This video from CNN illustrates a trend amongst churches.
Many traditional or main-line protestant churches, especially the Episcopalian and some Methodist denominations, have moved towards a more liberal stance regarding issue like homosexuality and the role of women in the church.
Personally, I think that even more than the role of women in the church, the issue of homosexuality is the most pressing issue facing the church in the West now and in the near future. It is certainly not an issue that we should ignore. Part of God's mission is ministering to all people with the message of God's love, redemption and restoration - but the way in which we do that needs to be faithful to God's Word. Shunning people who are different or who do things we don't agree with is not what Jesus would have done, but yet he called those who followed Him to repent and submit their lives to God's will and standards. So, this is not a simple issue, and it is one that will be a main issue for the church for years to come.
Part of this trend I mentioned is that attendance in increasingly liberal main-line protestant denominations has been steadily declining whereas attendance of newer, but more conservative protestant churches has been increasing. This has been the case for many years, and something that is certainly troubling for main-line denominations. It isn't that church attendance is decreasing in the US and England - in fact there are reports that show that church attendance in the US has increased in recent years - it is just shifting.
It seems that in the attempt to conform to the expectations and norms of popular Western culture, these main-line churches are killing themselves.
I believe this reflects that most people who go to church are looking for people with living faith who really believe God's Word at face value, and are turned off by, rather than attracted by compromise and a soft view of the authority of God's Word.
Anyways - here is the video:
I think that as time passes by, it gets harder to differ the truth from lie. Truth gets more and more twisted and while we should love sinners, as Jesus did, they should know if they are sinning and need to repent. If a church changes it's point of view to get more accepted by society, that's not good sign. In the end it comes down to one's heart, and only God knows what that person's desire is.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very closely tied to culture. In the Middle East for example, or in Africa, they do not have a problem seeing things as black and white. I don't think everything is black and white either, but part of postmodernism is that they try to broaden the gray areas to apply to almost everything - except of course intolerance or claiming to know the truth.
ReplyDeleteChristianity has been existed for a long time before this mindset, and I think it is really important that the church in the West not just conform to this way of thinking.