MWR : Articles : Sexuality

Articles : Sexuality

March 18 issue

Photo by cmcva.org

Churches take stand of welcome

HARRISONBURG, Va. — When Community Mennonite Church officially discussed sexual orientation 20 years ago, the majority of its members held a traditional view.

Today, “our numbers have probably switched,” said David Vogel, vice chair of the church council.

June 25, 2012 issue

Doctrine, not dialogue

In “Why I Officiated a Same-Sex Ceremony” (May 28), Joanna Harader mentions the need for premarital counseling “to see if this will work.” The Apostle Paul gives specific information about the marriage relationship in Eph. 5:21-33. I’d like to know how she whittled that peg down to make it fit. Maybe the larger question isn’t about homosexuality at all. Maybe it has to do with biblical truth: What was God saying before cultural correctness became popular? Biblical truth always trumps human wisdom. It’s about what God says, not how we want to interpret it (2 Peter 1:20-21). It’s time to stop standing around like Pilate asking, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) and muster up the courage to challenge error. God help us if we allow “dialogue” to replace sound doctrine in confronting sin.
Let’s stick together

Genuine concern for the church speaks in “It’s More Than One Issue” [a May 28 article signed by 32 people calling for closure of Mennonite Church USA’s discernment on sexuality]. As a newcomer to the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition, I wonder whether the greatest danger is not theological and sociocultural chaos, but impatience. In the scope of history, 10 to 20 years of conflict and uncertainty is not that long. Calls to “just fix this already” reflect the impatient times we live in. They might also be inconsiderate of those who do not have a firm position on the matter in question [homosexuality] and want to keep listening, and of the many global Anabaptist communities who still face similar conflicts ahead of them.
Upside-down world

I was a strong bigot in my attitude against the practice of homosexuality. My views have softened but are not settled. Homosexuality was once regarded as perversion, and rightly so, because the human anatomy was not designed for it. To accept the union of two people of the same gender is like having the world turned upside down. Can someone advise me how to keep my balance in a topsy-turvy world?

June 11, 2012 issue

Accept different views

In the Nov. 28 MWR, a group of mostly pastors expressed their opinion concerning gays and lesbians. Instead of the church going through many years of excruciating pain, the letter said, we might just as well split right now. (I doubt if the writers were really encouraging a split.)
Let’s meet halfway

Thank you for covering the gay/lesbian issue in depth. I was a delegate from Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, Kan., to last year’s Western District Conference. After 15 years at Peace, I’ve learned Mennonites have a regrettable tendency to schism. We need a vaccine against that. The pastor of a Houston church dropped a nugget of wisdom at the conference. The issue, he said, is not who follows Jesus or doesn’t, whether we trust Paul or Jesus more, whether congregations or denominations should have the last word. The conversation’s “about all of those things,” he said. “And we need to figure out how to dialogue and keep those values in tension with one another.”
Negating God’s design

Pastor Joanna Harader’s statement on sexual minorities (“Why I Officiated a Same-Sex Ceremony,” May 28) negates that God had only one design for our sexuality: to bring forth life. While sex is a desirable pleasure and meant to be, it was never designed to be the major thrust of man’s life. God told man to go forth and multiply. Gays and lesbians cannot do this. Therefore they dishonor God’s mandate to populate the Earth. This is not to say that people with such inclinations cannot be loved, they just cannot honor God by fulfilling those sexual urges.
Christendom isn’t dead

Retired evangelist Billy Graham used his power to influence the vote in North Carolina on May 8. “The Bible is clear: God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman,” he stated in a newspaper advertisement. “I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote for the marriage amendment.”

May 28, 2012 issue

Discerning locally

In three Mennonite Church USA area conferences there are signs of allowing diversity in congregational and pastoral responses to gays and lesbians.
It’s more than one issue

This letter was signed by 32 Mennonite Church USA pastors, leaders, teachers and individuals concerned for the denomination.