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USA Today is reporting that "Christians who favor LGBTQ equality---'queer positive Christians' in their parlance---to show support by wearing 'glitter ash' on their foreheads to mark Ash Wednesday on March 1."
Churches in 21 states will be featuring "glitter ash" this Wednesday, to honor homosexuals, under the pretense of remembering the death of Christ.
Marian Edmonds-Allen, a director of the national homosexual movement says, "This is a way for queer Christians and queer positive persons of faith to say 'We are here', and 'It is also a way for other people to be a witness to that and be in solidarity with them'."
Does Jesus Christ fit into this "glitter"ritual in any meaningful way?
No, He doesn't.
USA Today reports that Edmonds-Allen says, "For some traditions, it is true that Christians are not supposed to draw attention to their piety. The ashes go on and the ashes go off---it is a private thing. But glitter ashes are still appropriate. It is the recognition of the reality of queer Christians in the world and the beauty LGBTQ Christians bring to faith."
As more than 2 billion Christians begin to focus on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, homosexuals are making every effort to turn the remembrance into a celebration of their perversion.
While not all churches observe "Ash Wednesday," which is the day after tomorrow, many do. John Ritche with the Catholic group "Traditional Family Property Student Action," says, "This is traditionally a day when gray ashes are smeared on the foreheads of Christians by pastors and priests---in the shape of the cross---to symbolize the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and renew gratitude to God for the grace of Redemption, which rescued us from the slavery of sin and opened the gates of Heaven to the just."
It is a time in which God's people publicly identify with Jesus Christ and His cross and Passion.
Rev. Elizabeth Edman, a prominent Episcopal priest, activist and author who is also leading and coordinating this "glitter ash" Wednesday movement, says many churches are asking for the "special glitter ash"---in fact, churches from 21 states have already requested the ash for their upcoming services.
She says, "We expect that this is only the start of a movement with the LGBT people of faith taking the lead in renewing Christianity."
Renewing Christianity?
Christianity does not need to be renewed. People need to be renewed.
Edman says, "This is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the perfect time for renewal, for a new generation to experience the life-saving love of Jesus, shared in a way that reflects His inclusive love for all people."
USA Today says, "The Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Church all ordain LGBT clergy, and every mainline Protestant and Catholic denomination has some organization that supports openly gay members, though those organizations are not officially sponsored by the denomination."
What USA Today fails to tell its readers is that a good number of the Christian denominations the newspaper attempts to include in the "glitter group" actually do have groups that reach out to homosexuals, but for many, the outreach is to share the gospel of forgiveness, deliverance, restoration and redemption---not acceptance and celebration of a behavior the Bible clearly condemns.
John Ritche told the Christian Post, "The homosexual movement is provoking God by attempting to turn shameful sinful behavior into a badge of pride. To celebrate a sinful lifestyle in this way is a slap against God."
Rob Bell, former Mars Hill pastor, now an apostate advocate for same-sex marriage, has said: "The Bible has to be interpreted. And if it isn’t interpreted, then it can’t be put into action. So if we are serious about following God, then we have to interpret the Bible. It is not possible to simply do what the Bible says. We must first make decisions about what it means at this time, in this place, for these people.”
Once an evangelical pastor, Rob now teaches through lectures, television appearances and his books, that the Bible is an "evolving book" and means something different today than it did in the past.
Two years ago Rob and his wife Kristen, both guests on the Oprah show, were saying that they believed it was "inevitable" that Christians would accept same-sex marriage.
In the interview Bell said, "I think culture is already there, and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense."
Rob and Kristen continue to support and advocate that Christians evolve beyond the past.
Kristen Bell told Oprah, "There are churches who are moving forward, and there are churches who are almost regressing and making it more of a battle."
It was reformer Martin Luther who said: "For where God built a church, there the Devil would build a chapel."
A chapel of deception.
In his book "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," another Martin Luther---MLK, wrote of the early church, "The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."
Pastor Kris Vallotton, himself a reformer, has more recently said, "We are not called to reflect our culture, we are called to transform it. Becoming darkness to be relevant to a world of immorality is not the pathway to progress, but the process to the cesspool of hopelessness."
He says, "We must lovingly reach into the cesspool of society and dirty our hands with the souls of men as we pull them into the light of His extravagant love."
God has called His church---you and me--- to change the world---not become like it.
Be Faithful. Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.