Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church has a problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2n7vSPwhSU&feature=player_embedded
As the nation grapples with this topic made newsworthy by the President’s desire to not have to run on his record, people on all sides of this issue seem to be stepping up the rancor and rhetoric. Whether it is Expert Bully Dan Savage’s appeals for tolerance disguised as anti-Christian rants against school kids who dare to believe what their religion teaches about homosexuality, or pastors like this new subscriber to the Westboro Baptist Newsletter, there is an appearance of a desire to push both civility and understanding out of the discussion that we seem to be trying to have and not have simultaneously as a country on this subject.
In the case of Mr. Savage, I can at least understand and rationalize his anger. People sometimes get angry when they are being told they shouldn’t do something that they enjoy doing. Anyone who knows an alcoholic who doesn’t want to get cleaned up, and has been on the receiving end of the anger and resentment that comes from suggesting it knows exactly what I am talking about. Under that circumstance, I wouldn’t expect Mr. Savage to be a rational actor.
Pastor Worley doesn’t have that excuse.
As a Pastor of a Christian denomination, he should fully understand that there is an Old Testament and a New Testament. As a Pastor of a Christian denomination, he should fully understand that the New Testament gospel doesn’t preach hatred for the sinner. The measure of undeserved grace that we ALL enjoy should be sufficient to remind any believer that we are all sinners. This does not excuse sin, but is meant to motivate each of us to make the daily attempt to NOT do so. Despite the clear and specific admonitions against homosexuality that are contained in the New Testament, that does not excuse any believer from the commandment to love one another…a commandment that I find myself struggling with in increasing frequency. To do otherwise does not comport with this commandment. To do otherwise does not comport with the book of Jude, which states:
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. [Emphasis Added.]
The Pastor does violence to the Word and the Spirit when he speaks like this. Shouting with anger and malice doesn’t make the sin he condemns any more a sin than calmly saying so. But it does make people defensive, and when they get defensive, they stop listening and start shouting. And when he attacks the sinners for their sins, in hate and anger, he embraces hypocrisy, and becomes a poor ambassador for the one whom he claims to serve.
I confess that my gut reaction was “If Dan Savage can take time out from bullying school kids for being Christians, then maybe he and the Pastor can have a cage match. But the sad fact is that the Pastor’s rant only makes people like Savage feel justified in their own hatreds, and makes it that much harder for those who want to speak the truth to a world that sorely needs it. I am ashamed of my Brother, and I apologize for him, but I am glad that we have the same hope of redemption, forgiveness, and grace that are the hallmark of the Christian belief, and are what sets it apart from so many other faiths.
Taxes, Stupidity, and Death 
Wow, you come so close to nailing this one but I do have to pick a bone or two with you.
You do realize that the comparison of the homosexual to the alcoholic is fraught with its own shades of bigotry? The comparison is well meaning on your part but misplaced.
Second:but I am glad that we have the same hope of redemption, forgiveness, and grace that are the hallmark of the Christian belief, and are what sets it apart from so many other faiths.
No my friend, that is where you lost me. Pastor Worley is no better than a member of the Taliban. He does not exemplify what sets Christianity apart from other faiths. You, yourself as much as said so earlier in this same piece. So I am confused why you would contradict yourself at the close of the piece.
You do realize that the comparison of the homosexual to the alcoholic is fraught with its own shades of bigotry? The comparison is well meaning on your part but misplaced.
Let’s try a thought experiment, R.
You’re walking through a kitchen and you see someone turn the flame up on the cooktop, and then move their hand squarely toward that flame. Do you say “Hey, that is going to hurt you!” or do you just shrug your shoulders and move on, because you don’t know them, and they are nothing to you?
In this case, the analogy is apt, although it requires the belief and understanding that the act is a sin. Like many such behaviors, the person at the center will have tunnel vision, and take the “My preciousssssss” approach. Like the alcoholic who hasn’t yet hit bottom, they don’t want to hear what you have to say if it isn’t participation, approval, or enabling. It will be jealously guarded and defended, and the source of hyperbole and clouded thinking because nothing…NOTHING can get between them and their preciousssssss.
You can disagree, and that is fine. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve been wrong.
No my friend, that is where you lost me. Pastor Worley is no better than a member of the Taliban. He does not exemplify what sets Christianity apart from other faiths. You, yourself as much as said so earlier in this same piece. So I am confused why you would contradict yourself at the close of the piece.
At moments you come so close, and still the pass just goes right through your hand. Is he demonstrating it? No. But does he know better? Maybe. He certainly doesn’t have the same excuse, and he’s already halfway there. Hence the HOPE for redemption, forgiveness, and grace, R. Correction is the duty of those who can see where he has gone off the rails. If he employs the knowledge he presumably has, and the humility he should, he can admit to the mistake. And yes, he is different from the Taliban, because the God he serves wouldn’t be thrilled by him chanting over the headless body of anyone he would deem to be an enemy.
At the risk of offering a bad pun, how does a homosexual “hit bottom”? Or to put it differently, what act on the homosexual’s part is any more evidence of hitting bottom than a heterosexual? Let’s say your answer is “you’ve lost track of how many lovers you’ve had”. Well that would be rock bottom for a hetero too, would it not?
The alcoholic by definition has a problem with alcohol that will, without intervention, lead to a sad conclusion. That cannot be said of the homosexual. It CAN be said of the PROMISCUOUS homosexual. Promiscuity cannot be assumed.
As for Worley, the Taliban chieftain, I submit YOU are a Christian because YOU have hope for his redemption. HE is a lost soul. Perhaps it is a given with your faith that if he reads your piece he will change his ways. I kinda doubt it.
Maybe. But is Dan Savage any better than the Taliban then? Savage and his ilk by a multitude of actions, including those of ACT UP! have threatened violence, vandalized churches, disrupted services, mocked Christ in the vilest of ways etc.. etc…
Worley is a buffoon and moron. Worse, he’s a disgrace to the pulpit in that he has neither leadership or character, yet in a position of some authority (by the looks of it, very limited authority). But so are those you defend with either your tacit approval of equal or the silence, Rutherford. So where’s the loud condemnation of the militant gay activists, including those in Indiana a few years back who sat outside of the walls of an Indiana Church screaming, “Feed them to the lions!”
This is that double standard in judgment you hold that I always speak.
At the risk of offering a bad pun, how does a homosexual “hit bottom”?
When they decide that they are more tired of being separated from God than they are enthusiastic about what it is that separates them…
What then do you make of the homosexual who does not feel separate from God and whose church accepts him the way he is?
Well, if their “church” accepts them “the way they are”, the first question I have is how they reconcile what the New Testament says about how “they are”, with their “acceptance” of it.
I know that there are some churches that claim that it is ok, but they either duck the question, or give an answer that really doesn’t satisfy anyone who bothers to read the WHOLE thing. But as you have admitted on more than one occaision to not being very familiar with the book, I don’t think that any conversation you and I could have about it would be productive.
The homosexual lives a lie and his (or her) church a farce. You can’t call yourself Christian and deny the basic tenets from the written word, any more than you can call yourself an American and pledge your loyalties to King George. The position is diametrically opposed to the pledge – only claiming yourself Christian is a far higher calling than claiming yourself American.
1st Corinthians 9-11
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
And note Rutherford from Verse 11, the sin of homosexuality existed then too and those who abstained were welcomed into the kingdom.
Both the person and the church are living testament to a lie if they don’t believe the separation from God by their acceptance of homosexuality as equal and righteous.