What Does Jesus Really Think About Same-Sex Marriage

 4/30/2014 Jared Moore

One argument in favor of gay marriage made by professed Christians and unbelievers is “Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality.” Is this statement true? Yes and no.

It’s true that we have no record of Jesus specifically mentioning homosexuality during His earthly ministry, but He didn’t mention bestiality or molesting children either. Does this “argument from silence” (a logical fallacy) prove that Jesus was OK with these things? Of course not.

We do know, however, that Jesus affirmed marriage as between one man and one woman in a one-flesh relationship for life by appealing to creation. (Of course, Jesus is God the Son incarnate. He affirms the entire Old Testament. Yet even if I grant that Jesus’ words, the red letters, during His earthly ministry are more authoritative than the rest of Scripture, the argument still fails.) He essentially said, “It’s Adam and Eve, and not any other definition.” Thus, Jesus rejected every other so-called definition of marriage beyond what was given in Genesis 1:27 and 2:23-24.

In Mark 10:2-9, we read, “And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate’” (ESV).

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Why Pastors Need to Stop Tickling the Ears of Their People, Treating the Church Like a Business, Being Concerned About Money and Popularity, and Start Taking a Stand for God

May 06, 2014

I am constantly asked, “Chuck, why don’t pastors take a stand and speak out?” I’ve been a pastor most of my adult life. I believe I am qualified to answer that question. Here is the stark reality: the vast majority of pastors today are “success” oriented. Beginning in Bible College or seminary, and continuing throughout a pastor’s ministerial life, the emphasis is success. And that means church growth, larger congregations, bigger buildings, bigger offerings, burgeoning statistics, greater notoriety, denominational praise, invitations to speak at conferences, applause from fellow ministers, not to mention the financial perks and benefits that come with pastoring a “successful” church.

And the way to learn how to build a successful church is to learn from those who have done it. Pastors regularly attend church growth conferences to learn from the “big” church pastors on how it’s done. They purchase books, magazines, newsletters, etc., that are all geared towards telling pastors how to build a successful church. They are constantly being schooled in the latest and greatest “how to” strategies of church growth and success. This usually entails more and more sophisticated programs, music, sound, lighting, atmosphere, classes, seminars, organization, etc. Everything, and I mean everything, is geared toward success as described in the aforementioned paragraph.

Most pastors today are in reality not spiritual shepherds as much as they are corporate CEOs. The same mentality, philosophy, and strategy that drive corporate boardrooms also drive the boardrooms of modern churches–to a tee. Pastors act like CEOs, dress like CEOs, talk like CEOs, manage like CEOs, and think like CEOs.

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Less Than 25% of West Point Cadets Gave Obama a Standing Ovation

May 28, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield

Expect the mainstream US media to report this sometime between doomsday and 5 o’clock.

Obama was welcomed by the Black Knight of the Hudson for his speech at West Point on Wednesday, but less than 25 percent of the cadets gave him a standing ovation upon his introduction, the Daily Mail reported.

“Receiving tepid applause and a short standing ovation from less than one-quarter of the audience upon his introduction, Obama argued for a contradictory foreign policy that relies on NATO and the United Nations while insisting that ‘America must always lead on the world stage,’ the paper reported.

He drew cheers from graduating cadets – far more robust applause than his speech itself – by announcing a symbolic pardon for those who were ‘on restriction due to minor conduct offenses’ as students.

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“I had no Idea how bad Islam was until I dated a Muslim…”

21st May 2014 – Pamela Geller

I receive a lot of mail. The most heartbreaking letters, of course, are from Muslims in Muslim countries who have left Islam or question Islam, and their intellectual freedom is met with violence from family members and friends. They write to cry for help. I get a few of those emails a week, and I help each one to the best I can. Notice how they aren’t writing CAIR for help.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Ali Sina for helping me handle the most difficult and gruesome of those letters. In a number of instances, Ali has gotten a number of  these victims who have written to me out of their countries and to safe harbor.

This email is of a different nature. The journey of this young woman, whose name I have changed  for obvious reasons, is all too common, but little told. It is difficult to break free from the institutionalized thinking, reinforced in every corner of the our culture, concerning Islam. Those who challenge the propagandist narrative are smeared and libeled. Few take the risk.

I salute this “escapee.” Her note to me is a declaration of freedom and an invitation to others to question their premise and not be afraid to think.

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What Does T. D. Jakes Hate About Megachurch Culture? The Cult of Personality Around Many Pastors

May 10, 2014 - The Huffington Post - Antonia Blumberg It might seem strange for the Chief Pastor of one of the biggest churches in the country to have anything…

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Army of Conservative Lawyers Scores Victories for the Faithful in America’s Courtrooms

May 12, 2014 – Erik Eckholm – The New York Times 

Alan Sears, who has run the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom since its founding 20 years ago, turned to a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his office here and noted the decades of blood and tears it took to abolish slavery.

“I think there is no question that one day, this country will again recognize that marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Mr. Sears, a former top official in the Reagan Justice Department.

The comparison may or may not prove apt, but these are heady days for Alliance Defending Freedom, which, with its $40 million annual budget, 40-plus staff lawyers and hundreds of affiliated lawyers, has emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country. It has helped shift the emphasis of religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution. For decades, courts leaned toward keeping religion out of public spaces. Today, thanks to cases won by the alliance and other legal teams focused on Christian causes, the momentum has tilted toward allowing religious practices with fewer restrictions.

The group last Monday celebrated a major victory in the Supreme Court, where a client, the Town of Greece, N.Y., won the right to open council meetings with mainly Christian prayers.

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The Irony of the New Tolerance: It Doesn’t Tolerate Christians

By John Stonestreet, Christian Post Guest Columnist

May 22, 2014|7:26 am

When it comes to same-sex “marriage,” our culture just like our president, has definitely evolved. After all, it was only in 2008 that a strong majority in California-yes, California-passed Proposition 8 which defined marriage as between one man and one woman.

But when our president changed his mind a few months before the 2012 election, the cultural floodgates opened, particularly in the American workplace. Later that summer, Chick-fil-A faced angry boycotts when CEO Dan Cathy’s views and donations in favor of traditional marriage became public knowledge.

The workplace pressure has only continued. Christian bakers and photographers who do not want to participate in what they consider to be a sin have been fined and faced being shut down. Attempts to protect their religious liberty, such as Arizona’s State Bill 1062, have been crushed through threats of economic boycotts and media shaming.

More high-profile voices have also faced this smash-mouth, brass-knuckle treatment. Just weeks ago Brendan Eich, the accomplished founder and CEO of search-engine company Mozilla, was forced to resign when he was “outed” for donating all of $1,000 to Proposition 8 eight years ago.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Country’s Ideals Include Destroying America

The Daily Caller – Reza Kahlili – May 27, 2014

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America.

“Those [Iranians] who want to promote negotiation and surrender to the oppressors and blame the Islamic Republic as a warmonger in reality commit treason,” Khamenei told a meeting of members of parliament, according to the regime’s Fars News Agency.

Khamenei emphasized that without a combative mindset, the regime cannot reach its higher Islamic role against the “oppressors’ front.”

“The reason for continuation of this battle is not the warmongering of the Islamic Republic. Logic and reason command that for Iran, in order to pass through a region full of pirates, needs to arm itself and must have the capability to defend itself,” he said.

“Today’s world is full of thieves and plunderers of human honor, dignity and morality who are equipped with knowledge, wealth and power, and under the pretense of humanity easily commit crimes and betray human ideals and start wars in different parts of the world.”

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Franklin Graham says ‘God Hates Cowards’; says Pastors Need to Speak Out on Abortion, Homosexuality, and Other Ills In Our Society

Rev. Franklin Graham addressing pastors at the Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing, held at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 22, 2014.The Christian Post – Michael Gryboski

The Rev. Franklin Graham told a large gathering of pastors on Thursday to address controversial issues from the pulpit, declaring that “God hates cowards.”

Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based his remarks on Revelation 21:8, wherein God lists eight groups of people who will be “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Of groups like murderers, idolaters, unbelievers, and others, the first group of persons listed were the cowardly. It was this first group that Graham focused on for his speech, titled “Standing Strong on the Controversial Issues,” at the Thursday evening session for the 2014 Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing.

“The definition of a coward: a coward will not confront an issue that needs to be confronted due to fear. That is a coward,” said Graham.

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Denzel Washington Encourages Group of Young Actors to Pray: ‘Put Your Shoes Way Under the Bed So You Gotta Get on Your Knees In the Morning’

May 26, 2014 - Gospel Herald - Leah Marianne Klett Denzel Washington, one of Hollywood’s most beloved and critically acclaimed actors, recently gave an inspiriting speech to a group of…

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Christian Cop Loses Appeal – Must Attend Mosque

June 13, 2014 | Bob Unruh

A panel of federal judges in Denver, in an opinion written by Judge Harris Hartz, found that it is perfectly appropriate for a police chief to order subordinates to attend an Islamic mosque where Muslims “discussed Islamic beliefs, Muhammad, Mecca, and why and how Muslims pray” in addition to encouraging officers “to buy” Islamic books and pamphlets that were for sale.

The ruling came on Thursday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case brought by Capt. Paul Fields, who had been ordered by Tulsa police officials to either go to a special event at the local mosque himself, or order others to do that.

Fields refused based on religious freedom objections and was punished for that.

The judges on the 10th Circuit panel said that was perfectly appropriate.

“This ruling is troubling on so many levels,” said Robert Muise, of the American Freedom Law Center, which has pursued the case since it developed several years ago.

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Nigerian Christian Denomination Plants Over 750 Churches in U.S. to Spread African-Style Pentecostalism Across North America

May 19, 2014 – John Burnett – NPR

In earlier times, white missionaries traveled from Europe and America to sub-Saharan Africa to save souls.

Today, the trend has reversed. Evangelists from the global south are targeting Americans and Europeans they say are ripe for Christian renewal.

There is no greater example than the Redeemed Christian Church of God. This ambitious Nigerian denomination has established its North American headquarters in Texas, and its goal is nothing less than becoming the next major global religion.

On a Sunday morning, inside a storefront church in Austin called Salvation Center, the worship service exudes the unmistakable spirit of West Africa.

The congregation is mostly from Nigeria, where this church originated. The message from Doyin Oke, the bald, heavy-lidded pastor, is one of prosperity through faith.

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Free speech not so free when discussing gay rights

Free speech not so free when discussing gay rightsJewishWorldReview.com | Cal Thomas – May 15, 2014 / 15 Iyar, 5774

Once, Social Security was the “third rail” of politics. Touch it and face political death. Now it is homosexuality. Criticize anything gay people do and you risk ostracism, fines, suspension or loss of your livelihood.

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by a National Football League team — the St. Louis Rams picked him 249th in the last round — is being treated by the media and those in the gay rights movement as the equivalent of an early American pioneer.

Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones, apparently, didn’t get the memo. Jones tweeted “OMG” and “horrible” after he saw Sam and his boyfriend kiss each other live on ESPN. His tweet was quickly taken down, but the political correctness police swooped in anyway. Jones has been fined and suspended. He’s also being forced to attend “educational training” to get his “mind right,” to borrow a phrase from the film “Cool Hand Luke.” This sounds like the old communist “re-education” camps.

Dolphins Coach Joe Philbin called Jones’ comment “inappropriate and unacceptable.” Jones issued a statement that read like it had been written by a lawyer, apologizing for his “inappropriate” tweet and taking “full responsibility” for his comment.

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Billionaire Bill Gates: ‘It Makes Sense to Believe in God’

Gina Meeks – Charisma News

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, recently revealed that his family goes to Catholic Church while also admitting his doubts about God.

“The moral systems of religion, I think, are superimportant. We’ve raised our kids in a religious way; they’ve gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in,” Gates said in an interview with Rolling Stone for the March 27 issue. “I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.”

When asked if he believed in God, the 58-year-old billionaire said, “I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.”

But he also said he agrees “with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths.”

He explains: “Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm—not all—that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs].”

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Hillsong Takes Over New York City’s Times Square With ‘Jesus,’ ‘No Other Name’ Campaign

By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter – May 7, 2014|Hillsong Takes Over New York City's Times Square With 'Jesus,' 'No Other Name' Campaign 2

Hillsong “takes over” Times Square’s digital billboards in New York City on Thursday, April 24, 2014, by promoting “Jesus” and “No Other Name,” the name of Hillsong Live’s upcoming album and the church’s 2014 conference theme.

Hillsong, a Pentecostal powerhouse with church campuses spanning the globe, recently descended on New York City’s Times Square to declare the name of Jesus before thousands of onlookers while also shooting cover art for a new album that shares its name with the megachurch’s 2014 conference theme.

Instead of flashing the usual ads, news reports or the day’s market results, 21 digital screens played for an hour a looped video comprised of just a few frames flashing repeatedly: “Jesus” and “No Other Name.”

Jay Argaet, Hillsong’s Art and Communications director, told The Christian Post that at least 400 people from Hillsong NYC church joined in the nighttime campaign at Times Square, one of the world’s most sought out tourist destinations.

Times Square, located between 7th Avenue and Broadway from 42nd and 47th Streets, is trafficked by an average of 360,000 pedestrians every day, many of them out-of-towners.

Hillsong “takes over” Times Square’s digital billboards in New York City on Thursday, April 24, 2014, by promoting “Jesus” and “No Other Name,” the name of Hillsong Live’s upcoming album and the church’s 2014 conference theme.

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