February 18, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “Single = Alone?” by Greg Barnett on the North Star website: “Recently I read this from someone who has chosen to part ways with the church in pursuit of same-sex relationships: ‘My heart feels strongly that God loves me regardless of who I’m attracted to. I don’t believe he expects or even wants me to be alone. Wasn’t it God who said it was not good that man be alone?’ And while I have thoughts on his entire blog post, what I wanted to write about today was that thought above. What I get from what he’s saying – and I think this applies to most who use that scripture (Genesis 2:18) – is that ‘alone’ means ‘single’. God doesn’t want people to be single. I wonder, though, if that’s what God meant.” …

February 11, 2014

The following excerpts are from the article “Courage head sees Christ in Pope’s ‘non-judgment’ remarks” written by Kerri Lenartowick and published on the Catholic News Agency website: … “I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that anything our Holy Father is saying now is inconsistent with 2000 years of Church teaching, so I would hope people could be at peace and at rest about that,” said Father Paul Check, executive director of Courage International. …

Perhaps most difficult to understand is the Catholic position concerning “the (homosexual) inclination or the desire or the attraction,” noted Fr. Check. “This the Church terms, ‘objectively disordered.’ Those words are difficult words to hear, they can fall very hard on ears and understandably, but the phrase objectively disordered does not apply to a person.” (more…)

February 16, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “Jesus Showed Mercy!” on the Homosexuals Anonymous website: … “Yes, we need to show mercy, but that means giving people with same-sex attractions (or heterosexual couples who are about to break up) unconditional love and support IN ORDER TO WALK ON THE RIGHT PATH AGAIN! God did not tell us THOU SHALT NOT DO THIS OR THAT – UNLESS YOU HAVE AN INCLINATION FOR IT OR YOU MISS TO MEET MY STANDARD – THEN YOU JUST SETTLE FOR LESS! What kind of theology is that? Shouldn’t shepherds who are responsible for their flock do everything to get them safely back home? God never gave us a standard that we cannot fulfill and there is no temptation that is big enough that we cannot resist it. Jesus died on the Cross for that.” (more…)

February 10, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “The Writing on My Heart” from Joe Dallas’s website: … “Thirty years ago I decided to come out and be myself, to be true to my real nature, and to listen to my own authentic voice rather than those around me. So I said no to sexual sin, walked away from it, and determined by the grace of God never to practice it again.”

“I know – usually when someone makes an announcement that they’re going to be true to themselves, it’s a build up to something else. But this really was a ‘coming out’, a coming away from behaviors He never intended and which I, as His son, couldn’t continue in. I didn’t have any illusions about temptations. I knew I couldn’t just make them go away by repenting, so in saying ‘no’ to the behaviors I assumed I was also saying ‘yes’ to a lifetime, perhaps, of resisting them. But I also knew that to do as Shakepeare said – To thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man – then I’d have to say no to some things, yes to others, and Thy Will Be Done to God. Because that’s who I truly was, had been for years, and couldn’t be anything else. He’d written His laws on my heart. Etched them there, in fact, and ignoring them was as fruitless as ignoring my need for air.” … (more…)

February 5, 2014

The following excerpts are taken from the article “Taking The Liberal Shilling …” by Phelim McIntyre on the Voice of the Voiceless website: “At the start of this year the UK’s Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC) sent out a statement declaring that they do not support any form of therapy to help people overcome unwanted homosexual feelings, what they define as reparative or conversion therapies, and that no member of the ACC could offer them. This is a worrying change of position as, until the statement, the ACC was the only UK body that supported both the client’s right to choose such a therapy and the therapist’s right to offer this type of therapy. Already we have seen a therapist kicked out of the ACC due to their change of position.” (more…)

February 3, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “Savoring Truth in Superficial Times” on Andrew Comiskey’s website: … “It shows no dignity to our fellow humanity to ‘high five’ bad moral decisions. We can still love others while disagreeing with their choices. In fact, disagreeing with ‘gay marriage’ is much more costly today than blessing it. Young people who applaud gay weddings are not lampooned as haters and bigots. Rather, they are extolled as loving and tolerant, on the ‘right side of history.’”

“The core issue, however, is not ‘gay marriage.’ What has been lost in this debate is the truth that something is wrong with homosexuality. We no longer understand moral disorder in the context of same-sex attraction. Power brokers of all sorts have successfully brainwashed a generation into believing that being gay is natural and good, not disordered in the least.” (more…)

January 31, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “Twinkie Salad” on Joe Dallas’s website: “It’s become chic to say Christians should be known more by what we’re for than what we’re against. Usually the phrase is employed to criticize believers who openly stand against abortion, homosexuality, pornography or unclean entertainment. (Though interestingly enough, if the same believers stand against human trafficking or child abuse, no one pulls out the For and Against line.) And to a point I agree. If our primary message has been a one-note tirade against select sins, then yeah, we blew it. That’s Law without Gospel, obsession with one vice over another, a set of Thou Shalt Nots with no remedy offered.”

“But is that really what’s happened? … Or could it be that when believers – prominent ones, especially – mention their opposition to a sin, that statement alone gets picked up, thrown into the 24-hour news cycle, and repeated ad infinitum, leaving the public to assume the believer talked of nothing else?” …

“Because the fact is, you can’t be for something without being against something else. (more…)

January 30, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “Judgment Days” on Joe Dallas’s website: “I remember hearing Pastor Chuck Smith, years ago, admit (from the pulpit no less!) ‘You should be glad I wasn’t God yesterday, cause if I was, I’d have sent everyone to hell!’ How I loved it – a great and godly man admitted he had lousy days when he could barely tolerate people. And while that doesn’t give me permission to wish hell on folks, it comforts me to know I’m not alone when I do.” …

“When I devalue someone’s general worth or character because of one sin in their life, I’ve judged them, wrongly and unfairly. (more…)

January 27, 2014

The following excerpt is from the blog “Fractured in the Fight” on Andrew Comiskey’s website: … “As we arrived at the church for the day-long conference, we had to cross a barrier formed by 80 protesters, beautiful and broken self-identified gays and lesbians. I thought: ‘How can we as the people of God offer wholeness to the gender broken when we are so divided towards our fellow Christians?’”

“After our day of joyful testimony and truth, an anti-Catholic congregant texted our host: ‘Tell the Catholic that he brought living water to me today.’ Let it be so, O God. Unite us, one divide at a time. (more…)

January 10, 2014

The following excerpts are from the Core Issues Trust “Response to Association of Christian Counsellors Statement to its Membership: 10 January 2014:” … “‘One of the most important aspects in counselling is client autonomy. Any client seeking counselling has the right to indicate their goals and aspirations within counselling and to be respected for that choice. If a client seeks to explore change to their lifestyle or behaviour then using the core conditions the counsellor needs to respect that desire and work with them to their benefit. For the counsellor to reject this out of hand implies that they are seeking to impose their own agenda on the client and this is unethical.” (Association of Christian Counsellors, December 2012)”

“In January 2014 the ACC statement to its members now claims that supporting such an autonomous client’s goals to reduce or eliminate homosexual practice and/or feelings, is unethical. (more…)