Aug. 8, 2008, marks the commencement of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. . . . In preparation, the Chinese are scrambling to upgrade Beijing’s appearance, both in billions of investment dollars to revamp the city’s facilities and by cracking down on elements it fears will run counter to the central government’s rigid agenda while the world watches. Among those elements are foreign missionaries.
A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University and the non-profit research and education organisation, EcoOcean has claimed to have found a site off the coast of Turkey whether [sic] the great flood of Noah, as described in the Bible, took place.
Ted Haggard (cf. the new TedHaggard.com | Wikipedia), the former pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, has been in the spotlight recently for writing a letter to friends and colleagues asking for financial support for the next two years while he and his wife, Gayle, work on degrees at the University of Phoenix.
Gayle is in the undergraduate program studying psychology. I am pursuing my master of science in counseling degree, which means we are both full time students.
In 1996 Jeff Hannah, a married youth pastor at Crossroads Church (SBC) in Libertyville, IL, committed adultery with four teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 17 and received a sentence of nine years in prison.
In 2001, after serving five years, he was released on parole, remarried, and began attending First Baptist Church of Romeoville.
What is appropriate for a church committed to the Scriptures? This question has come to the fore with the recent situation in Arlington, Texas. Gary Simons, pastor of High Point Church (and brother-in-law of Joel Osteen), chose not to allow the funeral of Cecil Sinclair, a homosexual man who was the brother of a member in the congregation, Lee Sinclair, to be held at the church.
The church had initially agreed to host the funeral, not knowing that Cecil was a homosexual. The family submitted photos that led the church to have questions. But it was the obituary, which revealed that Cecil’s partner was a man, that led High Point to retract the offer to host the funeral.
We mentioned yesterday the ECLA’s decision to permit their pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships so long as they are faithful to their partner. This news resulted in the official sanction of Bradley Schmeling, the gay defrocked pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta, to continue as pastor.
The Atlanta pastor at the heart of the homosexual clergy debate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has returned to the pulpit. And the Atlanta congregation is ecstatic.
With a vote of 538 to 431, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Wikipedia) has passed a motion to allow ministers to be in same-sex relationships as long as they are characterized by faithfulness and commitment—even though it is still against official church policy. These homosexual pastors are not to be disciplined.
The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.
. . .
Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the group has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries. The most recent case was decided in July when the ELCA’s committee on appeals voted to remove an openly gay pastor from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta.
If you wouldn’t, you might be found guilty of discrimination. That’s what happened to the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, Bishop of Hereford, when he refused 42-year-old John Reaney, an open homosexual, a job as a youth worker.
A gay man has won his case for unlawful discrimination after he was refused a job as a youth worker by the Church of England.
The employment tribunal ruled John Reaney, 42, was discriminated against “on the grounds of sexual orientation” by the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance.
Since we’re on the subject of homosexuality (see here and here), I thought I’d pass along this helpful overview series by Neil Simpson. At his 4Simpsons blog he is analyzing the various approaches that gays use to justify their pro-gay beliefs in the name of Christianity. He categorizes them into three:
The Bible is either not the Word of God, or most parts of it aren’t.
The Bible is the Word of God, but it doesn’t really say homosexual behavior is wrong.
The Bible is the Word of God and does clearly and emphatically condemn gay behavior as sinful. However, the Holy Spirit has given additional revelations such that this behavior is now acceptable.
Mary Zeiss Stange, a professor of women’s studies and religion at Skidmore College in New York, thinks so.
Lutheran anti-gay activists routinely, and correctly, point out that Luther had plenty of bad things to say about the scourge of “Sodomites” in 16th century Germany. Like his role model Paul, Luther was a product of the social prejudices of his time and culture: a time when the concepts of homosexuality as an “orientation” or a “lifestyle” were still unheard of. But would the man whose break from Roman Catholicism involved a revolutionary rethinking of the role of sexuality in human relationships take such a negative view of homosexuality today? Most probably, given the way his theological mind worked, he would not.
Here are today’s bullet points:
.
Here are today’s bullet points:
In 1996 Jeff Hannah, a married youth pastor at 
What is appropriate for a church committed to the Scriptures? This question has come to the fore with the recent situation in Arlington, Texas. 
We 
With a vote of 538 to 431, 
If you wouldn’t, you might be found guilty of discrimination. That’s what happened to the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, Bishop of Hereford, when he refused 42-year-old John Reaney, an open homosexual, a job as a youth worker.
Since we’re on the subject of homosexuality (see 
Mary Zeiss Stange, a professor of women’s studies and religion at 
