This really saddens and almost sickens me.

[Tarheel Baptist]

This was posted by one of my FB friends yesterday. This church is about a mile from my house but it is in a College Town…a very Progressive College and community.

On Sunday, August 16, Elon Community Church did something that was both remarkable and, in another sense, exactly what it has been saying it believes for years. In the heart of conservative Alamance County, North Carolina, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to call a new head pastor. He is gay. He has a husband. And he is no stranger to the church.
Years ago, while a student at Elon University, he served as an intern at Elon Community Church. His experience there helped lead him toward seminary and ministry, and he was eventually ordained in that same sanctuary. After years of successfully leading churches in Connecticut, he has now been called home to become the church's pastor.
Elon Community Church is an Open and Affirming congregation. Rainbow-colored doors stand outside the church as a public declaration that all are welcome. But there's a difference between putting a belief on a sign and being asked to live it. This past weekend, the congregation was asked to decide whether those doors were simply a symbol—or a promise.
The vote was 95.6 percent yes.

 

[Ransom]

But there's a difference between putting a belief on a sign and being asked to live it.

I don't know. I had a look at their Web page. They're "affirming" not only of homosexuality, but pagan religions as well (their rainbow-coloured doors hold symbols for Buddhism, Baha'i, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism).

That identity is front and centre: part and parcel of their branding.

So I doubt it's a matter of questioning whether they'd put their money where their mouth is. I guess they've been champing at the bit for ages for the opportunity to gay up their pulpit.

 

[abcaines]

I seem to remember a similar story unfolding a couple years ago on this forum.

 

[ALAYMAN]

Love is love.

 

[AverageJoe]

Love is love.

I know you're joking around here, but you know that's a bunch of horse droppings! We've got a Community Church in a town we used to live in that has a lesbian couple as co-pastors. They were pushing this tripe 20+ years ago and now have a church full of homosexuals, deviants, and unsaved people.

 

[voicecrying]

Love is love.

Up is up.
Green is green.

 

[ALAYMAN]

I know you're joking around here, but you know that's a bunch of horse droppings! We've got a Community Church in a town we used to live in that has a lesbian couple as co-pastors. They were pushing this tripe 20+ years ago and now have a church full of homosexuals, deviants, and unsaved people.

Your point is well taken. I’ve often thought of people who were spending their lives. In places they call churches, hearing a message that is a lie, thinking that they are accepted by God on the basis of some man-made morality. And at the end of that they become that group of people that is mentioned in Matthew 7:21-23

 

[AverageJoe]

Your point is well taken. I’ve often thought of people who were spending their lives. In places they call churches, hearing a message that is a lie, thinking that they are accepted by God on the basis of some man-made morality. And at the end of that they become that group of people that is mentioned in Matthew 7:21-23

It is indeed a sad thing. We have several family members who are in "churches" like these, and even though I'm not IFB MILITANT fundamentally like David Cloud or others, having moderated some of my viewpoints while still within BIBLICAL guidelines, I'm considered by them to be a MILITANT fundamentalist. I'm praying for them to leave these false gospel preaching gatherings and joining a solid Bible preaching church.

 

[brianb]

I don't know. I had a look at their Web page. They're "affirming" not only of homosexuality, but pagan religions as well (their rainbow-coloured doors hold symbols for Buddhism, Baha'i, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism).

That identity is front and centre: part and parcel of their branding.

So I doubt it's a matter of questioning whether they'd put their money where their mouth is. I guess they've been champing at the bit for ages for the opportunity to gay up their pulpit.

They are what you'd expect - socially and theological liberal. What's more surprising and worse is when the theologically conservative are gay affirming. We have a few of those in the far left side of Canada (Abbotsford for sure and I've heard even in Vancouver in the denomination I went to church in my childhood).

 

[Ransom]

We have a few of those in the far left side of Canada (Abbotsford for sure and I've heard even in Vancouver in the denomination I went to church in my childhood).

It isn't just the left side. There are Anglican and United churches here in Ottawa whose entire identity is defined by the stripy sex flags on their buildings. The United Churches of Christ in the States was fully affirming of gay clergy a few years before even the United Church of Canada.