Apoplectic Skeptic

ariverisariver:

Former Packers safety Leroy Butler was supposed to give a speech at a Wisconsin church this week. But that speech was canceled when Butler had the temerity to say something nice about NBA player Jason Collins on Twitter. When Collins came out as gay on Tuesday, Butler tweeted, “Congrats to Jason Collins.” Those four words were enough to make the church decide that Butler lacks the morals to speak to its congregation.

Butler recounted on his verified Twitter account (@leap36 because he wore No. 36 and invented the Lambeau Leap) that he was informed he’s no longer welcome at the church because he dared to congratulate Collins.

“Wow, I was scheduled to speak at a church in WI, and a member said that the pastor wants to cancel my event. I said ok why? Then I was told, because I said congrats to Jason Collins on Twitter,” Butler wrote. “I said really? we have a contract, he said check the moral cause, FYI the fee was $8,500, then I was told if I removed the tweet, and apologize and ask god forgiveness, I can have the event. I said no, only god can judge.”

Awesome.  Just awesome.  

Awesomest.

thecrystalmethodist:

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a life-long member of the United Methodist Church. I was raised in the UMC, had a grandfather who was a UMC pastor, my father worked his entire career for a UMC organization as did I for four years.

I loved the church for the fellowship and community and…

You are not alone… though I was raised Lutheran, my parents were the furthest from liberal as possible, and I no longer attend church at all.

Also, great tumblr handle. :)

There is a lot of talk about the ways in which the Government does Christians wrong. Taking prayer out of schools, legalizing abortion and physician-assisted suicide, supporting same-sex marriage, to name a few of the more contested issues.

How come nobody talks about the ways in which the Church does the Government wrong?

Ed Young Jr. is CEO of Fellowship Baptist Church of Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. An estimated 24,000 people attend one of the five Fellowship Church locations each week. That 10,000 square-foot parsonage he lives in is no humble abode. It is valued at $1.5 million.

Ed’s father is CEO of Second Baptist of Houston, reportedly the second-largest church in the nation. (Joel Osteen’s church is first). As CEO, Ed Sr. overseas an annual budget of $53 million.

Last year Ed Junior went before Fellowship’s congregation and told them outright that they needed to have their tithes automatically withdrawn. Cards were handed out and people were told to provide the routing numbers for their bank accounts. The way to be a spiritual leader, Young yelled, is to “bring the tithe.”

Church in America has become big business. Billions of dollars worth of tax-free enterprise. The local church, big and small, is the lone place where fiscal accountability is totally self-governed. There is very little outside oversight. For far too many of these celebrity pastors, that’s like putting a kilo of cocaine in front of Charlie Sheen and telling him to behave himself.

Yup.

sds:

Justin Taylor:

Hats off to Matt Chandler for tackling the subject of homosexuality with a lot of biblical wisdom and grace (audio and video below).

It’s about 1.5 hours of teaching, then 40 minutes or so of answering questions from the audience.

It seems this is increasingly becoming a difficult subject to handle well. Some pastors harp on this issue in a disproportionate, condemnatory way. Others, swinging the pendulum in the other direction, don’t want to appear insensitive or right-wing and thus avoid it altogether. So it takes courage to tackle it head-on without being a jerk.

Chandler begins by tracing the biblical storyline. In the second video, he gives some basic responses to several street-level objections, like:

1. If you’re not hurting anyone else, what’s wrong with it?
2. Since you’re a sinner, too, who are you to call out others?
3. Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality.
4. Some animals have same-sex relations, so if it’s in nature it must natural.
5. The homosexuality condemned by Paul is a different type of homosexuality than we see today.
6. Revisionist arguments from modern scholarship.

He also talks about the way in which he seeks to engage in dialogue with homosexuals in a gospel-centered way.

In the third video he fields questions via text message—like how parents should handle their adult kids who are gay with partners coming to visit.

If anyone is interested in hearing a genuine, loving, kind-spirited, and biblically faithful Christian perspective on human sexuality in general, and homosexuality in particular, this is worth a listen.

I’m thrilled I got out of this insanity before I had to be subjected to all these cool kid “emergent” preacher teacher types… you know, the ones who drop “bro” in their sermons, can say “hell” on stage, and who reference weed and tattoos from time to time.

I give him credit for being “biblically faithful,” whatever that’s worth (since you can find just as many variations on Christian Absolutes as there are denominations and Bible translations), but I don’t find these teachings to be “loving” or “kind-spirited.”

For example:

What is “loving” about equating homosexuality with promiscuity (5:00ish in video 3)? What is even true about it?

What is “kind-hearted” in saying the fulfilling life options available for gay men consist solely of becoming a eunuch (8:00+, again in video 3)?!

A EUNUCH. Seriously.

Duh… just study Isaiah. And Acts, because Paul says “it’s better not to be married.” So, obviously, I’m straight Matt Chandler and I’ve got a wife and three kids so I am limited in just how Jesus-crazy I can be, but you gay guys are so fortunate. You get to be All Jesus All The Time. What luck! Skip that whole love and family thing that is so conveniently available for me, straight Matt Chandler. Praise Jesus and cut off your balls. Unfuckingbelievable.

So “loving.” So “kind-hearted.”

I’m glad there are Christian groups who are proud of the fact that they end relationships with people in their midst who don’t interpret scripture the exact same way as they do on issues such as this (and abortion, and who to vote for, and if one can watch porn, etc.)… because it tells me all I need to know about such a group: they’re a cult. Think like we do or you’re not welcome.

The cult of Jesus has many variants, especially in modern America, and they are all dangerous and wicked and about as un-loving and un-kind-spirited as possible. Yes, all. All of them. They are not good for society, and they will be shown to be on the wrong side of history. I’m ecstatic I get to be here to witness their demise… indeed, take part. :)