July 25
Talking sexuality: Problematic phrase #4 (Yes, this is personal)
By Joanna HaraderPage:
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Here is another phrase that can be heard coming from all sides of the conversation about how to include LGBT people (read the first two entries in this series here and here).
Problematic phrase #4: It’s not personal.
This phrase is problematic because it is simply not true.
In fact I heard this a lot at the recent Western District Conference assembly. Through the course of the assembly, I had an opportunity to talk and pray with many individuals from the congregation that proposed a resolution to suspend my ministerial credentials for officiating a same-sex covenant ceremony. These folks were nice to me, even friendly. Many of them assured me that the resolution was “nothing personal.”
My name was in the resolution document six times. If their resolution had passed, I would no longer be an ordained pastor in the Mennonite church. But it was nothing personal.
On one hand, I understand what they were saying. They don’t hate me. They did not propose the action because they wish me ill. This is a church matter. It is about accountability, about church authority, about a particular way of reading Scripture. It is about principles of righteousness and faithfulness and obedience. Nothing personal.
Except it is personal. Of course it is personal. My life would have been deeply affected if the resolution had passed.
In our ongoing discussions about the church and sexual minorities, I think we all need to give up the illusion that any of it is not personal. We need to admit that what we say and the policies we create deeply affect the lives of actual human beings.
If you say, “Homosexual activity is a sin,” that is personal. It is personal for every person who chooses to be in an intimate same-sex relationship. It is personal for the parents and siblings and friends of those people as well.
If you say, “It is God’s intention that sexual activity should be only between a man and a woman,” it means my friend Randy is no longer allowed to be a Mennonite pastor. It means my friend Sarah could not attend our denominational seminary. It means my friends Sheri and Megan and I face credential reviews for ministering to people in the way we believe God is calling us to minister. It is personal.
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Comments
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ms. harader, in one of your earlier blogs, you stated '...the Bible is not clear. Not about homosexuality, not about a lot of things...the Bible tells contradictory stories and gives contradictory advise at many points. Any one who believes the Bible is clear is not engaging with the scriptures in an honest and faithful way....many of us (who approve of homosexuality) take the Bible very seriously. We study it. We pray with it. We seek to live by it.'
you are stating in essence: God (YAHWEH) IS A LIAR. HIS WORD CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO BE TRUE.
you claim to be a 'pastor' of the Word of God and yet by your very own words you proclaim the Bible to be full of lies. how do you determine which passages in the Bible are lies and which are truths? who gave you the discernment to determine what in the Bible is 'lies' and what is 'truth'? if the Bible is contradictory, how can you take it 'very seriously'? why would you want to continue to 'study' it? why would you 'pray with it'? why would you 'seek to live by it'?
if i believe something to be contradictory/a lie, i no longer will read and/ or follow it. by your very own statements, you are living a lie by following a book full of 'contradictions'.
By your very own statement/s, the mennonite church should not allow you to be a 'pastor'. and it is true that your friend randy, sarah, sheri, megan and other friends who believe like you should not be given license to teach/preach that we can continue living in and practicing our sins. that is the big LIE/CONTRADICTION.
the Bible teaches that we are to turn from our wicked ways and repent (have a change of heart and no longer practice sinning). that is what you need to teach.
Jude has much to say about 'certain men (who) have crept in stealthily. Their doom was predicted long ago, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of God into lawlessness, and wantonness, and immorality, and disown and deny the Anointed One...Just as Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves over to impurity and indulged in unnatural vice and sensual perversity, are laid out as an example of perpetual punishment to warn of everlasting fire (the wicked are to suffer)...But you must remember the predictions which were made by the apostles (special messengers) of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. They told you beforehand, In the last days (in the end time) there will be scoffers--who seek to gratify their own unholy desires-- following after their own passions. IT IS THESE WHO ARE AGITATORS SETTING UP DISTINCTIONS AND CAUSING DIVISIONS; MERELY SENSUAL (CREATURES)--CARNAL WORLDLY-MINDED PEOPLE---DEVOID OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND DESTITUTE OF ANY HIGHER SPIRITUAL LIFE.
i would encourage you to read all of Jude. he has much to say to us (and all the Bible).
instead of living and preaching that the Bible is full of lies, i encourage you (and your friends) to resign from your current position/s until you can fully understand and teach the whole Word and that WORD is the WAY, TRUTH and LIFE--JESUS CHRIST.
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