"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
Nashville statement, marriage problems mentioned:
ReplyDelete- homosexuality, transgenderism
marriage problems not mentioned:
- divorces, domestic abuse
I wonder which of these two are more common and more problematic.
Not having read the Nashville statement, I'll assume your summary is accurate.
DeleteThat being the case, Mike, are you saying you would be on board with the Nashville Statement if it *had* specifically addressed divorce and domestic abuse? In other words, your problem with it is that the statement doesn't go far enough.
I mean if you don't cover every eventuality, why bother?
Deletehttp://babylonbee.com/news/jesus-never-said-anything-felony-home-invasion/
I mean, the Church leaders, of all the Churches actually, tend to condemn those sins that do not concern their believers in order not to make anyone feel uneasy and stop giving money.
DeleteThat's why the favourite topic of HH Batholomew is climate change for example, and HH Cyril's - gays, instead of, say, alcoholism, abortion, divorces, simony and all other more common problems.
Because there are not too many pride parades for alcoholism, abortion, divorces, simony and all other more common problems. Because churches are not being pressured to sanction and bless these other sins.
DeleteAlbert Mohler, one of the Nashville Statements signatories answered you question this way:
"Well, that is a good question. It’s a fair question to ask in today’s contemporary context. Why does the church find itself so regularly, in terms of controversy and conversation, about the questions a sexuality? And the reason comes down to this: There is no way to avoid them. This is a society, as a whole, that puts these issues of sexuality right on the front burner in virtually every single edition of the newspaper, just about every single day’s cycle the news, and, furthermore, in terms of public and policy conversation. But furthermore, the Christian church is being directly asked the question: Is this right; is this wrong? Will you bless this; will you not? Will you conduct a same-sex marriage or would you not conduct a same-sex marriage? These are unavoidable questions, that’s why there is no place to hide."
Or maybe the real answer is this:
"That those supporting the Nashville Statement are not doing so because they believe the Word of God, but because they are homophobic, neo-nazi white supremacists who worship Donald Trump—which makes sense, as long as you don’t think about it for longer than about three seconds." - Babylon Bee 9/1/2017
"A parade to alcoholosim" is any social event, when alcohol is consumed tbh, a parade to divorce is any acceptance of a second (or following marriage).
DeleteAnd I'm yet to see a single case, when the Church was forced to allow homosexual marriages.
So Mike, since you started this thread about your concerns with the Nashville Statement why don't you tell us exactly why should they not answer the questions that society and the media are asking?
DeleteI mean so far we've learned that according to you it doesn't address all of the problems of marriage, as stated in your original post. I guess that could be a valid concern if the Nashville Statement was meant to be about problems in marriage. But it isn't - that was your deflection to create criticism. So a statement that was NOT about problems in marriage doesn't address all the problems in marriage. And?
Next the deflection went to alcoholism, divorce, abortion, etc, which certainly can be problems in marriage. And now it's from alcoholism to any place where alcohol is consumed! Are you truly upset that some church leaders are discussing sexuality instead of leading temperance movements? Really?
And finally you say that you haven't seen, "a single case, when the Church was forced to allow homosexual marriages." Very observant of you! Did I say there were? Did the signatory to the Nashville Statement that I quoted above say that? No and no. Let me quote part of that again:
"...the Christian church is being directly asked the question: Is this right; is this wrong? Will you bless this; will you not? Will you conduct a same-sex marriage or would you not conduct a same-sex marriage? These are unavoidable questions, that’s why there is no place to hide."
Now some churches are answering question these questions in the affirmative. Five blocks from where I am currently typing this is literally a church with a rainbow banner across the front of their building. Are they correct to answer this sexuality question before they purge the social drinkers, divorcees, or Planned Parenthood contributors from their ranks? I know they have done none of that and are in fact "pro-choice" (pro-abortion) according to their denominations web page.
Are only LGBT affirming answers to the questions allowed? Or should there not be a scripturally based response given to counter?
I'm not quite sure what your beef with it is outside that it doesn't address the issues you feel it should address. But with that standard we can attack pretty much any statement or document simply based on what topic it covers. And it's not like they pulled the topic out of thin air to stir the pot.
OK, now where's this temperance movement that should have priority? Let's smash some saloons!
The BB is a satire/humor site. It is not meant to be taken seriously. It's a joke.
ReplyDeleteTo be clear, the obviously satirical article pokes fun at outraged liberals (“I literally can’t even” and “current year” are too on the nose for it to be anything else), but the Nashville Statement is real, and there really have been some pretty silly responses to it.
Delete