Reply to Affirming churches in the greater DC area

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Affirming churches in the greater DC area"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was wondering about what it means if a church/parish is Catholic and designated “affirming?”  Do they hold a different view on administering sacraments, specifically marriage?  [/quote]

In my experience they do not perform gay marriage as a sacrament but do bless gay marriages if asked. I am Catholic and think this is bare crumbs but it’s something. I have gay friends who consider themselves Catholic and this is meaningful to them, as is Pope Francis’ recent outreach to LGBTQ communities.

I believe if the Church as a whole does not move on this, it will collapse.[/quote]

And yet the churches that have become gay affirming — all of the denominations listed in this thread — have steadily lost members to the point of extinction.   Go to your average United Methodist Church on a Sunday morning and you will find it empty or dying.   Another Episcopalian church just closed a few miles from where we live.

Meanwhile, churches that have a more orthodox view of Christianity are growing and thriving.   I don’t mean orthodox just with respect to this issue.  I mean churches that openly preach the Gospel.   I attend a Gospel church with 5,000 people every Sunday that is not gay affirming in the sense that we do not perform gay marriages.  But we absolutely don’t bash gay people either — in three years, I can only remember one sermon on the subject and it was also in the context of the ways that many straight people dishonor Biblical marriage.  Our church website has two very thoughtful perspectives on whether to attend gay marriages celebrated elsewhere — I have read both and I would have no theological issue with attending a gay marriage, even if our church doesn’t perform them.   I do believe there are “middle grounds” here in between having a prominent rainbow flag outside your church and making this single issue part of your identity — even more than the redeeming blood of Jesus —  and being mean and cruel to gay people on the other side.

Regardless, though, it’s simply not true that if churches do not become more gay affirming, then more churches will collapse.   The exact opposite has happened in the real world.  [/quote]

Have you always attended a gospel church or did you come from one of the "affirming" churches that you no longer approve of and that you say are dying?

I went to an affirming church, and before that, a Catholic Church and now I'm an atheist.  It's a common progression as more and more people realize that there is no God. Right now, it's happening in "affirming" churches.  Soon, it will happen in Churches that only preach the gospel, like yours.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics