It’s been quite a while since I wrote about or even thought about the issue of homosexuality. The other day I ran across the following three videos from Matt Chandler, which were very helpful for me.
It’s almost impossible to overstate how important father’s are in the lives of their children. When I read the following statistics from the book “Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would” by Chad W. Thompson, I was strongly reminded of my need to invest into every aspect of my boys lives.
In a survey of 117 homosexual men the following was discovered:
Al Mohler was recently interviewed on NPR along with Lisa Miller of NewsWeek who recently wrote a cover story for NewsWeek on the religious case for Gay Marriage (find Mohler’s response here). The interview is about 30 minutes and is well worth the listen if you’re at all intersted in the subject. You can find it here.
Al Mohler has a timely post on the United Methodist Church and the issue of homosexuality. I was unaware that the Methodist church had such a clear doctrinal statement when it comes to homosexuality, it is truly comendable. Mohler writes:
According to The Los Angeles Times, scores of United Methodist pastors in Southern California are planning to defy church law by performing same-sex marriages. The paper provides rather extensive detail about these plans, acknowledging that performing same-sex marriages could lead to disciplinary action against the pastors.
This is the second installment of the “Letters to the Editor” series. This morning’s Sunday paper had a letter from Mr. Larry Ragland. I thought Larry did a great job of summarizing the situation at MVHS:
Pastor Buell was invited to the Christian Club meeting apparently with the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) also voluntarily in attendance. The subject was homosexuality. Buell was asked to speak on the subject of homosexuality. Buell delivered the truth in love from God as stated in the Bible.
That is exactly what happened.
I also really apprecaited his closing comment: I am thankful for men like Pastor Buell who have the courage to speak the truth in love. I am also thankful for the MVHS Christian Club and its search for the truth. You can find the whole letter here.
In what I suspect we’ll be an ongoing series (at least for a week or two), this is the first of my “Letters to the Editor” posts. I got a call this morning from one of the members of our church asking if I’d seen the morning newspaper yet. Since I hadn’t, I scooped Micah up drove over to the grocery store and picked up a copy. Inside there were two letters to the editor regarding the article that was recently published about me. Both were very kind and well written. Here’s a quote from one letter:
This pastor, in my opinion, was done a great injustice. By asking him to come and give a speech on what God has to say about homosexual behavior, then banning him from future participation because he quoted God’s Word is unfair. I think an apology is in order. – David H. Bates
You can find both letters here (they are titled “MVHS Owes Pastor an Apology” and “Let’s Clarify ‘we’ in Methodism”).
Mark Driscoll is spending some time in London right now and recently had the opportunity to sit down with JI Packer (author of “Knowing God“) and talk to him about the topic of homosexuality. Packer is part of the Anglican church, which has recently torn itself apart over the issue of homosexuality. His words are timely and insightful. You can find Driscoll’s post here with pictures of his time with Packer.
As further proof of the unbeliever’s opposition to the word of God we find this story of a man who is actually suing Zondervan and Thomas Nelson because they use the word “homosexual” in their translations and apparently this has caused him great emotional pain (to tell you the truth, I’m getting quite tired of this kind of argument). Here’s an excerpt from the story, courtesy of World Net Daily.
A homosexual man who has a blog on Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign website is suing two major Christian publishers for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because the Bible versions they publish refer to homosexuality as a sin.
Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
This is the second installment of the “Letters to the Editor” series. This morning’s Sunday paper had a letter from Mr. Larry Ragland. I thought Larry did a great job of summarizing the situation at MVHS:
