The Obsession Continues
Those who are familiar with Armstrong Church of God culture will remember the late Roderick Meredith’s obsession with the subject of homosexuality. If, however, you thought that part of the ACOG’s legacy would die with him, you thought wrong! And the obsession with all things LGBTQ continues in the most unlikely of places – the “moderate” and “sane” Church of God International! In the latest edition of their International News(Spring 2020), there are three articles that prominently address the topic.
The lead article by CGI Chief Executive Officer Vance Stinson warns church members to “Beware of False Gospels.” He writes: “These false apostles who proclaim this particular false gospel would have us believe that Old Testament laws forbidding and condemning homosexual behavior are not for Christians under the New Covenant. They claim they hold the moral high ground , and they tend to see themselves as spiritually, morally, and intellectually superior to those of us who cling to the old biblical/traditional standards regarding sex, marriage, family, and gender roles. To them, we’re bigoted holdovers from the dark Ages—closed-minded, Bible-thumping fundamentalists who are a danger to society. Their false gospel is just a modern version of a very old heresy, but today’s mutated form of this ancient virus has infected virtually all mainstream churches and has spread all over the Western world.” He goes on to bemoan the awful treatment Franklin Graham received at the hands of the United Kingdom because of his anti-homosexual rhetoric.
Mr. Stinson concludes his treatise with the following statement: “The media—from mainstream “news” organizations to the entertainment industry to social media—are fully on board with the LGBTQ+ agenda and are bombarding our minds and the minds of our children with their ungodly message. If we’re not on guard, we, too, can fall in step and begin calling evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)!
In keeping with the theme, Pastor Bill Watson offers his own commentary on the subject in “Isaiah Defines Leaven for Our Day.” He writes: “The world impacts all of us differently. The effect it has on some of us is often determined by just how close we are to God and our awareness of His terms of right and wrong. There are many Christian churches today that have become very ‘liberal’ in their approach to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They will ordain active homosexual men and women ministers. They will endorse and marry homosexuals, claiming these are approved marriages in the sight of God. Regardless of what the Bible might say about certain habits of eating, dress, worship, or other lifestyle matters, they will ignore the plain commandments and insist on having it their way. And, unfortunately, due to the vast majority and legalized legislation of the land, they adopt the inappropriate and wrong way for being right and good.”
Mr. Watson continues: ““How do we wrap our minds around affording practicing homosexuals—men romantically (sexually) involved with men, women romantically (sexually) involved with women—the right to legalize their relationships? Or perhaps a future President of the USA kissing his husband on stage as candidate Buttigieg did at a campaign stop? How do we wrap our minds around transgenders reading to 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds in libraries as a public reading with the parent’s approval? Or how about a mother that encourages her 6-year-old son to dress like a girl, or visa versa, with the father’s approval that ultimately results in biological ‘gender reassignment’?”
And, just to make sure their readers got the message, Mr. Stinson takes another stab at the subject in the “Questions and Answers” section of their paper. His answer to the question “Did Jesus condemn homosexuality?” was as follows: “Today, it is not unusual to hear arguments such as this one: ‘Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality. He taught much on love, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and refraining from judging and condemning others, but said nothing about homosexuality. Since the matter was not an issue for Jesus, shouldn’t it be a non-issue for those who claim to be His followers?’ It may be true that Jesus never specifically mentioned homosexual practice in any New Testament account, but why should we assume that Jesus approved of every practice He did not specifically name? Many sinful practices may be grouped as a specific type of sin; so when Jesus condemns the type, He condemns all sinful practices included in the type.”
Pastor Stinson then proceeds to give a short treatise on how the Greek word “porneia” includes homosexual behavior. Without citing any evidence for this assertion, he says that its inclusion is implied in the “sexual immorality” to which the word clearly refers. He goes on to cite the apostolic decree referenced in the fifteenth chapter of Acts as evidence that homosexuality was included among the things prohibited to Christians because Leviticus 17 and 18 “almost certainly forms the underpinning of the apostolic decree.” He concludes his answer with the following assertion: “It is true that the Gospels supply no record of Jesus specifically condemning homosexual practice. But then, there is no specific mention of bestiality in the Gospels or, for that matter, anywhere in the New Testament. The lack of specificity says nothing about whether the unnamed act is sinful. Had the push to legitimize homosexual practice been a reality in Jesus’ day, as it is in ours, you can rest assured that Jesus would have openly opposed it through sound teaching and a call for repentance. His followers today must do no less.”
Whatever one believes about the immorality/morality of homosexual behavior, we are left with the distinct impression that The Church of God International is obsessed with the topic. Indeed, the only other topic that comes close to competing with this one for attention in their newspaper is leavening (Thank God for the Spring Holy Days!) As CGI continues its slide into oblivion (it is NOT unique in this regard among the Armstrong Churches of God), they may want to rethink their priorities and reorder their focus and attention. I may be wrong, but I’m thinking that this obsession is only going to succeed in getting them stuck with the label of being homophobic!
Miller Jones
16 comments:
While the COGs have poor focus in general about what is really important. They are not wrong about this topic.
God clearly condemns homosexuals. There is no getting around it. The only people who can say it's not a sin are deluded Christians and atheists.
Muslims kill gay people. But I bet we won't see one comment from atheists about that.
well Lonnie, we have a saying down here...."hurt dog hollers"
guess you got stung.
and no, we in The Church are not afraid of homosexuals, we fear for them.
God does not accept that behavior, and no amount of whining will change that.
repentance is an option, though.
I've always had a lot of respect for Vance Stinson. He can make things very understandable.
Miller Jones wrote: we are left with the distinct impression that The Church of God International is obsessed with the topic.
Frankly, it seems like all the media and society seems to be obsessed with the topic too. Most of life is working for a living, and then maintaining/ cleaning/ and managing "your stuff".
Sex, by any orientation, is a "15 minute thing and done" activity. Objectively, it appears that EVERYONE is over focused on it, when frankly, it is just a tiny sliver of life.
Media is playing into this everywhere, with virtually every movie or TV show having gratuitous scenes of strip clubs (you would think that stripping represented 50% of the global economy), or sex scenes, or beautiful lesbians kissing and so on.
Frankly , 99% of all sex, regardless of preference , is done by fat , old , ugly, smelly, goofy, nerdy, every day folks, (and lets confess) people like you and me. . I find the glorification and idealization to be a relentless campaign of immature pandering and prurient.
That's part of the problem with non-practicing homosexuals, they still think that being gay is ok with God and defend it to the hilt. It's one thing to have homosexual feelings yet strive to overcome them, there's no difference between that and a heterosexual fighting pornography or going out and messing around on his/her wife. But it would be hypocrisy for a heterosexual fighting these urges to try to push the idea that he was just born this way so it must be normal.
An adulterous heterosexual is no more normal than a practicing homosexual. We all are born with different levels of brain chemicals/hormones that cause is to give in to many addictions, that doesn't mean acting upon them is God ordained.
I dont see homosexual urges any different than a heterosexual fighting lust. Both are sins, both can be overcome, but a christian trying to justify either is hypocritical!
Alfred Hitchcock
It's news to me that Church of God International are obsessed with homosexuality. I'm sure this accusation is news to many within CGI.
That's part of the problem with diabetics, they still think that being diabetic is ok with God and defend it to the hilt. It's one thing to have diabetes yet strive to overcome it, there's no difference between that and an anorexic going out and struggling to resist an all-you-can-eat buffet. But it would be hypocrisy for a diabetic fighting these urges to try to push the idea that he was just born this way so it must be normal.
I guess we all have learned that according to 11:25am sexual lusts are equivalent to a disease. Maybe the CDC can work on a vaccine. Or better yet, perhaps an anti-stupidity vaccine would be more beneficial to 11:25am.
Walter Cronkite
Better still how about a get a life vaccine for Anon 3:35.
Truman Capote
4:39pm Look in the mirror!
Don't choke on your bacon at Tiffany's!
People who want to justify sin simply hate the very idea of a God.
But just like any addict you simply can see the peace, calm and happiness you gain from overcoming your problem.
Sexual sins are no different and everyone who defends sexual sins as being acceptable sounds just like every other addict justifying their uncontrolled urges.
You really can overcome any sin and you will be better off for it.
Sad and pathetic. Doing evil in the darkness when you should do good.
Look at the age of you. Sad.
Well wrote 10:35.
In the United States, 40-50% of all marriages will end in divorce. There are over 400,000 rapes/sexual assaults annually in this country. We have someone killed by a gun on average every fifteen minutes. Americans remain divided over the question of abortion. We have a high rate of domestic violence, especially related to child abuse. We have human trafficking. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and are currently dealing with the fallout from a host of natural disasters related to climate change. People all over the globe continue to be divided by war, politics, religion, trade, land and water use, etc.
We have all of that and more on our plates, but the sexual proclivities of less than ten percent of the population is a legitimate focus of concern? I'm with Tonto on this one - the intense focus is both juvenile and prurient. The Church of God International's newspaper has 16 pages and twelve major articles/sections, and there were three articles dealing with homosexuality. By almost any standard, that seems excessive! I can assure you that the above post would not have appeared here if CGI hadn't seen fit to focus on the issue - my interests and focus lie elsewhere.
Tonto and Miller Jones both have it wrong. There's the old saying in politics of "if a man can't be faithful to his wife, how can he be faithful to the U.S. constitution."
That is, sex and morality are closely related. King Solomon's 1000 wives robbed him of the ability to faithful to God's ways, and king David's 300 concubines morally weakened him, resulting in him murdering Uriah the Hittite.
CGI: publishes random newsletter with focus on love, contains 3 articles mentioning aspects of love
Miller Jones: My God, these Armstrongites and their looove obsession!
Wow, color me surprised that a religious publication tackles various religious topics. Sorry, but show me a pattern that justifies the term obsession if you want to be taken seriously.
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