Comments on: Why Pre-Labeling A Church Community’s Stance on Same-Sex Relations is a Bad Idea: Mission and GLBTQ Relations #2

By: Arlene

Arlene — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:57:02 +0000

Excellent article…as a Christian with 2 family members formerly involved in same sex relationships it was a no brainer the stance I was going to take on this once I got saved…there is alot of shame associated with these lifestyles and it can be a wall that will never be taken down if we as the global Church don’t get the clue that sin is sin is sin …we all have it… we all need Jesus…it can be a powerful thing once you get in your head to make Jesus the focus not the specific area of sin they are prone to…My neighborhood of 13 years is like a family for me and when I moved in there was a big division line set for the same sex couples who lived close to me….by gardening with them and treating them the exact same in my love and good deeds as the other neighbors I was able to help the other neighbors see that I am all about Jesus not what I do or don’t stand on this specific issue…they were referred to as “those people” before I came to this neighborhood now they are neighbors who need Jesus just like me…it was a fellow believer who set the pace for my neighborhood’s attitude of “those people” and it was this believer who broke down that wall….let’s all be people who bread down walls and build bridges…the overwhelming shame they can hear is that they are unlovable and God could never get beyond this specific sin….one gal was totally shocked to my reaction when she confided in me her attraction/involvement with animals…my stone face to her sin gave her the confidence that I was interested in her and listening to her heart not her actions …she never felt the need to return to that sin after our talk….she is now married to a great guy, has a beautiful baby and actively involved in our local church and enjoying her close walk with Jesus

By: Reclaiming the Mission » My 5 years of Blogging: 10 Highlights

Reclaiming the Mission » My 5 years of Blogging: 10 Highlights — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:05:42 +0000

[...] 10. The Gay/Lesbian Issue: The Idea of a Welcoming and Mutually Transforming Community. I believe the gay/lesbian issue in the West is a test case for the missional church. I am profoundly dissatisfied with the approaches generated from the Emergent thinkers as well as the New Reformed. I don’t believe “sexual redemption” is a real posssibility within the categories laid down by some Emergent thinkers. I don’t see how witness and gospel engagement in the gay/lsbian worlds is possible under the terms laid down by some of the New Reformed thinkers. Instead I have sought to forge an incarnational way of witness among the LGBTQ peoples among us for the sexual redemption God is bringing to the world in Christ. I have only begun to write on these areas. Thanks to the many who are already thinking through this area and the many commentators who helped sharpen and extend the thinking here. [...]

By: fitchest

fitchest — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:48:14 +0000

A comment,made by Nehemie, which somehow I can't get to clear off WordPress, said "So you're proposing a "separate but equal" model where straight Christians and queer Christians are segregated? Nice. So being queer really IS something worse than everything else, huh? So what happens to Christians who are intersexed? To Nehemie, I suggest that this kind of segregation is what my proposal overcomes, it is the nature of Christian community that we come together as "broken" and this category overcomes all other attempts to segregate … and it is only in this posture before Christ, that differences/identity/ modes of segregating are overcome and indeed transformed … those "labels" are left behind …

By: fitchest

fitchest — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:44:04 +0000

Jennifer … I was trying to imagine community where indeed "privacy" "in a church" does not make sense … indeed that was my point …

By: Nehemie

Nehemie — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:16:56 +0000

So you're proposing a "separate but equal" model where straight Christians and queer Christians are segregated? Nice. So being queer really IS something worse than everything else, huh? So what happens to Christians who are intersexed?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:46:31 +0000

I think that the biggest problem is that I suspect your distinction between "internal" and "public" is illusory in practice. Even if it is possible, is such "privacy" in a church actually a good thing in general (beyond pragmatic reasons of not scaring people off). That feels a bit squishy to me.

By: Reclaiming the Mission » The Witness of a Transforming Sexually Redemptive Community: Mission and GLBTQ Relations#3

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:29:22 +0000

[...] my last post on this subject, I said “One of evangelicalism’s biggest problems is we have no compelling [...]

By: fitchest

fitchest — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:47:57 +0000

Hey Bob!!! I missed your comment here … sorry … I went on vacation … I'm still on vacation. But answering comments like this is a vacation for me (meaning I enjoy this). First, how does one avoid having an entire community of Christians who are under the impression that "our community has no problem with homosexuality"? I am trying to make the distinction here between external declarations (which cannot be understood only misunderstood) and internal declarations … I see it important within the community, where there is space and a lived redemptive culture, to articulate sexual commitments … I see it as a problem to make statements on one's views on gay relations public … for this is the attractional dynamic all over again. And I see it as putting off witness as well as congregating a bunch of people who have one agenda built on some issues in our pasts … I see no reason to predict a bate and switch mentality … for no promises or appeals have been made based on sexuality EXCEPT … and this is an important except, we all come laying our desires on the altar to be transformed into the shape of Christ for His mission.
Of course, a positive statement on sexuality, even where we stand on GLBT relations, within a redemptive hermeneutic of a community, – a robust theology – but it only makes sense within such a community. There is a Wittegensteinian, McIntyrian sense here … that to communicate this redemption takes an incarbnational habtation of it in the world …
peace bro ..
David Fitch

By: Tobias Cubbage

Tobias Cubbage — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:51:10 +0000

I think Will Smith is awesome…I love all his movies especially the pursuit of happiness. I loved Will's son Jaden in this movie as well.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:49:56 +0000

sorry for the double post- browser glitch