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The Falling Away, sodomite version

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: The Falling Away, sodomite version  (Read 27160 times)
Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #180 on: April 17, 2016, 10:43:18 pm »

I'm not trying to predict a rapture date - but nonetheless I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. I just can't imagine anything worse, but who knows the further tricks the sodomite agenda has up their sleeves still.

Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

‘Transgender’ Preacher Tells Baptist Gathering ‘Angel of Reason’ Helped Affirm Desire to Be Woman

The nation’s first “transgender” Baptist preacher spoke to a national Baptist gathering on April 8, explaining that the doctor who delivered him as a baby was wrong in declaring him a boy, and that it was an “angel of reason” that caused him to accept his inclinations to identify as a woman.

Daniel Robinson, who goes by the name Allyson Robinson, had been studying to be a pastor at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in 2005 when he began to wrestle with his gender identity as never before. He had struggled with his desire to be a man since childhood.

“I have known my entire life that the world was wrong about me, that on the day I was born, when the doctor took a cursory glance between my legs and authoritatively declared ‘It’s a boy,’ he was wrong—dead wrong,” Robinson told the Alliance of Baptists in St. Louis this month.

He said that one day in his early seminary days he contemplated suicide, but an “angel of the Lord” that he called “reason” stopped him.

“What if God hasn’t fixed you because you’re not broken?” Robinson said he heard inside of himself.

“That can’t be true,” he thought. “The Bible says I’m broken.”

“What if the Bible is wrong?” the voice said. “What if you’ve been reading it wrong?”

Robinson told those gathered that in that moment he “sacrificed his certainty” and hoped that God would count it as “righteousness.”

In other appearances, Robinson has explained that he went into therapy but kept his gender identity issues as secret until graduating from Baylor due to the seminary’s policies about homosexuality and transgenderism. He also took a position as pastor of Meadow Oaks Baptist Church in Temple, Texas during his time at Baylor.

Robinson’s wife, Danyelle, expressed her support about his desire to identify as a woman.

In 2014, he worked as a transitional minister at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and was ordained there as a woman.

“Allyson Dylan Robinson is a minister of the gospel, trained for the task, and ordained to the gospel ministry by another community in which she has served as pastor,” former leader Amy Butler wrote at that time. “Over the course of her journey, God has invited her to step into the faithful witness of a new identity, a true identity, and a new name.”

Robinson now speaks as an itinerant preacher and appeared at Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner’s renaming ceremony last year.

“Frankly I consider Job, Gautama Buddha, Joan of Arc, Rumi and Johnny Cash to be my spiritual predecessors far more than Augustine, Aquinas or Barth,” he told the Alliance of Baptists this month. “My hymnal has a lot less Isaac Watts and Fanny Crosby, but it’s full of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tupac and Beyonce.”

However, some have come to the opposite conclusion of Robinson, and state that it is not healthy to support and affirm a person’s desire to live as those of the opposite sex.

As previously reported, Walt Heyer, a 75-year-old man who obtained a sex change operation in the 1980’s to live as a woman for eight years before reverting back to his biological gender, now leads a ministry in which he shares his story with the world of how Christ redeemed his life and gave him hope.

“Nobody’s ever born a transgender,” he told the Daily Mail last January. “They’re manufactured as a result of something, a developmental childhood issue that has yet to be determined for many people.”

“All of them have some level of depression, and we’re not treating them,” Heyer lamented. “We’re just cutting off body parts and giving them a new name and a new gender.”

“God designed man; He designed women,” he also said in a video recorded last year. “God will redeem the lives of people who struggle with gender identity issues just like I did. He redeemed my life, and I’ve been free from it as a result of that.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/04/17/transgender-preacher-tells-baptist-gathering-angel-of-reason-helped-affirm-desire-to-be-woman/
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« Reply #181 on: April 20, 2016, 09:55:34 pm »

Gay Pastor Says The Bible ‘Is Evolving’ And Must Change To Accommodate Our Lifestyle Choices

If you are a 'gay christian' and have no conviction that homosexuality is a sin, then you are likely unsaved and headed for a Devil's Hell. The Bible promises that God will save all that come to Him, even the vilest of sinners, through His Son Jesus Christ. That includes every member of the LGBT community. But when He saves you, one evidence of that will be that He has changed you. You can come as you are, but He will not leave you as He found you.

Our natural birth, our first birth, is not in the image of God. It is in the image of Adam and Eve after they fell.

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” Psalm 138:2 (KJV)

How seriously does God take His own word? Well, for starters, He says in Psalm 138 that He has placed His word above that of even His own Name. In Matthew 4:4, He says that we are to live by ‘every word’ that proceeds out of His mouth. So what are the chances that the Bible is a book that is ‘evolving to suit our lifestyle choices”? Right around absolute zero I would say. Maybe less. Listen as a gay pastor attempts to make the case that God’s Holy word is fluid, evolving and adapts to whatever our lifestyle choices are.

If this sodomite is a pastor than why is he wearing that little catholic collar thing?


One of the arguments of the gay ‘christian’ community is that God created all of us, gay and straight, in His image. But does the Bible say that all people are created in His image? No, it does not. The Bible says that Adam was created in His image, and Eve was created from that same image from Adam. Then sin entered the Garden and they fell and became cursed. 2 chapters later we read exactly whose image we have been created in.

“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:” Genesis 5:3 (KJV)

You and I, when we were conceived, were created in the fallen image of sinful Adam, outside of the Garden of Eden. Our natural birth, our first birth, is not in the image of God. It is in the image of Adam and Eve after they fell. This is why Jesus says in the book of John that we must be ‘born again’ if we want to enter into Heaven. We need a new birth, a second birth, in order to be in the image of God.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (KJV)

What is being born again? It is the action of the Holy Spirit when you by faith receive the payment for sin that Jesus made on Calvary as your payment for your sins. It is not a quickie 30 second prayer, it is not about your feelings, hopes, wishes or dreams. It is a legally binding transaction, based solely on the word of God, where you exchange your sins for Jesus righteousness. But if you do not come to Him as a sinner seeking payment for your sins, then you have not come to Him in a way that will save you.

When Jesus went to the cross, He went there for one reason and one reason only. To make a payment. For your sins. Sins like homosexuality, lust, greed, drunkenness, fornication, envy, strife, lying, cheating, stealing and the list goes on. He paid for every sin you ever committed or ever will commit. Jesus paid it all. But that’s not all. At the moment you come to Him by faith and He saves you by His shed blood, the Holy Spirit then SEALS YOU IN so you can never ‘lose it’.

“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 12-14 (KJV)

Make no mistake, homosexuality is a sin. If you are a gay ‘christian’ who thinks that the same God who allowed His own Son to be killed for sin on the cross is going to bend His word to accommodate your lifestyle choices, you are fatally wrong and eternally mistaken. There is no such thing as a born again gay Christian or a gay pastor, it doesn’t exist. Because if you are LGBT and you actually get saved, the first thing the Holy Spirit will do is convict  you of your lifestyle choices, and empower you to fight against them.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26,27 (KJV)

If you are a ‘gay christian’ and have no conviction that homosexuality is a sin, then you are likely unsaved and headed for a Devil’s Hell. The Bible promises that God will save all that come to Him, even the vilest of sinners, through His Son Jesus Christ. That includes every member of the LGBT community. But when He saves you, one evidence of that will be that He has changed  you. You can come as you are, but He will not leave you as He found you.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

So how do we become the children of God? The Bible says that all those who have been born again into Jesus Christ are His children. You become God’s child by faith, by being born again, and not simply by being born into this world.

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26 (KJV)

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/gay-pastor-says-bible-is-evolving-and-must-change-to-accommodate-our-lifestyle-choices/
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« Reply #182 on: April 20, 2016, 10:32:58 pm »

Whole Foods Sues Customer for Alleged Fake ‘Gay Slur’ Claim

The Whole Foods grocery chain is suing a customer who claimed the bakery staff at a Whole Foods outlet decorated his cake with a gay slur.

“After a deeper investigation of Mr. [Jordan] Brown’s claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney,” the company said in the statement published by the Austin Statesman newspaper.

Jordan Brown, the pastor of the Church of Open Doors and an open homosexual, claimed April 18 that a bakery worker at an Austin, Texas outlet wrote the word “fag” on a cake he asked to be decorated with the words “love wins.”


Why didnt the sodomite pastor say something as soon as he was handed the cake? You can see it clearly through the CLEAR packaging. I do not believe this sodomite at all and i really hope Whole Foods takes him to the bank. just saying, it has a clear cover. You can read it.  Roll Eyes

Brown says he didn’t tell the bakery workers he was gay and didn’t actually look at the cake until long after he left the store. The gay pastor filed a lawsuit in Travis County District court and is asking for a jury trial.

But Whole Foods is firing back, standing behind its employees and saying Brown has made a fraudulent claim.

The grocery chain released surveillance video of the checkout area showing Brown purchasing the cake and says the video invalidates the pastor’s claims.

At issue is the location of the UPC code used to ring up the price at the checkout counter.

On Monday, through his attorney, Brown showed photos of the cake box when he purchased it. The UPC sticker is clearly on the side of the box.

However, Whole Foods maintains the video of the checkout process clearly shows the cashier scanning the top of the box, not the side, to ring up the purchase.

“After reviewing their security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package,” Whole Foods said in its company statement. “This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box,” the company said.

“We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and we appreciate the team members and shoppers who recognize that this claim is completely false and directly contradicts Whole Foods Market’s inclusive culture, which celebrates diversity,” the statement concluded.

http://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/04/19/whole-foods-suing-customer-disputes-claim-store-bakery-cake-gay-slur-written/
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« Reply #183 on: April 26, 2016, 08:14:57 pm »

Christian Author Jen Hatmaker: 'It is High Time Christians Opened Wide Their Arms...to the LGBT Community'

 Popular Christian author and speaker Jen Hatmaker said that Christians should embrace the LGBT community.
 
ChristianToday.com reports that Hatmaker, author of 7 and For the Love had previously held more conservative views regarding the LGBT community.
 
In 2014, Hatmaker wrote that she believed "God's original creation is how we were crafted to thrive: in marriage, in family, and in community, which has borne out for millennia in Scripture, interpretation, practice, and society (within and without church)."
 
However, she recently made waves when she wrote in a Facebook post that “It is high time Christians opened wide their arms, wide their churches, wide their tables wide their homes to the LGBT community.”
 
"So whatever the cost and loss, this is where I am: gay teens? Gay adults? Mamas and daddies of precious gaybees? Friends and beloved neighbors of very dear LGBT folks? Here are my arms open wide. So wide that every last one of you can jump inside. You are so dear, so beloved, so precious and important. You matter so desperately and your life is worthy and beautiful,” she continued.
 
Hatmaker told those in the LGBT community that there “is nothing 'wrong with you,' or in any case nothing more right or wrong than any of us, which is to say we are all hopelessly screwed up but Jesus still loves us beyond all reason and lives to make us all new, restored, whole."
 
Hatmaker’s post received 35,000 likes and nearly 7,000 shares, but there were also many who disagreed with her, saying that being lesbian, gay, or transgender was not a lifestyle Christians should condone.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/christian-author-jen-hatmaker-it-is-high-time-christian-opened-wide-their-arms-to-the-lgbt-community.html
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« Reply #184 on: May 08, 2016, 07:22:21 pm »

United Methodist Church Leaders Meeting To Discuss Acceptance Of Openly Gay Pastors

“I hope that every person who is gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, or queer in the United Methodist Church will feel a sense of strength from this wedding. Having 400 Methodists at my wedding affirm, recognize, and bless 28 years of love and life together, nobody can take that away,” he said. “No General Conference can really harm me. No bishop can hurt me when I have the womb of the church surrounding me.”

Pastor David Meredith, an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church, “married” his boyfriend of 28 years on Saturday in a potent protest against church doctrine that bans ministers from marrying same-sex partners.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26,23 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Christian Church is under attack from within by unrepentant and unsaved LGBT pastors and church leaders who are intent on erasing the Bible’s clear teaching against homosexuality and lesbianism. Yes, saved Christians can struggle with the sin of homosexuality like any other sin. But to claim to be a Christian and believe that it’s not a sin at all is evidence you have likely not been saved. And to teach other people that God approves of homosexuality and ‘blesses it’ is a lie from the pit of Hell itself.

“I am completely aware that there are consequences, but I am not afraid,” Meredith told BuzzFeed News in a phone call before the ceremony, pointing out he could be defrocked, removed from his congregation in Cincinnati, and lose his income. The “wedding” was, of course, primarily about his union with Jim Schlachter, he said. But, he added, “if it leads to a change, it will be a big win.”

The timing was deliberate. With the church’s international voting body meeting Tuesday in Oregon, the high-profile marriage could persuade delegates at the General Conference to pass several proposals that would repeal the church’s anti-gay rules. Those rules ban clergy from being out homosexuals, prohibit clergy from marrying same-sex couples, and bar funding for LGBT-positive organizations.

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a professor of theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary, told BuzzFeed News, “This is a very important moment for the United Methodist Church. I think the wedding can inspire empathy among the delegates, because you have a Methodist pastor — this is one of the leaders of the church. This is someone they have ordained, and that is important to other church leaders.”

It was the latest example of a growing insurgency within the United Methodist Church, which has about 80 million followers. The church’s voting body shot down proposals in 2008 and 2012 to remove anti-gay policies. But now that the Supreme Court has scrapped marriage bans in the United States, many believe that high-profile acts of disobedience could have repercussions.

Divisions within the church could lead to a mass exodus of progressives fed up with anti-gay rules, for example. Or, so many gay Methodists could disobey church doctrine that the rules become unenforceable.

As BuzzFeed News reported last month, a Methodist minister married two gay men in North Carolina, and a formal complaint was filed within days. The local bishop launched an investigation into the minister, a straight pastor, who performed the wedding. In the past few years, another pastor was defrocked and a bishop faced an investigation for their roles in marrying gay couples.

“The church is at a boiling point over the wedding in North Carolina, and it’s going to boil even further,” Matt Berryman, the executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, an LGBT advocacy coalition leading the charge for changing Methodist policy on sexual orientation, told BuzzFeed News. His group has assembled hundreds of congregations that are on the record supporting LGBT rights.

“This wedding is a big deal because it’s happening right before the General Conference,” he said. “It’s just a sign of what’s to come. ”

The wedding in Ohio wasn’t the first case of a United Methodist Church minister marrying a same-sex partner — there are at least three other examples in the last decade, including one in Seattle in 2013 — but the ceremony stands out for its calculated timing and geography. Held in a United Methodist Church in Columbus, it occurred in the church’s relatively conservative West Ohio Conference, where members are considered more likely to file a formal complaint.

With about 7 million members in the U.S., the United Methodist Church is the largest mainline Protestant Christian denomination. Yet, unlike several other leading denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, it has not repealed its ban on same-sex weddings.

And realistically, like its conventions in 2008 and 2012, the church’s General Conference appears unlikely to repeal the anti-gay rules this year. A majority of delegates represent foreign countries — and the church’s large, growing African contingent is overwhelmingly opposed to LGBT inclusion.

Failing to pass the proposals again would only exacerbate tensions and protest, Berryman said.

“If they don’t change the rules, the reality is that this is just the beginning,” he said. “The floodgates will open and everyone should expect to see mass civil disobedience — or biblical obedience — after the General Conference. Weddings will be happening so frequently, the church will have to lay down its arms.”

Alternatively, Thistlethwaite said, the church risks losing its members. “If they don’t pass these proposals, I really think there will be a stampeding exodus from the United Methodist Church, because young people are just not having this anymore,” she said. “They are not willing to equate religion with discrimination.”

She added that the United Church of Christ could serve as an example: After it embraced marriage equality, some members left, but now, the policy on gay rights is an asset. “We’re growing, and the others are not,” said Thistlethwaite, who belongs to the United Church of Christ.

     “I don’t feel guilty for being gay. I am a better pastor and a better disciple of Jesus because of it.”

For his part, Pastor Meredith acknowledged that the General Conference may not pass proposals striking down anti-gay church rules.

“But they can’t ignore it,” said Meredith, who added that while he is breaking parts of canon law, he is obeying teachings of the Bible. Meredith said has never hidden the fact that he is gay from the church’s hierarchy, but he has never made it impossible for them to ignore until now. “I want the policy to change, and I want the practice to change.”

“I run the risk of losing it all,” he continued. “If they want me to say I’m guilty, I won’t say ‘I am guilty.’ I will own that I am gay, but I will not own it with their language that says there’s something wrong with it. I don’t feel guilty for being gay. I am a better pastor and a better disciple of Jesus because of it.”

“It doesn’t feel like I am being brave or courageous,” he said. “Inside, it feels like I am being faithful.”
More than changing policy in the church, Meredith said he wants to change the Methodist church’s culture in Ohio

“I hope that every person who is gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, or queer in the United Methodist Church will feel a sense of strength from this wedding. Having 400 Methodists at my wedding affirm, recognize, and bless 28 years of love and life together, nobody can take that away,” he said. “No General Conference can really harm me. No bishop can hurt me when I have the womb of the church surrounding me.”

The service itself was, in parts, traditional. There were church songs and a reading of the liturgy, Meredith said. But there were also some signature pieces from the gay canon, too.

“Our closing song is from Rent.”

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/united-methodist-church-leaders-meeting-to-discuss-acceptance-of-openly-gay-pastors/
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« Reply #185 on: May 10, 2016, 07:15:42 pm »

Over 100 United Methodist Clergy Come out as LGBT

 Over 100 United Methodist clergy members have come out as LGBT as part of an effort to convince the UMC to rethink their stance on gay marriage and the LGBT community.
 
The Huffington Post reports that the leaders of the United Methodist Church are scheduled to meet in Portland to consider around 1,000 legislative petitions in favor of embracing the LGBT community in the UMC.
 
More than 100 pastors, deacons, elders, and other leaders in the UMC released a letter right before this meeting, proclaiming their solidarity with the LGBT community and revealing their own affiliation with it.
 
“Our prayer, as the church begins its time of discernment, is that you will remember that there are nameless ones around the world, hungry for a word of hope and healing,” stated the letter. “LGBTQI people and their families exist in every church in every continent of this denomination. They are seeking to remain in faithful relationship with you, even when you refuse, because they know God’s tender mercies and great faithfulness.”
 
The UMC’s official stance regarding gay marriage is that UMC clergy are not authorized to perform gay marriage ceremonies, and members of the LGBT community cannot be ordained in the church.
 
Laura Young, an ordained UMC minister based in Westerville, Ohio, explained why the issue of LGBT rights in the church is important: “I signed the letter because I think that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy that’s been operating in the church and in our society is damaging to a person’s soul.”
 
“The policies of the United Methodist Church ask LGBT people to live in secret and hide our light. God calls us to shine our light brightly, and it’s time to change these unjust policies,” she continued.
 
Matt Berryman, the executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, said he hopes the leaders at the UMC meeting will choose to embrace the LGBT community:
 
“By refusing to obey the rules and moving forward with what we believe to be the right thing, it shows that the rules aren’t working, and it’s time for things to change,” he said. “It’s hard to expect how the Holy Spirit will move, but we do believe that anything can happen.”

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/over-100-united-methodist-clergy-come-out-as-lgbt.html
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« Reply #186 on: May 16, 2016, 07:27:05 pm »

Whole Foods Sues Customer for Alleged Fake ‘Gay Slur’ Claim

The Whole Foods grocery chain is suing a customer who claimed the bakery staff at a Whole Foods outlet decorated his cake with a gay slur.

“After a deeper investigation of Mr. [Jordan] Brown’s claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney,” the company said in the statement published by the Austin Statesman newspaper.

Jordan Brown, the pastor of the Church of Open Doors and an open homosexual, claimed April 18 that a bakery worker at an Austin, Texas outlet wrote the word “fag” on a cake he asked to be decorated with the words “love wins.”


Why didnt the sodomite pastor say something as soon as he was handed the cake? You can see it clearly through the CLEAR packaging. I do not believe this sodomite at all and i really hope Whole Foods takes him to the bank. just saying, it has a clear cover. You can read it.  Roll Eyes

Brown says he didn’t tell the bakery workers he was gay and didn’t actually look at the cake until long after he left the store. The gay pastor filed a lawsuit in Travis County District court and is asking for a jury trial.

But Whole Foods is firing back, standing behind its employees and saying Brown has made a fraudulent claim.

The grocery chain released surveillance video of the checkout area showing Brown purchasing the cake and says the video invalidates the pastor’s claims.

At issue is the location of the UPC code used to ring up the price at the checkout counter.

On Monday, through his attorney, Brown showed photos of the cake box when he purchased it. The UPC sticker is clearly on the side of the box.

However, Whole Foods maintains the video of the checkout process clearly shows the cashier scanning the top of the box, not the side, to ring up the purchase.

“After reviewing their security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package,” Whole Foods said in its company statement. “This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box,” the company said.

“We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and we appreciate the team members and shoppers who recognize that this claim is completely false and directly contradicts Whole Foods Market’s inclusive culture, which celebrates diversity,” the statement concluded.

http://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/04/19/whole-foods-suing-customer-disputes-claim-store-bakery-cake-gay-slur-written/

‘Love Wins F**’: Gay Pastor Who Sued Whole Foods Over Shocking Cake Message Makes Major Admission

The openly gay pastor who ignited a firestorm when he sued Whole Foods over the claim that one of the supermarket chain’s stores sold him a cake with an anti-gay slur on it has officially dropped his lawsuit and apologized.

“Today I am dismissing my lawsuit against Whole Foods Market. The company did nothing wrong,” Pastor Jordan Brown said in a statement. “I was wrong to pursue this matter and use the media to perpetuate this story.”

He continued, “I want to apologize to Whole Foods and its team members for questioning the company’s commitment to its values, and especially the bakery associate who I understand was put in a terrible position because of my actions.”

    LOVE WINS FAG. That’s not the cake I ordered, @WholeFoods and I am offended for myself & the entire #LGBT community pic.twitter.com/cuxuv6mL3G

    — Jordan D Brown (@PasJordanBrown) April 18, 2016

Brown, who is gay and pastors at Open Doors in Austin, Texas, went on to apologize to the LGBTQ community for “diverting attention from real issues,” while also offering up apologies to his parter, his family, his lawyer and his church.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Brown’s initial legal battle began after he alleged last month that he ordered a cake from a local Whole Foods with the words “Love Wins” on it, but said that the final product ended up reading, “Love Wins Fag.”

Brown decided to take action, turning to the Kaplan Law Firm in Austin to bring his grievance to the courts, with a press release from the pastor’s attorney and an accompanying video featuring the cake in question quickly gaining widespread attention.

Whole Foods immediately spoke out against the claim and issued a detailed rebuke, wasting no time in announcing that the company would countersue both Brown and his lawyer.

“Mr. Brown admits that he was in sole possession and control of the cake until he posted his video, which showed the UPC label on the bottom and side of the box,” read a statement from the company. “After reviewing our security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package. This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box.”

The company published the security footage that purportedly shows the location of the UPC label, though it is difficult to see specific details.

Watch it below:

In his initial video making his cake claim, Brown maintained that he had not opened the cake after buying it, saying, ”It’s still sealed. I have not opened this box yet. … This is discrimination.”

Whole Foods responded to Brown’s apology on Monday by announcing that it will also drop its countersuit in light of the pastor’s apology, saying that the company is “pleased that the truth has come to light.”

“Given Mr. Brown’s apology and public admission that his story was a complete fabrication, we see no reason to move forward with our counter suit to defend the integrity of our brand and team members,” the statement read.

It should also be noted that not long after the cake battle initially made headlines last month, reports claimed that Brown was himself sued in relation to an entirely different situation just a few weeks before the cake debacle, KXAN-TV reported.

According to the text of a lawsuit that the outlet claims to have received from the Travis County Clerk’s Office, Brown purportedly defaulted on a $27,000 student loan from his time studying at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania from 2007-2008.

The lawsuit was filed by a student loan trust on March 11, 2016, multiple outlets reported at the time.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/16/love-wins-f-gay-pastor-who-sued-whole-foods-over-shocking-cake-message-makes-major-admission/
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« Reply #187 on: May 18, 2016, 09:12:40 am »

https://www.yahoo.com/news/map-reveals-hiv-risk-greatest-southern-cities-gay-171504756.html
New Map Reveals HIV Risk Greatest in Southern Cities for Gay, Bisexual Men
5/17/16

A map documenting HIV rates for gay and bisexual men has revealed they are most at risk for becoming infected in multiple southern cities, according to a report being presented today by Emory University researchers.

The cities with the highest rates included Columbia, South Carolina, El Paso, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi. In these cities, more than 25 percent of men who have sex with men (MSM) had been diagnosed with HIV.

“This is really the first time we’ve been able to examine the HIV infection burden ... at such fine levels of geography,” Eli Rosenberg, assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, said during a news conference today.

According to the report, the South is home to 21 of the 25 metropolitan areas with the highest HIV prevalence among MSM. The analysis provides “new evidence” of a growing disparity between the HIV epidemic in the South relative to the rest of the U.S. -- but it is unclear whether this says more about rising transmission rates in the South, or public health successes in other regions.

Overall, gay and bisexual men are more than 57 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than other men in the U.S., the study authors said.

“Where HIV is most a problem are places that are failing gay men,” said George Ayala, executive director of the Global Forum on MSM and HIV, a leading advocacy group that was not involved in the report.

Where health systems fail, according to Ayala, is in the process of identifying people who have HIV and immediately linking them with care. Gay and bisexual men may be more likely to face additional barriers such as poverty and stigma, he said.

Because federal and state funding for HIV prevention can be directed to where the disease hits hardest, knowing where HIV is most concentrated may enable public health agencies and local organizations to tweak how they distribute resources at the local level, according to Rosenberg.

“We really want this to be a tool for public health practitioners and policy makers,” he said.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes the prevalence of HIV among different races and age groups, it reports only the raw number of cases among MSM. The Emory researchers used other national surveys, such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, to estimate where MSM were distributed across the country.

Estimates of MSM by race are also not available, though the CDC estimated in February that half of black MSM and a quarter of Latino MSM will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.

“To stop the spread of HIV in the U.S., we have to understand how, where, and among whom the epidemic is striking the hardest,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said during today's news conference.

Mermin said that a major focus of HIV prevention programs will be expanding access to HIV testing, treatment, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), especially among gay and bisexual men of color and transgender individuals. The CDC earmarks targeted funds as a supplement to state and local health departments.

According to one CDC study, these programs could prevent up to 70 percent of new infections over the next five years.

That's why experts say it is important that southern states and cities get on board. CDC data show that the South lags behind the rest of the U.S. when it comes to HIV-positive people getting the treatment they need, or even knowing they’re infected in the first place, Mermin said.

“You see disease concentrated in places that are poorly supported in terms of health infrastructure,” said Ayala. “Those things are really an important part of the story to tell about HIV in the United States."

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« Reply #188 on: May 19, 2016, 04:16:14 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/how-barack-obama-created-the-transgender-construct-to-completely-reset-american-society/

How Barack Obama Created The Transgender Construct To Completely Reset American Society

Barack Hussein Obama came out of the end times chute like a bullet, a man seemingly possessed of a single mission to radically transform the moral and ethical fabric of American society. In that regard he has been overwhelmingly successful. Here is the official White House 'short list' of his 'accomplishments' with regards to installing the LGBT Mafia as the ruling body in American government.Barack Hussein Obama came out of the end times chute like a bullet, a man seemingly possessed of a single mission to radically transform the moral and ethical fabric of American society. In that regard he has been overwhelmingly successful. Here is the official White House 'short list' of his 'accomplishments' with regards to installing the LGBT Mafia as the ruling body in American government.

5/19/16

Barack Obama may not be the Biblical Antichrist, but he sure comes close

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Daniel 7:25 (KJV)

I grew up in the semi-rural village of Pompton Lakes, New Jersey back in the 1970’s. In math class, I looked out the window at dairy cows grazing in the fields. It was a very small, quiet, insulated little town where everyone knew everyone else. Amazingly, we were only 27 miles as the crow flies from the largest city in the world, Manhattan. But entering within our borders it could have been the middle of Kansas if you didn’t know better. It was a great place to grow up and I have many wonderful memories of my life there.

Our main street was filled with the usual assortment of small town characters, with one exception. Roger. Roger Brown was a man who lived in the transient hotel up over the hair salon, and among his many personality quirks and foibles, one stood out from all the rest. Roger liked to wear women’s clothing, kinda like Klinger from MAS*H. Everybody knew who he was, and to a large degree no one bothered him as far as I know. He was never persecuted for his beliefs or taste in clothing. That being said, no one in town thought that how he lived as either an OK thing or a good thing. Christian parents would use him as an illustration to their children of what sin can do to you, and where it can take you.

His lifestyle was given no preference of any kind. When he had to use the bathroom, he went in the Men’s room like every other man in town. No special accommodations for his lifestyle choice, and rightly so. Wearing a dress or having breast implants does not ‘make you a woman’, what you ‘identify as’ is of no consequence. But 7 years ago we elected a man who would not only change the moral fabric of our society, but glorify all manner of sin, filth and perversion.

In 2016 in America, Barack Obama has fundamentally transformed our nation into something unrecognizable

Barack Hussein Obama came out of the end times chute like a bullet, a man seemingly possessed of a single mission to radically transform the moral and ethical fabric of American society. In that regard he has been overwhelmingly successful. Here is the official White House ‘short list’ of his ‘accomplishments’ with regards to installing the LGBT Mafia as the ruling body in American government.
•June 2009: Issued a directive on same-sex domestic partner benefits, opening the door for the State Department to extend the full range of legally available benefits and allowances to same-sex domestic partners of members of the Foreign Service sent to serve abroad. OPM also expanded federal benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees and allowed same-sex domestic partners to apply for long-term care insurance.
•October 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, extending coverage of federal hate crimes law to include attacks based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity—the first federal civil rights legislation to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
•March 2010: The Affordable Care Act funds preventive efforts for communities, and is making other investments that will help address health disparities. Through increased research and data collection on health disparities, policymakers will have the knowledge and tools they need to continue to address the health needs and concerns of the LGBT community.
•April 2010: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) now requires all hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds to allow visitation rights for LGBT patients. The President also directed HHS to ensure that medical decision making rights of LGBT patients are respected.
•December 2010: The President signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010  into law, allowing gay men and women to serve openly and with integrity in the U.S. military.
•February 2011: The Administration announced it would cease legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act’s provision defining marriage as only between a man and woman.
•February 2013: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) issued a Directive to specify care that is available to transgender veterans through VA benefits. The VA also launched an LGBT Veteran welcoming outreach campaign and established several new psychology postdoctoral fellowships specializing in LGBT health.
•February 2013: President Obama signed the VAWA reauthorization with important new provisions to protect LGBT victims of violence.
•June 2013: The Administration announced the first ever national study of discrimination in housing against LGBT persons and proposed new regulations to ensure that housing programs are open to all persons regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
•June 2013: After the United States v. Windsor decision, in which the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, the President instructed the Cabinet to review all federal statutes to ensure the decision was implemented swiftly and smoothly. After concluding its review, the Justice Department announced that in almost all instances it will extend benefits to same-sex married couples.
•March 2014: The Community Relations Service at the Department of Justice released a new training module for law enforcement professionals who interact with and protect transgender persons who may be victimized by crime.
•July 2014: The President signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment “because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin,” continuing to set an example as a model employer that does right by its employees.
•December 2014: The Attorney General released “Guidance for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity” which prohibits profiling based on sexual orientation or gender identity by federal law enforcement or local law enforcement working on federal task forces.

When you view the changes Barack Obama has made in bullet point fashion, the scope and depth is literally breathtaking. Have you ever asked yourself how one of the tiniest population groups in America, the LGBT, who according to government statistics make up only from 3-5% of our overall population, could effect such drastic change? And the amount of the population that ‘identify’ as transgender is smaller still than that. So how can this be happening?

Easy, Barack Obama is their champion, and he is forcing our society to completely rework itself to accommodate the preferences and perversions of the LGBT population. Mark my words, before it’s all over, if it ever is over, the government will call for and get protections for pedophiles and child molesters. They are contained under the LGBT umbrella as well. Obama is using the phony transgender construct to force change and destroy our society from the inside out. And we are letting him do it.

Where is the outrage from Christian America? Where are the million-man protests at the White House? Wake up, wake up!

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:28,29 (KJV)

Barack Obama may not be the Biblical Antichrist, but he sure comes close. But we strongly believe that God allowed him to become president as a judgment on America for our unwillingness to repent. God has given this nation over, allowing us to heap to ourselves every variety and style of sin we wish to embrace, and then will come on us the same destruction that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah.

So the next time you feel tempted to ‘congratulate yourself’ on how ‘tolerant and accepting’ America has become over the past 7 years, look up, because one day soon our judgment will turn from spiritual to physical, and you will feel what Sodom felt on the day it rained fire and brimstone.

Count on it.
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« Reply #189 on: May 20, 2016, 09:38:55 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/obama-appoints-transgender-man-barbara-satin-to-faith-based-advisory-board-position/
5/20/16

Obama Appoints Transgender Man Barbara Satin To Serve On ‘Faith Based’ Advisory Board

Barbara Satin is now involved with a number of homosexual and transgender advocacy groups and was invited to the White House earlier this year to speak to the Obama administration about housing issues for seniors who identify as homosexual or transgender.


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« Reply #190 on: May 21, 2016, 12:08:21 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/huffington-post-blasphemously-declares-jesus-christ-first-transgender-man/

Huffington Post Blasphemously Declares That Jesus Christ Is The ‘First Transgender Man’

The woman who wrote this article, if she is saved at all, is the perfect picture of the Laodicean Christian. Her erroneous supposition that Jesus was born 'genetically female' fails to take into consideration that the Holy Spirit, who conceived Jesus in Mary, is male.

5/21/16

How wicked and lost has society become that the idea of a transgender Jesus could even be discussed?

“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Jude 1:11-13 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below you will see the Huffington Post article claiming that the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the world’s ‘first transgender man’. We have published it in it’s entirety unedited so you can get the full scope of the blasphemy it contains. But know this, in these last days in which we live, this is what the Church will become. A lukewarm, clueless, blessings centered, self focused group of people who have no knowledge of Bible doctrine and have put Jesus Himself on the outside of His own church, knocking to be let back in. All manner of perversion has begin to creep into it unchecked as the great ‘falling away’ continues at full speed. The woman who wrote this article, if she is saved at all, is the perfect picture of the Laodicean Christian. Her erroneous supposition that Jesus was born ‘genetically female’ fails to take into consideration that the Holy Spirit, who conceived Jesus in Mary, is male.

REPRINTED FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST:

The current flap in conservative Christian circles about bathroom access is a bit baffling. They shout about God not making mistakes, as if God only works in binaries and anything falling outside of black and white cannot be from him. But we don’t have a black and white God; creation is so full of color and variation that it’s incomprehensible how we Christians struggle to pare him down to the limited palette of our individual expectations.

The worst offenders are the Christian’s who claim to take the Bible literally. Of course they don’t actually do that; they impose their own filters on stories and phrases to fit their particular ideology. If they really did as they claim to do, they would quickly see that Jesus must be, by their own exegetical rules, the first transgender male.

Let’s take a look at what the Bible and Christianity tell us.

The teaching of the church from ancient days through today is that Jesus received his fleshly self from Mary. The church also teaches that Jesus is the new Adam, born of the new Eve.

Now Eve is a fascinating creature for many reasons. The Bible tells us she is the first example of human cloning, which I touched on in this post. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If we take the Genesis account in it’s literal meaning, as conservative Christians demand that we do, she is also the first case of a transgender woman. God reached into Adam, pulled out a bit of rib bone, and grew Eve from that XY DNA into Adam’s companion. She was created genetically male, and yet trans-formed into woman.

Then along comes Jesus and the whole pattern is both repeated and reversed. The first couple’s refusal to cooperate is turned around by Mary’s yes, and the second act of cloning occurs. The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born. Born of her flesh. Born with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man.

States that do not support trans persons’ right to choose the restroom that fits their identity demand that bathroom usage be based on a person’s “biological sex.” One can imagine a future in which state licences require not only a vision test, but also a genetic test so that bouncers proofing at bathroom doors have something tangible to review. And that means that if Jesus and Eve were walking around today, perhaps shopping at the mall for a Father’s Day gift, they’d have to swap restrooms. Now Jesus could surely manage to finesse his way around a woman’s room, but poor Eve…

A quick look at the dictionary for the prefix “trans” tells us that it means “across,” “beyond,” “through,” and “changing thoroughly,” all of which are great terms for the person of Christ. He cuts across all boundaries. He is beyond our understanding. He is through all and in all. He changes us thoroughly into new creations.

In his person, and in his salvific actions, Jesus is truly the first and forever trans man. source
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« Reply #191 on: May 21, 2016, 07:39:07 pm »

What on earth is the matter with people?

Huffington Post comes out with honestly some of the stupidest things I've ever heard, and the Lord Jesus Christ being the first "transgender man" ranks as probably the stupidest ever.
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« Reply #192 on: May 21, 2016, 10:48:57 pm »

What on earth is the matter with people?

Huffington Post comes out with honestly some of the stupidest things I've ever heard, and the Lord Jesus Christ being the first "transgender man" ranks as probably the stupidest ever.

I don't know when the rapture will happen - but nonetheless not in a million years did I ever think it would come as LOW AS THIS!

Inadvertantly walking into the women's restroom was one of my top 5 most embarrassing moments (yes, did so when I was a LOST man 20 years ago). And as much as I rejected Jesus (before I got saved) all those years - even I would have found this "transgender Jesus" DISGUSTING as a lost man as well.

Like I said - I don't know when the rapture will happen, but please, PLEASE everyone guard your hearts with the written word of God as much as possible, b/c pretty soon it's going to come to a point when 99% of everything we look at has perversion in it!
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« Reply #193 on: May 23, 2016, 08:49:39 pm »

Church of Scotland Votes to Allow Appointment of Clergy in Same-Sex ‘Marriages’

The Church of Scotland, while stating that it “maintains its traditional view of marriage between a man and woman,” has voted to allow the appointment of clergy who are in same-sex “marriages.”

The 339-215 vote in Edinburgh allows individual congregations who disagree with the denomination’s stance on marriage to opt-out and select leaders who have “wed” their homosexual partners. The Assembly had been attended by 850 commissioners throughout Scotland, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

“Today’s decision means it will be possible for Kirk sessions and congregations to depart from the traditional understanding of marriage to call not only potentially a minister in a civil partnership but one who is in a same-sex marriage,” John Chalmers, principal clerk to the General Assembly, told the BBC.

He outlined that the vote does not allow clergy, however, to officiate same-sex nuptials.

“We had a debate which made very clear that we were not interfering with our theological definition of marriage and were not going to the place where ministers or deacons could themselves be conducting same-sex marriages,” Chalmers said. “It is an entirely different discussion.”

A vote on the matter will be held next year after the Theological Forum presents a report.

“[F]or many people, what today was about was simply tidying up and making the law of the church consistent with Scots law,” Chalmers explained. “Today I think people came to this decision with their minds on law and practice and not on theology and future practice.”

He opined following the vote that he hoped the denomination would now “put this issue to one side and we can now get on with what I believe are important issues—developing our vision for the church, increasing membership and developing our work around mission.”

But others, such as David Robertson, moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, found the outcome of the vote to be disappointing.

“It is a sad day for all the Christian churches in Scotland when what used to be the National Kirk, has now departed so clearly from the Bible,” he said. “In adopting this policy the Church of Scotland has not only dissociated itself from the vast majority of Christian churches throughout the world, but has lost all claim to be the National Church for Scotland.”

“It no longer speaks for Scotland and it no longer represents Scotland’s Christians,” Robertson continued. “We simply state ‘not in our name.'”

The Church of Scotland is known for its part in the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s, when it broke ties with Roman Catholics under the leadership of John Knox.

“But hereof be assured, that all is not lawful nor just that is statute by civil laws,” Knox once declared.

“Neither can oath nor promise bind any such people to obey and maintain tyrants against God and against His truth known,” he also stated.

http://christiannews.net/2016/05/22/church-of-scotland-votes-to-allow-appointment-of-clergy-in-same-sex-marriages/
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« Reply #194 on: May 24, 2016, 01:12:27 am »

FWIW, it's come to a point now where you pretty much understand these news articles, just by reading a mere couple of paragraphs.

Yeah, we are in those very days where evil has hit really rock bottom.
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« Reply #195 on: May 26, 2016, 02:55:35 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/church-scotland-votes-to-allow-sodomite-ministers-engage-in-same-sex-marriages/
5/26/16

Church of Scotland Votes To Allow Sodomite Ministers To Be In Same-Sex Marriages

The general assembly of the Church of Scotland, which opened in Edinburgh on Saturday, voted in favour of extending a law passed last May that permits ministers to be in same-sex civil partnerships.


The Church of Scotland’s highest law-making body has voted to allow its ministers to be in same-sex marriages

The church’s general assembly, which opened in Edinburgh on Saturday, voted in favour of extending a law passed last May that permits ministers to be in same-sex civil partnerships.

The decision, after years of deliberation, means the church maintains the traditional view marriage as between a man and woman, but allows individual congregations to “opt out” if they wish to appoint a minister or deacon in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership.

Any wider consideration of the theological understanding of same-sex marriage will not take place until the Theological Forum presents its report to the church next year.

More than 850 commissioners from across Scotland, the rest of the UK, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean registered to attend this year’s assembly, which began with a ceremony at the Assembly Hall attended by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

The opening saw the appointment of a new moderator, after the Right Rev Dr Angus Morrison stood down from the 12-month role. He was replaced by the Rev Dr Russell Barr, the founder of the Edinburgh-based homelessness charity Fresh Start.


Morrison said he felt a “sense of gratitude, relief and heartfelt appreciation” as he left the post, while Barr said his predecessor was a “great ambassador for the Church of Scotland”.

A letter from the Queen, highlighting the church’s efforts in the refugee crisis, was read aloud as the assembly got under way. She wrote: “At a time of such upheaval and unrest across the world, it is reassuring to hear that the Church of Scotland has made a particular priority of working to develop a coordinated response to the issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers.

“This international crisis requires a compassionate and generous response and we are pleased that in keeping with your priority to serve the poorest and most vulnerable, you are making such a valuable contribution.”

The Queen also acknowledged the church’s contribution to the United Nations climate change conference in Paris last year. source
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« Reply #196 on: June 02, 2016, 05:44:11 pm »

Mennonite Leader’s Credentials Suspended for ‘Ministerial Misconduct’ in Officiating ‘Gay Wedding’

A Mennonite leader in North Carolina has had his ministerial credentials suspended for officiating a same-sex “marriage” ceremony despite denominational prohibitions against the practice.


The Virginia Mennonite Conference suspended Isaac Villegas’ credentials on May 25. Villegas had been leading Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship in North Carolina and officiated a ceremony between two women on May 21.

Officiating such services requires an immediate suspension as per Conference guidelines.

“We hold the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995) to be the teaching position of the Mennonite Church USA. Thus ‘We believe that God intends marriage to be a covenant between one man and one woman for life,’” an online copy of the guidelines reads.

“Given the membership guidelines of the Mennonite Church USA, if a credentialed person conducts a covenanting ceremony for a same sex couple, their credentials will be immediately suspended while a review is underway,” it continues.

There are a variety of other sinful behaviors that also warrant suspension, including sexual abuse or harassment, the viewing of pornography and acts of physical violence.

Two days before his credentials were suspended, Villegas resigned from his position on the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board, citing a policy that he was encouraged to resign in February after expressing his intentions to officiate the service.

“The board has to manage a diversity of theological convictions in our denomination, and I understand their perspective on what is most helpful for board members to do and not do,” he wrote in his resignation letter according to Mennonite World Review. “So for those reasons I can understand why it is helpful to not have a member of the board who doesn’t follow part III of the Membership Guidelines.”

However, Villegas also opined that he wants Mennonite Church USA to change its stance on homosexuality.

“I hope that soon we will loosen the grip upon our lives of the denomination’s teaching position regarding sexuality; that soon we will no longer teach that queer desire is sinful; that soon we will let our churches bless those who wish to marry, whether gay or straight,” he said.

Villegas said that Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship concluded three years ago following an 18-month period of “discernment” that those who engage in homosexual behavior would not be prohibited from membership. He asserted that the decision was guided by God.

“In all of our discussions with our conference minister and the Faith and Life Commission, they did not seem willing to change their minds about the policy of the conference regarding people who are gay and lesbian, despite our congregational discernment,” Villegas said. “They seemed to be unwilling to listen to what our congregation was discerning about the direction of the Holy Spirit.”

However, as previously reported, one Mennonite congregation broke ties with Mennonite Church USA in 2014 over concerns that it was not doing enough to take a stand for biblical truth and to discipline those involved in homosexual relationships.

“We felt that Mennonite Church USA and [our church] were going in different directions concerning Scriptural authority and holiness,” Ross Miller, pastor of Hartville Mennonite Church in Lake, Ohio told the Mennonite World Review.

“We felt very strongly that that’s where God was calling us, but it was a very painful decision [to leave],” he said.

http://christiannews.net/2016/06/01/mennonite-leaders-credentials-suspended-for-ministerial-misconduct-in-officiating-gay-wedding/
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« Reply #197 on: June 06, 2016, 01:28:49 pm »

Lesbian Episcopal Priest Elizabeth M. Edman Says LGBTQ Pride Will ‘Revitalize Christianity’

Redeeming and embracing pride is “a narrow road, and it is challenging to walk,” Edman writes. “But it is no harder than the immense challenges faced by the prophets.” And this is precisely where homosexuals can help Christians, Edman insists, but only if Christians are willing to learn.

In a recent essay in Salon Magazine, the Reverend Elizabeth M. Edman argues for the power of “queer virtue” to combat “heteronormativity” and revitalize a Christianity that is too wedded to traditional ideas of human sexuality and marriage.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: In this down-is-up end times world in which we live, the LGBTQ are attempting to turn the Church of Jesus Christ into a queer paradise where God somehow now approves of what He wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah for doing. The Bible says that homosexuality and lesbianism are sins to be repented of, not celebrated. Pride is the sin of the Devil, so it’s little wonder that they call it the Pride Movement.

An Episcopal priest and a political strategist, Edman attempts to redeem the concept of “Pride” as central to the LGBT movement and integral to an authentically Christian life.

In her essay—excerpted from the book titled Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity—Edman laments that in Christian scripture and hymnody, pride is “condemned as a glaring and destructive human sin,” when in her mind it is a good and virtuous attitude.

“The complexity of these dynamics makes many of us queers keenly aware that our Pride is born of something deep within that connects us to one another, and also to something bigger than all of us,” Edman writes, which might indeed be God.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)

As biblical examples of pride, Edman enumerates several figures, including Moses and the Virgin Mary, as well as Abraham and the prophet Samuel. She fails to mention, however, that the same Bible refers to Moses as “the humblest man on the face of the earth.”

She also somehow misses the text where Mary says that God “has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts,” and bringing down the powerful, has “lifted up the lowly.”
It does seem oddly consistent, however, that an attempt to turn homosexual relations into a good and Godly act would be paired with an effort to rehabilitate pride and turn the sin of Satan into a virtue.

As Christian apologist C.S. Lewis famously wrote, “the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride,” adding that “it was through Pride that the devil became the devil.”

“Pride leads to every other vice,” Lewis wrote, and is “the complete anti-God state of mind.” “Cultivating Pride is tricky for Christians,” Edman admits, while adding that “Christians have a trickier path here than queers do.”

“Redeeming and embracing pride is “a narrow road, and it is challenging to walk,” Edman writes. “But it is no harder than the immense challenges faced by the prophets.” And this is precisely where homosexuals can help Christians, Edman insists, but only if Christians are willing to learn.

“If we are to use queerness to help us understand our own identities and Pride, Christians must become aware of and resist the impulse, conscious or subconscious, to deny the existence of LGBTQ people,” she writes.

“Our attempts to proclaim a more authentic Gospel will not go far enough unless and until we become conscious of heteronormative impulses within our tradition and work to dismantle them,” she says.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26,27 (KJV)

This is the onerous task that Rev. Edman proposes, one that involves stripping the Bible of its “heteronormativity” and remaking Christianity in the image of a society that glorifies gender fluidity and pansexualism.

“Queerfolk will tell you: for us, rooting out all the internalized homophobia/biphobia/ transphobia/queerphobia is a lifelong endeavor,” Edman writes.

A good many Christians will hope she never succeeds. For Christians to embrace sodomy as sacred and pride as virtue is to turn the teachings of Jesus on their head. This might sound good to the Reverend Edman, but to most of the rank-and-file faithful it sounds suspiciously like evil. source

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/lesbian-episcopal-priest-elizabeth-edman-says-lgbtq-pride-will-revitalize-christianity/
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« Reply #198 on: June 11, 2016, 07:00:31 pm »

Churches bring messages of openness to Indy's Pride festival

Smiling parade-goers of the 2016 Cadillac Barbie IN Pride Parade filled the streets of Downtown Indianapolis on Saturday. Cars honked, rainbow-beads-wearing marchers skipped, and members of various organizations waved rainbow flags and signs as Circle City IN Pride festival-goers shouted their support.

Businesses and local residents have shown support for the LGBTQ community at Pride events in Indianapolis since 1988. Churches have been there, too.

"There's an enormous array of diversity here, and we want to be like Jesus and reach out to people who have been shunned. Like he did." said Rev. Michael Montgomery, leader of Indianapolis’ First Congregational United Church of Christ and a first-time Pride-goer.

There was diversity in religion on the parade route.

“Quakers support the LGBTQ!” read one of the signs, held high and waved to cheers from the crowd. Smiling members of religious organizations such as St. Peter’s Church, Christian Theological Seminary and Unity of Indianapolis followed. “Jesus doesn’t discriminate” and “Jesus Loves ALL people” were yelled in response to the members’ raised messages, Jesus’ name in rainbow colors.

The experience was “very impressive,” for Montgomery.

“People don’t believe there are churches open for them if they’re curious -- and I want them to know that Jesus didn’t teach hatred,” he said.

The United Church of Christ has been coming to Pride for 12 years. But Montgomery has only been in Indianapolis since July, so Pride was a novel but important event for him to attend.

The United Church of Christ congregation voted to be “openly affirming” in 1994 and had a booth set up with information about their congregations. Montgomery said he was encouraged to see corporations here “making bold steps” toward helping the LGBTQ community in Indiana.

“No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here,” read the message on the church's pamphlets.

Haley Dillon, with a unicorn horn on her head, wanted to experience the feeling of welcome at her second Pride festival. She was encouraged to represent the bisexual community and diffuse assumptions that LGBTQ only covered homosexual orientations.

“A lot of the times, people want to exclude the outer edges of the LGBTQ community,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that say ‘bi people are like unicorns, they don’t exist,’ so I dressed like one to show that, yes, we do exist. I wanted to be here for a reason.”

Dillon marched in the 2015 parade with Planned Parenthood but took a break this year to watch with her friend, Zachary “Hedwig” Allen. Allen wanted to bring awareness to the trans community and cross-dressed with a blonde wig, bustier and fishnet tights.

“Pride is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I finally got around to it,” Allen said. “A lot of people are anti-trans right now, and I want to make it clear that we are not going to be silenced! I’m not dressing the way my government says.”

Protections for transgender individuals were left out of state legislation designed to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, but that measure failed earlier this year. That result left festival-goer Tyler Moore uncomfortable.

“I’m here because things like Pride are even more important, given the issues in our state,” he said. “We have to convey to people in our community that’s not how everyone in Indianapolis thinks. Not everyone is a bigot here. We need to move forward.”

Moore says he is gay and loves seeing people bond together in “such a red state!”

City ordinances in Indianapolis currently protect against anti-gay discrimination in the workplace, but not for transgendered individuals.

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/06/11/churches-bring-messages-openness-indys-pride-festival/85768050/
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« Reply #199 on: June 14, 2016, 11:05:22 pm »

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/14/california-pastor-resigns-over-gay-marriage-stance/85886338/
6/14/16
California pastor resigns over gay marriage stance

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The top pastor of Southwest Church in Indian Wells was asked to resign because he refused to condemn homosexuality, he explained in his resignation letter.

A few months ago, Gerald Sharon — who has been lead pastor of Southwest since 2013 and previously served at Saddleback Church in Orange County — asked the church hierarchy to look into “the extent to which a homosexual individual could be involved in the life of Southwest Church.”

While the church leadership initially seemed engaged in the discussions, they recently sent Sharon a letter in which they unanimously affirmed the Southwest’s current position on homosexuality.

Southwest’s LGBT policy is written down in a document titled “Homosexuality and Human Sexuality.” The document does not appear to be publicly available.

“My heart sank realizing that no homosexual person who would read these documents would truly feel welcome at Southwest Church,” Sharon wrote in his resignation letter.

“And, if the positions held in these papers are followed, they will effectively exclude homosexual individuals from the life of Southwest. My desire was to rescind these papers, neither affirming nor condemning homosexuality so that all individuals regardless of their perspective could feel completely welcome and fully loved at Southwest.”

Sharon’s resignation is effective July 8, but the church elders have forbidden him from attending any services at Southwest, according to the resignation letter.

“The reason I have not taught the past four weekends is because the Elders would not permit me to, nor did they want Gesa and I even attending services,” the pastor wrote. “However, I don’t want there to be any doubt that my heart and Gesa’s heart intensely longs for you every day.”

Church elders announced Sharon's abrupt departure to their members during Saturday's evening service, hours before a gunman killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. Several families walked out of the service after hearing the elders' message.

“I couldn’t support their decision,” Paula Marvin said. “I just looked at my husband and said ‘so you want to leave?’”

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« Reply #200 on: June 16, 2016, 03:36:41 pm »

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/gay-republican-chris-barron-says-donald-trump-most-lgbt-friendly-nominee-1565893?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news&yptr=yahoo
Gay Republican Chris Barron says Donald Trump is the most LGBT-friendly nominee
6/16/16

Gay Republican activist Chris Barron has an effort to call on LGBT people to support Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. According to Barron, Trump is the "most pro-gay Republican nominee ever".

Barron is the co-founder of GoProud, a conservative gay group and a strategist for the Republican Party. He said that the issues Trump focused on, such as terrorism, healthcare, retirement security and jobs, were all reasons for LGBT Americans to vote for him.

Speaking to CNN, Barron said: "All of those issues impact the LGBT community. I have no doubt that Donald Trump presidency would be better for LGBT Americans. In this election, either Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President of the United States or Donald Trump is. For me, despite my differences with Trump in the past, it was a slam dunk, I want Donald Trump to be the President."

However, Barron hasn't always been a fan of Trump and was actually a harsh critic of the Republican nominee during the primaries. At the time, Barron even tweeted: "We are keeping lists of you Trump people. You will never live this shame down. If you support Trump, you are an idiot."

Defending his comments, Barron said that the primaries had been exciting but that the Republicans now needed to understand that the White House is at stake. He insisted that it was time to put aside differences and urged Republicans to rally behind their nominee.

Barron said: "Does that mean that I loved Donald Trump during the primaries or that he was my preferred candidate? Absolutely not. Does that mean that I'm going to take my ball and go home now and support Hillary Clinton? No, absolutely not."

Barron's comments come one day after Dan Savage, American writer and LGBT activist, called Trump the "enemy of the LGBT community". When asked about Trump's stance on LGBT issues, Barron said that Trump can disagree on the topic of gay marriage, but would be unable to change anything.

He said: "Donald Trump can say that he disagrees on the issue of marriage but it's a settled issue. We're not going to have a constitutional amendment; we're not going to have the Supreme Court reserve it."
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« Reply #201 on: June 20, 2016, 01:12:31 am »

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« Reply #202 on: June 20, 2016, 07:59:18 pm »

University Founded by Methodist Church to Offer Sex Change Surgeries to Students

A private university in Tennessee that was founded by the Methodist Church will soon begin covering transgender-related surgeries under its student insurance plans, drawing sharp criticism from a local congresswoman.

Vanderbilt University is a private school in Nashville, Tennessee. For the first 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt was under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. However, the school and the church severed their ties with each other in 1914.

According to a report from Vanderbilt’s student newspaper, the school will soon begin covering transgender-related surgeries under the student insurance plan. Medical documentation obtained by Christian News Network shows that the operations will be covered just like “any other eligible service” once the policy goes into effect at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, meaning students will not have to pay for the surgeries out of pocket.

Over 70 colleges and universities across the U.S. currently provide similar services to their students. Evidently, a small number of activists at Vanderbilt convinced university officials to include sex-change surgeries in the insurance plan.

“The change was proposed by Dr. Louise Hanson, director of the Vanderbilt student health center, after she met with several student patients who wanted to pursue the operations but couldn’t afford them,” the student newspaper’s report said.

Hanson said she was upset that some students could not afford sex-change surgeries and urged the university to finance the operations.

“It came out of feeling limited in our ability to take full and complete care of our transgender students,” Hanson told The Tennessean. “It really came out of our frustration.”

Cynthia Cyrus, vice provost for learning and residential affairs at Vanderbilt, was part of the committee that considered Hanson’s proposal. She said they swiftly approved the proposition without much deliberation.

“It was relatively non-controversial on our side,” Cyrus said, according to reports. “It was maybe a two-paragraph conversation, not deeply debated in any way.”

Although university officials are downplaying the controversial nature of the policy change, at least one local lawmaker is criticizing the school’s decision. In a statement on her website, U.S. Representative Diane Black said the move lacks common sense.

“Let’s be honest, this decision is not about the health and wellbeing of Vanderbilt University students, it is about the political agenda of liberal university administrators,” said Black, who represents Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. “Our institutions of higher learning exist to graduate students who are career ready and are prepared to compete in the global economy, not to play politics by providing insurance coverage of medically unnecessary procedures while raking in federal grants.”

“With this stunt, Vanderbilt University has shown itself to be completely out of touch with the values of most Tennesseans, and has surely alienated more than a few students, parents, and donors,” she continued. “I’m especially concerned that, by the university’s own admission, this decision was ‘not deeply debated in any way’—showing just how little thought went in to such a far-reaching policy. For all the advanced degrees that exist among Vanderbilt University’s senior administration, there is a painfully obvious lack of commonsense.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/06/20/university-founded-by-methodist-church-to-offer-sex-change-surgeries-to-students/
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« Reply #203 on: June 28, 2016, 10:52:19 pm »

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« Reply #204 on: July 01, 2016, 10:15:00 pm »

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chose-live-transgender-congressional-nominee-000000592.html
'I chose to live': Transgender congressional nominee Misty Plowright talks about her historic victory
7/1/16

This week, Democratic congressional hopeful Misty Plowright became one of two transgender women named Misty to win a major-party primary vote, something no transgender person had done before.

Plowright will challenge Rep. Doug Lamborn in Colorado, and Misty Snow will run against Sen. Mike Lee in Utah this November.

The 33-year-old Plowright joined Yahoo News guest anchor Stephanie Sy from Denver on Friday to talk about her historic primary victory, serving in the military under the transgender ban and her dilemma over whom to vote for in the presidential election.

Growing up Southern Baptist in northwest Arkansas, Plowright felt “pretty early on” that she identified as female, but had no idea what that meant or how to articulate it, she told Sy.

It wasn’t until her teenage years that she actually started to “figure out what was going on,” but even then, “it wasn’t something I could talk about or try to get help with, so it got suppressed.”

Then in 2004, after completing her service in the Army, Plowright said, “I couldn’t suppress it anymore.”

“It was kind of a do or die moment for me, and I chose to live.”

It seems especially fitting, then, that in the same week she became the Democratic congressional nominee for Colorado’s most conservative district, the U.S. military lifted its longtime ban on transgender troops — a move that Plowright, a veteran of the Army, called “long overdue.”

The ban “certainly kept me from being open about who I was,” Plowright said, adding, “Trans people having to suppress their identity is, in a lot of ways, it’s soul crushing.”

Even with the ban lifted, Plowright predicts that “being out in the military will be very challenging for a while.”

“It takes time for certain mindsets to change,” she said. “But that change is happening, and it will get a lot easier as time goes by.”


Plowright also dismissed concerns expressed by some that allowing transgender troops to serve openly could somehow affect troop readiness.

“That gets said anytime anything in the military changes to make it more inclusive,” she said. “There might be issues occasionally here and there from people who are intolerant or can’t get over it, but the reality of the situation is these people can do the job, and that’s what’s really important for unit readiness.”

In general, Plowright said, “I don’t see any reason to bar anyone from serving that wants to and is capable of performing the job.”

It’s this kind of attitude that appears to be driving Plowright’s run for Congress.

When asked how her largely conservative constituency has responded to the fact that she and her wife of nine years are currently in a polyamorous relationship with a man, the candidate said that “so far the voters that I’ve talked to frankly don’t really care that much.”

“They’re much more interested in issues like jobs, national security, defense, guns, property rights,” she said. “They’re very interested in the issues, not so much my personal life.”

Perhaps that’s because, as Plowright pointed out, she’s long kept the two separate, choosing to focus her political platform more on the economy, for example, rather than LGBTQ rights.

“It’s not really a fight that I’ve been involved in much in the past,” she said. “For a very long time I’ve been quite content to stay in the shadows where it’s safe. But to really effect change, you have to get out there, you have to be willing to put it all on the line.”

If elected, Plowright said, she would support any sort of action to end discrimination, arguing that while last year’s Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality was certainly a watershed moment for gay rights, “there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

“The trans community faces a lot of issues that the gay community largely doesn’t have to worry about,” she said. “The bathroom bills are a perfect example.”

As Plowright proceeds to seek support for her own campaign, she’s also bracing for a difficult decision at the polls this November. An ardent Bernie Sanders supporter, Plowright said that while she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2008, the presumptive Democratic nominee’s “tenure as secretary of state has not sat well with me at all.”

On the other hand, she said, “Trump scares the hell out of me.”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m going to have to see what happens. I’ve never cast a vote against anyone in my life … that may very well change next November.”
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« Reply #205 on: July 02, 2016, 09:20:33 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/lawsuit-forces-christianmingle-com-allow-lgbt-dating-profiles-site/

ChristianMingle.Com Forced By LGBT Lawsuit To Allow Gay And Lesbian Dating Profiles On Their Site

ChristianMingle.com, billed as the largest online community for Christian singles, required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. The lead plaintiffs, two gay men who tried using it, claimed that the limited options violated California’s anti-discrimination law.


7/2/16

The owner of online dating site ChristianMingle.com has agreed to let gay and lesbian users search for same-sex matches under a judge-approved settlement of discrimination claims.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Question: so why would 2 gay men even want to have a profile on a CHRISTIAN dating site? Answer: they wouldn’t. So why did they sue? For the same reason why the Christian bakers were forced to make gay wedding cakes. The LGBT Agenda is about crushing the opposition and forcing a New World Order agenda on you. Please note that you will NEVER see the LGBT suing a Muslim bakery, a Muslim online dating site or anything else connected with Islam. Don’t you think it’s time YOU woke up?

Two gay men filed class-actions claims against Spark Networks Inc. in California courts in 2013 alleging that ChristianMingle.com and several other sites in the company’s portfolio of niche dating services excluded users looking to meet singles of the same sex.

ChristianMingle.com, billed as the largest online community for Christian singles, required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. The lead plaintiffs, two gay men who tried using it, claimed that the limited options violated California’s anti-discrimination law.

Known as the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the state law requires “business establishments” to offer “full and equal accommodations” to people regardless of their sexual orientation.


Under the agreement, the gateway homepages now ask just whether a user is a “man” or a “woman.” Spark Networks agreed that within two years, it would adjust other searching and profile features to give gay and lesbian singles a more tailored experience.

The terms approved by a state judge on Monday also apply to other Spark sites— including CatholicMingle.com, AdventistSinglesConnection.com and BlackSingles.com— that had operated in the same way.

Spark Networks also owns the popular online Jewish matchmaker JDate.com, which wasn’t part of the litigation.

Spark Networks agreed to pay each plaintiff $9,000 each and $450,000 in attorneys’ fees to the two men’s lawyers.

The company didn’t admit any wrongdoing as part of the agreement, which was earlier reported by the Daily Journal legal newspaper.

“I am gratified that we were able to work with Spark to help ensure that people can fully participate in all the diverse market places that make our country so special, regardless of their sexual orientation,” one of the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys, Vineet Dubey of Custodio & Dubey LLP, said in a statement.

A representative of Spark Networks said the company was “pleased to resolve this litigation.” source
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« Reply #206 on: July 10, 2016, 09:40:32 pm »

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/moderate-republicans-propose-softening-official-gop-position-on-lgbt/
Republicans to consider softening party's official language on LGBT
7/9/16

With the Republican National Convention less than two weeks away, moderate Republicans are drafting an amendment that would soften the GOP's official position on gays and lesbians, CBS News has learned.

The party's official stance on LGBT issues will be debated during next week's meeting of the RNC's platform committee, a 112-member group of Republican activists from around the country.

Outside Republican groups have been publicly pushing the party to modify its stance on same-sex marriage for over a year, but multiple sources told CBS News that the effort has officially taken hold among a group of platform committee members who are furiously polishing their amendment ahead of the party gathering in Cleveland.

It's unclear if Donald Trump, the party's likely nominee, supports the changes or is actively involved in shaping the platform.

Perhaps more surprising than the effort itself is the fact that staunch social conservatives from the Midwest and South are prepared to accept rhetorical tweaks.

Currently, the language adopted during the 2012 platform calls the "redefinition of marriage" by state courts an "assault on the foundations of society." It's unclear whether or not this language will be eliminated. But the compromise that some delegates are expecting is the addition of "equality language."

"Equality for all people," is how one member of the platform committee described the language to CBS News. "That would be a hard thing for Republicans not to vote for."

"The compromises are going to end up in the same place where it's pretty much been, just to keep the fighting at a minimum. But there are ways to say things that show we are a party that believes in fairness for all Americans," the delegate added.

Trump has positioned himself as a pro-LGBT candidate, especially since the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando in June.

"Ask yourself who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community. Donald Trump with actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words?" Trump said after the shooting, during a speech on terrorism and national security in New Hampshire, a state that has legalized same-sex marriage.

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« Reply #207 on: July 13, 2016, 11:10:25 pm »

Anglican ‘Church’ of Canada Votes to Approve Same-Sex ‘Marriage’

The Anglican Church of Canada has voted to approve of same-sex “marriage” a day after a miscount resulted in reports that the measure had been struck down.

“A minister may only solemnize a marriage between persons of the same sex if authorized by the diocesan bishop,” the resolution, moved by minister Colin Johnson, read.

It also proposed to substitute the word “partners” for “husband and wife” in church canon, and to substitute “the parties to the marriage” for “a man and a woman.”

Discussion and debate was held about the matter during the General Synod July 7-12 in Richmond Hill. Anglicans currently officiate over civil unions, but church canon recognizes marriage as being between only a man and a woman.

“I’m convinced full inclusion is the Christian way,” Alistair McCollum of St. John the Divine told the Times Colonist. “There is still a large part of the church that is struggling with this and they are good-hearted. … but we need to use our hearts and heads and follow the prime principles of love and justice.”

However, others were concerned that some ministers seemed to conjoin being a pastor with supporting same-sex nuptials.

“I will not approve this,” David Parsons of the diocese of the Arctic stated during the gathering. “[But] I will be pastoral to everyone.”

Yukon Bishop Larry Robertson walked out in protest, opining that the issue was too divisive.

“I cannot participate in a decision-making that pits soul against soul, brother against brother,” he stated. “I will neither vote yea or nay, and I will not be abstaining. I will not participate in the decision-making; I will participate in this house as a bishop of this church. I will continue to proclaim the gospel.”

The resolution’s authors had compiled a report about the matter, asserting, “The experience of same-sex committed partnerships in our midst, clearly manifesting God’s blessing and the fruit of the Spirit, are a powerful indication that God’s view of marriage may be more inclusive than ours.”

But the report also provided insight into the opposition to the move, including from a church member who wrote a letter to express his concern.

“It shouldn’t be up to me or any other layperson to decide what is and what isn’t God’s revealed truth. The fact that I have to write this letter to defend one of the most fundamental doctrines of the church as made clear by Scripture, tradition and reason is disheartening to say the least,” they wrote.

On Monday, it appeared that the resolution had failed by a single vote, but it was later discovered that one vote had been mistakenly counted in the lay order instead of the clergy order. For a resolution to pass, it must obtain a two-thirds majority in the lay, clergy and bishops orders.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz announced on Tuesday that there had been a counting error and that the resolution had actually passed.

The theme of this year’s Synod was “You Are My Witnesses,” based upon Isaiah 43:10. 1.6 million Canadians currently identify as Anglican.

http://christiannews.net/2016/07/13/anglican-church-of-canada-votes-to-approve-same-sex-marriage/
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« Reply #208 on: July 13, 2016, 11:20:03 pm »

UK United Reformed Church Votes to Allow Same-Sex ‘Weddings’ in Houses of Worship

The United Reformed Church (URC) in the United Kingdom has overwhelmingly voted to allow same-sex “weddings” to be held in houses of worship.

“Today the URC has made an important decision at which some will rejoice and with which others will be uncomfortable,” General Secretary John Proctor said in a statement. Those of our churches who now wish to offer full marriage services to same-sex couples are free to do just that, and those churches who do not wish to are not compelled to.”

The 240-21 vote took place on Saturday in Southport during the URC’s General Assembly. A two-thirds majority was needed for the passage of the proposal.

The Assembly has considered the issue for the past three years, and last year, it was concluded that the decision whether or not to allow nuptials between those of the same gender should be left up to each congregation.

“This has been a sensitive issue for many in our churches,” Proctor said. “It has been important to take our time over the decision process, and to listen as carefully as we can to one another along the way.”

URC officials advise on the denomination’s website that guidance for congregations in England and Wales that wish to register to hold same-sex “weddings” in their sanctuaries will be issued within the week.

They also note, as per Proctor, that Reformed ministers who decline to officiate homosexual ceremonies may not “prevent local churches from registering their buildings.”

“But if the building were registered, the minister would not be obliged to officiate,” the site outlines. “Local churches cannot, and the denomination will not, compel ministers to conduct same-sex marriages against their conscience.”

Reformed minister Malcom Hanson, amid calling the issue a “biblical puzzle,” admitted in an article on the matter last year that “‘one plus one’ is about the union of complementaries”—or the fact that God created the woman as the complement to the man. He said that the Scriptures cannot simply be discarded about the matter.

“In other words, if we dismiss Leviticus 18:22 (‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman’) and similarly negative passages as not relevant to our present understanding of sexuality, how do we handle Genesis 2:24 (‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh’) and similarly positive passages?” Hanson asked.

“We have commonly understood marriage to be based on the Genesis model, endorsed by Jesus and confirmed by nature,” he wrote.

The United Reformed Church was founded in 1972 and has roots in Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. It currently has an estimated 1,500 congregations throughout the U.K. and Wales.

Saturday’s vote makes the URC the largest professing Christian body in the U.K. that allows same-sex “marriages” in the house of God.

http://christiannews.net/2016/07/12/uk-united-reformed-church-votes-to-allow-same-sex-weddings-in-houses-of-worship/
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« Reply #209 on: July 18, 2016, 07:57:08 pm »

United Methodists Elect Open Lesbian for Bishop Despite Prohibition

Delegates at the United Methodist Western Jurisdictional Conference have voted to elect an open lesbian as bishop despite prohibitions against such appointments.

Karen Oliveto of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco was elected on the 17th ballot after several others withdrew from the election, including one other openly homosexual candidate. According to reports, Oliveto has officiated over 50 same-sex ceremonies herself.

“I think at this moment I have a glimpse of the realm of God,” Oliveto asserted following the vote, according to United Methodist News.

“I want to thank the candidates who I have journeyed with these past few days, for the grace with which we walked with each other,” she said. “And know I stand before you because of the work and prayers of so many, especially those saints who yearned to live for this day, who blazed a trail where there was none, who are no longer with us, and yet whose shoulders I stand on.”

As previously reported, Oliveto, David Meredith and Frank Wulf were all nominated during the meetings of the Western and North Central jurisdictions last month, with their nomination being publicly announced by Reconciling Ministries, a homosexual advocacy group that professes to be Christian.

Executive Director Matt Berryman asserted that the nomination of the three was led by the Holy Spirit.

“On the heels of the 2016 General Conference, the Spirit of God is now raising up three openly gay candidates for the office of bishop,” he claimed in a blog post. “Building on the courage and work of the saints who have gone before, Dr. Karen Oliveto, Frank Wulf, and David Meredith are called by God to serve the church in sharing their gifts of visionary leadership for the life of the world.”

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However, as previously reported, the United Methodist Book of Discipline outlines that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” may not be ordained as ministers in the denomination.

“While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world,” the book reads.

In light of the prohibition, some expressed disappointment with Oliveto’s election.

“This election raises significant concerns and questions of church polity and unity,” Bishop Bruce Ough, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said in a statement.

“Any elder in good standing is eligible for election as a bishop of the church. An elder under an unresolved complaint is still considered to be in good standing. Being a self-avowed, practicing homosexual is a chargeable offense for any clergyperson in The United Methodist Church, if indeed this is the case,” he explained.

Rob Renfroe of the United Methodist group Good News also issued strong remarks in light of the vote.

“It is deplorable that the Western Jurisdiction, along with many annual conferences, has ignored the Council of Bishop’s proposal, ratified by the General Conference, for a ‘pause for prayer—to step back from attempts at legislative solutions and to intentionally seek God’s will for the future,’” he said.

“Instead, these conferences have moved ahead with legislative enactments pledging non-conformity with the Book of Discipline, culminating in the election of a practicing homosexual as bishop,” Renfroe stated. “If the Western Jurisdiction wanted to push the church to the brink of schism, they could not have found a more certain way of doing so.”

Wulf withdrew from the election earlier this past week prior to Oliveto’s election.

http://christiannews.net/2016/07/17/united-methodists-elect-open-lesbian-for-bishop-despite-prohibition/
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