However, sometimes our anger can get us into deep trouble.
Uncontrolled anger, anger that is a manifestation of the flesh, can exact enormous costs. That impulse or feeling that felt so right and so justified later becomes the source of guilt and anguish. The incident that seemed so deserving of your outrage has quickly passed. But, the scars resulting from the inappropriate behavior have become the trophies of our moments of insanity and dysfunction. What we now feel are the hurt, shame and the alienation. We ask ourselves, “Was it worth it”?
High Cost of Anger
A severe example of the damage that anger can bring is seen in what happened in Reading, Mass. on July 5, 2000. What began as a simple hockey practice, with kids taking turns slapping shots at the goalie, ended in murder. Michael Costin, 40, whose three sons were on the ice, was informally supervising the play. After a while things got a bit rough, and Thomas Junta, 42, one of a handful of people in the stands, complained loudly to Costin when his 10-year-old took an elbow to the nose. Accounts vary, but some say Junta stepped to the edge of the ice, where he and Costin got into a shoving match, and a rink employee ordered Junta to leave the building.
He did. But a short time later Junta returned and confronted Costin outside the locker room. At that point, Junta knocked Costin to the floor and kneeling on his chest, “Was doing a job on him, wacking him…and slapping his head on the floor,” Reading Police Chief Edward Marchand told The Boston Globe. When officers arrived, Costin, whose sons witnessed the beating, was unconscious and had no pulse. Two days later he was removed from life support and died. It was just a stick practice, and because of anger, one father died, and one went to prison. Anger grips our lives and causes us to do things we later wish we had not done.
Excerpted from http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/topical/be_angry.htm
If you find that your anger controls you, every one of your relationships may be affected.
Unbridled anger will cause your friends and companions to distance themselves from you, walls thicken, and friendships may eventually fade away. Children may become hardened and resistant to your affections, while all along carrying deep feelings of worthlessness. Co-workers may withdraw or sabotage your projects, bosses become critical.
What can/will you do about your anger? God has answers in His word.
God’s truth is ray of light to the individual lost in an ocean of wounded feelings and damaged emotions. Christians have an anchor for the soul. Jesus is our Christ and redeemer. There is hope for our humanity. You no longer have to lie and justify inappropriate behavior. You can simply own your stuff, humble yourself and confess that you are often out of control.
After telling God about your state and predicament, find a person to whom you can be accountable. You will discover a lessening of the momentum that has been driving the behavior. We will never be perfect. But, we can become mature about who we are and heal the relationships around us that are meaningful and essential to our existence.
The road to a better life is a process. It consists of daily activities filled with accountability and underlined by humility. You see, pride has fueled our “feelings of being taken advantage of”. While we have real feelings, often they are not based upon valid facts.
God is real. He is not an allusion. He promises to give you “the peace that passes all understanding”.
When you are angry, make sure it is the anger which is an expression of God’s righteousness.
Otherwise, your anger is merely a manifestation of the flesh, which is sin.
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- Is It Really Worth Being Angry? (pastorpaulvbsblog.blogspot.com)
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