Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Bishop Robinson, Joel Connelly, Pastor Rick Warren and the Church

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Seattle PI For Sale. The Seattle PI's parent company, the Hearst Corp., announced Friday that it has put the Seattle PI up for sale and will stop publishing unless someone buys the paper in 60 days. The reason? Falling revenue. Governor Gregoire said she is in shock...didn't see it coming.
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Bishop Robinson, Joel Connelly, Pastor Rick Warren and the Church

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal Bishop and a strong advocate for homosexuals, is in Seattle this week. He spoke at St. Marks Cathedral and Town Hall Seattle yesterday and will be speaking at St. Andrews Episcopal tonight.

His message? "Civil Rights in the 21st Century: Why Religion Matters."

Joel Connelly, in his Seattle PI column says that, "Robinson is a believer in both the divinity and humanity of Christ, the Resurrection, the Nicene Creed and the Holy Trinity."

That's good.

Connelly quotes Robinson as saying of his lectures, "I remind them that there is a difference between God and the church. God never gets it wrong. The church often takes a long time to get it right."

Okay.

However, when you follow Robinson's conclusions, you find that sometimes people also get it wrong---particularly when it involves their personal lifestyle.

Connelly says Robinson said, "I believe in my heart that the church got it wrong about homosexuality."

He says, according to Connelly, "Some how through the grace of God, we need to find our unity at the altar rail in our love of Christ. Time will tell if we are a model for the world or not."

But what are we to model? While unity is certainly a biblical principle, are we to forsake the explicit teaching which forbids homosexual relations in preference to unity?

Does Bishop Robinson believe the Bible to be the Word of God? And if not, how then, would God speak to His people and His church?

If Robinson believes the Bible to be God's Word, how does he justify what Scripture calls an abomination? If he does not believe the Bible to be God's Word, how then can we know the truth?

Is truth relative or merely experiential?

He seems to suggest that unity is the ultimate test of Christianity, and unity, as tolerance, can only be authenticated by affirming homosexuality as normal and biblical.

So those who do not affirm and embrace homosexuality are creating dis-unity in the church and do not model Christ's love.

And speaking of love---Robinson says Barack Obama made a bad move by inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration.

Why?

"On the issue of homosexuality," Robinson says, "he [Warren] has perpetuated lies about the gay, lesbian and bi-sexual community."

According to Bishop Robinson, Rick Warren is a liar.

Disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle seems to always define love, tolerance and open mindedness. If you embrace their lifestyle, you are modeling Christ's love. If you reject it on the basis of biblical teaching, you are bigoted, hateful and intolerant.

The Associated Press is reporting that Bishop Robinson has now been invited to offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial sometime during the inauguration festivities. They say both Obama and Biden are expected to be present.

Robinson says he will not use the Bible. He says while it is a holy and sacred text to him, it is not for all Americans.

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Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

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