Putin says Gender Swap for Kids is Monsterous

[power1]

I have, it's absurd to reference a dictator as some sort of appeal to authority.

I see. OK. Don't they have fake elections there also?

 

[ViaCrucis]

Jesus did not say to ignore sin.

You're right, He did not say to ignore sin. Nor did I claim that He did.

He said to call them to repentance.

Correct. And that call to repentance goes out to you, a sinner. And to me, a sinner.

It's not "That person needs to repent, but I don't."

The call to repentance is the daily call of the Savior that consists in the taking up of our cross and following the Master.

I have an autistic great-niece. She was told by a gay gang at here school it was because she is a lesbian, which she is not.

That is obviously a stupid and horrible thing to say to your niece.

She was also told that Christians would hate her. Her aunt (my sister) thinks the world of her and my sister is Christian. Other people in the young woman's life are Christians also. No one hates her. So Christians are being slandered and a young woman being corrupted. Are we supposed to brush this aside as if it does not matter? I don't believe so.

Why do you suppose people would say that Christians will hate someone for being LGBTQ? Read the OP to this thread. Read the ways many Christians--vocal Christians--talk about LGBTQ persons.

You see this as slander. I see this as an invitation and opportunity to actually live my Christian faith boots on the ground.

Our Lord grants us opportunities, day by day, by which we can exercise our love for others, to be agents of God's love here in the world. To be ministers to the hurting, to the downtrodden, to the mistreated.

Do we squander these opportunities, or do we actually be Christians?

You see this as me suggesting we ignore sin.

I respond that no, I'm not. I'm suggesting we take Jesus seriously.

Because, to be perfectly frank, modern Western Christianity doesn't take Jesus seriously.

Taking Jesus seriously isn't about going to Sunday worship and lifting your hands in the air singing, "Lord, Lord". Taking Jesus seriously is about heeding His word:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love your enemies.
Forgive those who have sinned against you.
If you are struck on the one cheek, turn and offer the other as well.
If a hostile foreign occupying soldier demands that you carry their belongings a mile, go two miles.
If someone takes what is yours, do not demand it back.
If someone demands your cloak, give them your shirt as well.

It's not that we fail to do these things--of course we are going to fail, we're weak-willed sinners who are in love with our passions and desires.

The problem is that this isn't even being preached.

A church that worships power, glory, and greed is a church that has forsaken her first love. She claiims to be rich, but is poor. Jesus has been cast outside into the rain, and He stands, knocking, for us to be let in that He might sup with us. That's what the epistle to the Laodiceans in the Apocalypse is talking about--it's not about Jesus standing outside for unbelievers to let Him in.

The door He is knocking on is the door of His Church.

It is not for us to demand the world conform to what we want.
It is for us to go out, love people, and preach the Gospel.

Frankly, I know what many outside of the Church feel like, because I've felt that harsh sting from many of my own beloved brothers and sisters. I've seen first hand what toxic religion looks like.

And had it not been for the grace of God, I may have fled the Church many years ago.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Desk trauma]

I see. OK. Don't they have fake elections there also?

 

[ViaCrucis]

I think we know where all that leads to.

Read your Bible. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their mistreatment of the poor, the outsider, and the hungry.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Yttrium]

Read your Bible. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their mistreatment of the poor, the outsider, and the hungry.

-CryptoLutheran

It's always been my impression that the God of the Old Testament really doesn't like inhospitality.

 

[ViaCrucis]

It's always been my impression that the God of the Old Testament really doesn't like inhospitality.

Hospitality, the welcome of the outsider, has been a cornerstone of middle eastern culture for millennia. And it's a cornerstone ethic in both Judaism and Christianity. Hospitality is the instruction that is given in the Story of Abraham's Hospitality. The contrast between what Hebrew society is supposed to treat the outsider, and what Sodom does. Abraham provides for his guests. The Sodomites want to rape and murder them.

It's not exactly subtle.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Torah Keeper]

Go Putin!!! God bless Russia!!!

 

[Tinker Grey]

Go Putin!!! God bless Russia!!!

I can hear Reagan spinning in his grave; it's so loud.