That cry for help may come any time. The pastor needs to be ready. The phone call interrupted my dinner. The voice on the other end was desperate. “I’m at my wit’s end, and you are the only one I can turn to. If you can’t give me one good reason to live, I’ve made up my mind to end it all.” The words were slow, deliberate, and almost imperceptible; the voice unforgettable and bone-chilling. 00
Continue reading →This is the gist of a question put to me on the Sabbath School Net blog. I will share a few reasons. Community 1. We are liars when we say we have no sin. 1 John 1:10 It’s very important in fellowship to tell the truth of ourselves with each other. It is up to ourselves what to share and what not to share with others. It cannot and should not be dictated by another. In that sharing we constantly focus on JESUS loving where we are now and loving us all to completion 2. To find safety in fellowship. A Body of Christ is called to be a safe place for trust to build and connection to be formed … Continue reading →
Powerful sermon that tells it like it is. While Michael explains the causes of homosexuality a bit differently than I do, he recognizes that biological and environmental factors work together to form a homosexual orientation. I appreciate his final point – that we need safe environments for life change to take place. +20
Continue reading →Many people believe that homosexuality is particularly abhorrent to God because, after all, He destroyed Sodom for it. But does the Bible actually say that?1 For the sake of completeness, I have searched the KJV 2 for all references to Sodom and Gomorrah. I haven’t copied them all below because many references were simply a means of warning Israel regarding the kind of destruction that they themselves deserved because of their sins. Sodom is first mentioned in connection with Lot’s choosing a pleasant place to live. But the warning is given that “the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” (Gen. 13:13) A few chapters later we discover that Sodom and Gomorrah were so wicked that … Continue reading →
A Christian Response to the Question of Homosexuality [Editor’s Note: While the social climate in the secular world has changed considerably since the article by this title was published in Insight magazine in 1992, attitudes among conservative Adventists don’t seem to have changed all that much. If anything, the increasing acceptance of openly gay behavior and the excesses that accompany Gay Pride parades have caused a conservative backlash so that it is sometimes difficult to hold a rational conversation on the subject. Even on the institutional and administrative level, things haven’t changed much in the Adventist church during the last 30 years. Thus this article is still surprisingly relevant in the second decade of the 21st century. ] AWARENESS Scene … Continue reading →
In my first post I told of my gay experience, and now I want to share what I discovered in my research about homosexuality. There are numerous opinions about the cause of homosexuality, as well as whether there is any real, permanent “cure.” I have found this subject to be extremely political. Be warned that you cannot always believe what you read, even by experts on human behavior. 00
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