A church should not turn away any sinner. That church also should not tell the sinner living in the sin is ok. The sin can be forgiven and the price was already paid. However a part of the price is the acknowledgement that it was/is sin and to strive to abandon the sin because it is the ultimate barrier between the Creator and creation. All fall short, and all stumble, but continuing to seek gratification and good feelings from something that separates one from the Creator is not Christianity.

The same token the church is not called to be the Pharisees of the modern world, which is a struggle for a lot of them. The church is called to be a beacon for agape love in a world full of people in need of it. We are to love, and to apply that love reciprocated from the Creator and strive to walk closer for both receipt of His love as well as to be a brighter light.

Unfortunately too many churches today are one or the other. Either being led by false prophets or pharisees. That's not even counting the for profit "ministries".

So hard to see how church attendance is as low as it's ever been in this country./s

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Posted by gladchiefisgone

Member since Sep 2010

1798 posts

Posted on 5/2/24 at 3:38 pm to AwesomeSauce

quote:
A church should not turn away any sinner

The UMC has never turned away a gay or lesbian. Ever. That is not the issue. Every UMC I've been a part of in my 68 years has had gays or lesbians as members...They came to church...worshipped God. They didn't try to push their beliefs on Christian people....Two churches I was a member of even had gay organ players or choir leaders...

The whole issue is....The Methodist Church Book of Discipline which is the church constitution has always stated....The UMC cannot ordain gays or lesbians to serve as Ministers of church....Nor can UMC Ministers marry same sex couples...over the years the high majority of the upper leaders of the UMC (Bishops) have come up in liberal universities and seminary's that they have forced this on the church....The last several years these very liberal Bishops have gone Totally against the Book of Discipline and have assigned gays and lesbians to serve churches and even marry same sex couples going 180 against the laws of the church...There is the issue pretty much in a nutshell....There are some other issues too...but this is the main reason....

People need to be informed and there are several that are badly misinformation in this.

This post was edited on 5/2/24 at 3:40 pm

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