The Gospel, Fear, and Politics

[gzt]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2016/08/the-gospel-fear-and-politics/

So, make no mistake fellow Christians, if you have made it your mission to attack and demonise gay or transgender people and the gay or transgender rights movement, if your primary concept of Christian morality revolves around sexual ethics, if for you the Church’s role in the public sphere is primarily to fight the so-called ‘culture war’, then you are doing far more damage than good for Christ. Try rereading the Gospels, and then be not only hearers, but doers of their words.

 

[Orthodoxjay1]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2016/08/the-gospel-fear-and-politics/

Another puff piece about how we shouldn't condemn the acts of Homosexuality as sin, or the pan-sexual agenda, no one outside of the Westboro Baptist types are talking about demonizing the Gays, such drama queens

 

[gzt]

I should note that the author is a deacon in the ROCOR. And that your comments have almost no relation whatever to the piece in question. I suggest reading.

 

[Orthodoxjay1]

I should note that the author is a deacon in the ROCOR. And that your comments have almost no relation whatever to the piece in question. I suggest reading.

Great then let ROCOR deal with him, they usually have no tolerance for this type of homofascist agenda.

 

[jckstraw72]

 

[rusmeister]

We've already lost the culture war, first by tolerating ordinary sexual sin, especially fornication, and by simply accepting the language they want us to identify same-sex sexual sin by: " to be gay", a lie and evil euphemism of the first order.

It IS wrong to judge other people as sinners before God. We agree. No argument. I find the propagation of sexual sin detestable, but I won't say a thing about anyone else's stand before God. I've got my own sins. But at least I know they're sins.

But it is absolutely NOT wrong to say that a thing the world is trying to say is not sin is in fact sin. It is NOT wrong to say that sin is destructive and to speak out against sin that has become so fashionable, some even think it ought to be admitted in the Church as "not sin". And this ashamed deacon needs to get that difference. I suppose some Christians do judge other people in the sense we are forbidden to. But most intelligent dialog by Christians doesn't give me that impression.

 

[gzt]

Yes, I believe the piece may be a reaction to the popularity of videos like this in some quarters of Orthodoxy.

 

[gzt]

I would point out that
1. The author of the article is not in the laity.
2. I am not aware that he is progressive.
3. I am sure you are aware that the use of terms like "homofascist agenda" is a big part of the problem.

 

[Kristos]

You that love the Lord, hate evil.

 

[gzt]

You that love the Lord, hate evil.

Yes, but when it involves people doing evil in the name of the Lord and using the law of God to work evil, we need to talk about them as well. Turning the Gospel into an instrument of the culture war is an evil deed.

 

[Petros2015]

Christ had a strange way of hating. Matthew 5:39

 

[Orthodoxjay1]

I would point out that
1. The author of the article is not in the laity.
2. I am not aware that he is progressive.
3. I am sure you are aware that the use of terms like "homofascist agenda" is a big part of the problem.

1. I understand he a priest, what I mean it more prevalent among laity, many who are cradle, who are more concerned with not wanting to upset their gay relatives or friends, then sticking with the gospel and holy tradition.

2. He come across as progressive, Homosexuality is a sin, and pathos is usually a progressive website, don't play stupid with me.

3. That the problem these days we have to be political correct, even concerning threats to the Church, whatever it the Homofascist agenda to destroy the Church, or change it, or whatever it Islamic fundamentalism plan to subjugate, and destroy the Church. Sorry I'm not going to be straight dhimmi for the gay clergy class.

 

[gzt]

1. He is a deacon.

2. What happens when you assume things?

3. I don't even know what political correctness is. I suggest that perhaps you may consider, given your repeated inability to get facts right, that perhaps you may not have all the facts? That you may do well to listen to what other perspectives have to say about things?

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

This was one of the most IDIOTIC articles I've read in some time. It's really scary to think that someone like this guy is actually a deacon in our church spreading this manure. My priest is very political, and he's very firm that we cannot and should not vote for anyone who supports the "LGBT" movement, abortion, pansexual ethics, "gay marriage," etc. This priest in the article doesn't like it when someone attacks sexual immorality. When he says, if your primary concept of Christian morality revolves around sexual ethics, that alone is nonsense. We have to look at the big picture in America. We have politicians, companies, the media, "artists," and the powerful encouraging sodomy and sex changes, being physically male but thinking you're female is tantamount to BEING female, interchangeable bathrooms, men "marrying" men and women "marrying" women, sexual perverts adopting children, all sorts of vile filth. I don't want my kids exposed to that. I don't want my kids seeing two men in a lip lock in movies. I don't want them to have a president or governor that tells them sodomy is beautiful and two women can marry the way normal heterosexuals do. I don't want this twisted, perverse vision of sexuality in my country. And I have EVERY RIGHT to vote against it. I don't care what this lib priest says.

He says, When I see Orthodox priests using words like ‘homofascists’ to demonise the gay rights movement, I am angry and ashamed. Cry me a river. The very fact that this priest is acquiescing to using the secular heathen language "gay" shows where his heart is. He plays by secular rules. A man struggling with same-sex attraction is struggling with a sin. It is a defect. It is a warped vision. He is not "gay." That is defining a man by a struggle and creating a new class for that person. It is not a "rights movement." It is the attempt to overturn 2,000 years of moral understandings and twist the vision of healthy, normal sexuality into a twisted mess. So....words matter. But apparently they don't for this guy.

The other lame argument this guy makes is that Jesus spends so much time criticizing the rich and powerful and not gays that somehow then we should shift our focus and just blast rich people. Ugh.
Color me shocked at this argument. How original.

"Gay rights" wasn't a problem in Judah during Jesus's time. Jewish people weren't running around in gay bars and there was no Logo Channel on cable, there was no concept in ANY strata of Middle Eastern cultures to have two sodomites "marry" each other. Pure nonsense. It was unthinkable stupidity. Sodomy was more of a problem among the heathens, and more acceptable.

However, a lack of charity and an abundance of greed WAS a problem among the wealthy and powerful in Judah.

Jesus never criticized people for wanting to be women priests, but should we now open dialogues to allow female ordination? Jesus never talked about in vitro fertilization, so is that cool? He never talked about hacking computers, national security, wealth redistribution, abortion, human trafficking, and a host of other contemporary issues. Are they all moot then?

My question is why can't we walk and chew gum? I'm disgusted at how conservatives love to war monger in the Middle East. I detest how they pander to gross polluters, insurance companies, hedge fund goons, crooked CEO's, GMO companies and big pharma, and I detest how conservatives blast and try to bust up unions. There ARE racist folks within conservative ranks whom I don't care for. There are people in the conservative movement that are horrendous. But when i compare them to the abortion-loving, LGBT-driven, gun-grabbing, tax-obsessed, wealth re-distributing, class envy-creating, race-obsessed liberals, I have to say I would prefer conservatives. I'm not a fan of any of them frankly. Because I'm complex just as anyone else in this forum. Nobody is 100% one way or the other in politics. It doesn't exist really. But my candidate doesn't exist----a pro-life, pro 2nd amendment, pro union, pro animal rights, anti-gay, pro-Christian, anti-war (frivolous wars), pro business, pro-social security and medicare but not pro-socialism in general, environmentally conscious, anti-globalist, critical-thinking genius. That's what I want. Such a critter doesn't walk the Earth. So I have to vote the least of two evils.

The deacon that wrote this apparently partakes of magic mushrooms or drinks too much coffee.

 

[rusmeister]

I thought Fr Josiah's speech was outstanding. I agree with the consensus. That ROCOR deacon is way out of line.

 

[Jesus4Madrid]

Excellent video. He was chronicling the evolution of the gay agenda in California, including the controversial bill proposed that would limit any public funding to Christian and other religious colleges that teach the traditional Christian view that homosexuality is wrong.

California Senate Bill 1146 (SB 1146), promoted by the gay lobby, would be hugely damaging to Christian colleges:

"This threatens religious institutions ability to require that students attend daily or weekly chapel services, keep bathrooms and dormitories distinct according to sex, require students to complete theology classes, teach religious ideas in regular coursework, hold corporate prayer at events such as graduation, and so on. In other words, it threatens every practice that makes religious institutions distinct from secular institutions."http://thefederalist.com/2016/06/21/california-bill-would-ultimately-erase-religious-schools/

Evidently, it didn't pass, yet.

Yes, that sort of agenda is rather fascist, so calling the gay lobby "homofascist" seems entirely appropriate.

 

[gzt]

I thought Fr Josiah's speech was outstanding. I agree with the consensus. That ROCOR deacon is way out of line.

If you want reasonable discourse about this, I could suggest you write him. He's easily found.

 

[gzt]

So this sort of thing from Trenham really sounds like reasonable discourse to you guys?

I have lived in the heart of the LGBT revolution, and I have witnessed my nation disgrace itself before God and men. And my counsel to beloved Georgians is this: Stand firm in your faith against the LGBT revolution. Do not give in or your cities will become like San Francisco, where there are 80,000 more dogs in the city limits than there are children. Tell the LGBT tolerance tyrants, this lavender mafia, these homofascists, these rainbow radicals, that they are not welcome to promote their anti-religious and anti-civilizational propaganda in your nations.

I simply don't think this is good, true, and loving.

 

[ArmyMatt]

while I absolutely agree that we should never demonize anyone within the Gay lobby movement, that does not make the movement itself above reproach. and the LGBTQA movement is evil pure and simple because it is lust and not love.

 

[Orthodoxjay1]

So this sort of thing from Trenham really sounds like reasonable discourse to you guys?


I simply don't think this is good, true, and loving.

What wrong with that, he giving our Orthodox brothers, and sisters a warning about what happens when a Country bends over backwards to the LGBT agenda, he not wrong about San Francisco, there is more dogs running the streets than kids, that place is Sodom and Gomorrah on steroids, homelessness everywhere, drug abuse, Prostitutes out in the open, gay bathhouses and pride parades, sex pride parades, Etc.

He not advocating violence or harm, just resistance in Orthodox lands against the Gay lobbyists with backing from the State department, and foreign lobbyists. This is not What GOD meant for us because Sex is suppose to be within the confines of a mysterious union between a married couple - man, and woman. The patristic writings, scripture & holy tradition makes it clear Homosexuality is a sin, and disorder, only through celibacy and repenting can one return to Christ.