to the Editor,I don't mean for this response to be snarky, but instead affirm that this pastor does have some experience. he do have a wealth of knowledge that young people would love to explore, but he is dead wrong on this issue. his being obsessed with it doesn't help.
In my years of working with youth, I see that they aren't morally ambivalent but that the church isn't speaking to what they are concerned about. In the question of "Do you people care about gay marriage?" the answer is yes and that they don't agree with Pastor Cornell.
That is bad news for Cornell as the youth are over it and he doesn’t speak for all Christians, but there is hope. With 25 years of pastoral experience, I'm sure that there are other issues where he can be a lamp unto the feet of the youth. However, he can only be a light if he stops, listens, and hears the concerns of the youth instead of pushing his own conservative agenda.
Working with Leadership NOW kids, I can help but view that they are incredibly moral and good people. if you need proof, just check out Agent Smith's guest post or Cody's Blog, or Alyssa's Blog. They are largely over the "gay" issue but are polite enough not to hoot and hollar at someone like Pastor Cornell. They are able to include Cornell and hear what he has to say without shame'n or judge'n. i am greatly inspired by this and am learning it myself. of course this is coming from my liberal christian side, i'm unsure if kids from the conservative side feel the same way. i have some exposure to them, not much, and have generally gotten the same feel.
there is an excellent discussion going on in the LancasterOnline Forums. check out Reverend Alobar on post #3. complete and utter deconstruction of the argument and i love it! just don't have the time to do it myself.
i pray, as Jesus prayed, that we all may be one some day in the body of Christ. that we are able to affirm one another yet maintain our own identity with integrity.
5 comments:
I think I would have agreed with Pastor Cornell over you a year ago and if you hadn't provided that link to the forum. I didn't see the logical mis-steps Cornell takes and what his assumptions are. That was a very good article, however; I have a confession.
The reason we stopped attending our local congregation was due to the question of gays in the church. We are moderate politically and haven't had much exposure to the gay community. The fact we were accepting a gay man as an associate minister was awful in my eyes because we required nothing of him. No promise of not acting on the gay impluses, no nothing! Then this has cause me to rethink my position and what assumptions I am carrying around.
What brought us back to the church is our kids. For them it was a non-issue like you're talking about. We are even more affirmed in our journey back to the Anglican church due to what we perceive as the Catholic church trying to pick off way-ward members. Benedict's ruling last week, I'm sure you have heard, welcomes Anglican congregations to be Catholic yet keep their liturgy and such. That is crap. So to keep our church, we're going to support it by going. I may even change my mind on this issue. Do you have any books or posts about this issue?
Thank you for your frankness. I am an ally out right and came about it through a relationship with one of my best friends coming out. my seminary is LGBTQ friendly and here is some resources from our "home base":
http://www.lts-allies.org/index.php/outside-resources
happy reading!
*sigh* I suppose there will always be Pastor Cornell's in this world.
*grin* But there will also be guys like you & Rev. Alobar who know know how to call a spade an f'n shovel!
I'm beginning to get a bit worked up myself over stuff once in awhile. Right now I'm ranting a bit about the winter Olympics we have in our part of the world in 3 months. The Olympic torch just began it's relay across the country from our city yesterday. Fortunately, there have been some protests about the huge waste of money, injustice, corporate greed, threatened curtailment of free speech, etc. I'm not sure how deep a follower of Christ should get into active resistance, but... Keep your ears open for ..(just kiddin').
On a more serious note, I appreciate the content of your post, and the stuff you linked to. As an old dude trying to better understand the next batch of citizens that will be running the joint, I'm glad to hear good news about them. I'm still trying to understand all of the changes that have been in motion for awhile, but that search has been the genesis for my own cry for a more Christ-like purpose in my life.
Al,
thanks for your affirmation. there's a place for the Pastor Cornell's of the world too. they just need to get there and quickly ;-)else we will lose the next Generation to misplaced notions of "good." i affirm the Cornells of the world for the gifts God's given them. inclusion and acceptance of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters would not be their strong point.
Luke, you have a generous heart. That kind of attitude goes a long ways towards bringing change.
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