When to jump ship?

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

Anyone in a mainline denomination infected by liberalism, or some other divergence from the evangelical faith, will have faced the question of when to stay or when to go? How bad does the denomination have to get before you decide to abandon ship?

(more…)

→ Moral imperatives

Link

Frank Turk:

… it’s one of those stories where all manner of addled thinking comes to the surface from everyone on the spectrum of lifestyle blogging—from the secular liberals and conservatives to the panoply of Christian bloggers in the weird polygon of ideas bounded by points produced by mixing the adjectives “conservative,” “liberal,” “radical,” “progressive,” “traditional,” “biblical,” and “missional,” with the proper noun “Christian.”

[…]

Dear Son,

Since you have made your confession about your situation, let me confess mine: I have never really been a good man at all. I could make a list here of all the times I have failed you, and your mother, and your siblings, and my employer, and the elders at church, and so on — but I’ll bet you can make that list also. You may remember some things I have forgotten, and I’ll simply stipulate to the entire exercise. I want you to know that I know I am not a good man, and I come to this problem we now face as a man who, at the end of the day, can’t advise you from the moral high ground.
I can only advise you, my son, as a man who has spent his life utterly at the mercy of Jesus Christ.

Turk only really gets going in the second half of the post, so stick with it, because it’s got a twist in the end.

 

Same-Sex Parenting – No Differences?

Life, Thought, Sola Panel

Last year, when I published my article on same-sex marriage, commenters asserted that the academic literature suggested children with gay or lesbian parenting situations did just as well as those with heterosexual parents. As I looked into it, even as a non-specialist, I could note that many such studies displayed methodological weaknesses such as the lack of control groups, or self-selection and self-reporting by participants. This should have cautioned against such dogmatic conclusions. (more…)

Suffer the little children

Life, Sola Panel

The political pressure to redefine the meaning of marriage has recently become more intense and obvious in certain English-speaking countries. But you might have noticed that the vast majority of people in our society aren’t particularly concerned by these developments. Why is that? Here’s one possible reason: in the hearts and minds of the vast majority of modern Westerners, marriage has already been redefined. We just didn’t notice. (more…)

An updated attack

Review

Muriel Porter has been attacking Sydney Anglicans for years. In synods, committees, and in print, she has vociferously opposed the position of the Diocese of Sydney on a whole range of issues. Never very far from the surface, though, is her anger at the diocese’s attitude towards female priests and bishops. (more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (3)

Life, Sola Panel

Why do we find it hard to say out loud that same-gender sex is wrong and perverse, even if we know it to be true?

The obvious answer is that no-one wants to be a pariah, for that is what voicing such a view will quickly make us in our culture. A narrow-minded, homophobic, bigotted pariah—because hardly anyone believes any more that gay sex is wrong and perverse. Quite the reverse. The mainstream view is that gay sex is just sex like any other sex, and should be accepted, validated and even celebrated.

But do they really believe that? (more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (2)

Life, Sola Panel

If same-gender sex is not the natural consequence of an innate homosexual essence or identity (as I suggested last time), then why do people do it? What leads them to this sort of behaviour?

The shocking answer of Romans 1 is that God does. (more…)

The truth that dare not speak its name (1)

Life, Sola Panel

We were reading the second half of Romans 1 in Bible study the other night, and I asked the group what they thought would happen around the water cooler at work if they actually expressed out loud what Romans 1 says about gay sex.

There was an awkward silence. (more…)

SSM – Not Again

Life, Thought, Sola Panel

Friends, this is a post I’d prefer to avoid. Same-sex marriage (SSM) is not something I want to focus on. But we don’t always get to choose which issues to discuss. And SSM really is the issue of the times. Everyone agrees, even if they’re weary of the topic. (more…)

Plastic language, plastic marriage

Life

I guess it is no surprise that the gay community are pressing for a change to the definition of marriage in the Commonwealth Marriage Act. I have been rather more surprised at the number of ‘ordinary Australians’ who apparently (at least according to the media) support the change. I have been absolutely amazed at the buzz amongst some quarters of the Christian community that we should lay down and die on this one.

But perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised and amazed.

(more…)

Choosing the hill to die on

Life

Apparently you have the option to choose the hill you are going to die on.

What I know about military strategy can be written on the round bit of one of those metal thingies that come out the long bit you point at other people when using a rifle.

(more…)

Walking with Gay Friends

Review

Walking with Gay Friends
Alex Tylee

Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, 2007, 160pp.

Suggesting that homosexuality is a sin is unpopular. Going further and suggesting that change and healing from homosexual sin is possible is always going to be a tough sell. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Alex Tylee manages to achieve in Walking with Gay Friends. (more…)

From homosexuality to the gospel

Up front

Have you noticed how often non-Christians raise the issue of homosexuality with us these days? “Why is the church so anti-gay?” “What do you think about gay marriage?” “How can you be against two people being in a long-term, loving and supportive relationship? Why should it matter what gender they are?” (more…)