Re: [asa] Two questions...

On 2/7/09, Jim Armstrong <jarmstro@qwest.net> wrote:

> This looks to me like the same situation as is faced by a younger friend of
> mine who was raised in and identifies with a more conservative portion of
> the Christian community. But he is gay. That presents an almost insoluble
> problem for him. He wants to live in integrity and open fellowship, but that
> has been denied him multiple time in the conservative Christian community.
> He can find Christian fellowships where this is simply not an issue at all,
> but those are all more liberal-leaning (I know, I know, ...I don't really
> like that term, but it is a useful shorthand here...I think). He has only
> found unconditional acceptance in the more liberal fellowships where more
> diversity in perspectives is ubiquitous but uncomfortable to him. He has no
> desire to be a member of a "gay church", just a participative member of a
> conservative-leaning evangelical church that doesn't care about his gayness.

Just a note here. The Metropolitan Church (in Austin, Texas) is one
who accepts and ordains people of LGTB orientation and is doctrinally
quite orthodox. I'm sure there are others -- I know of at least one
UCC and one Lutheran church of that nature here in Houston. Our
Presbyterian church in Rico, Colorado, was also one such. Our
newspaper ad includes the text "The Rico Community Church welcomes
everyone, regardless of religious persuasuon, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, age or gender." There are also two (at least)
Presbyterian churches (Central and First) in Austin. These are not
"liberal" churches.

I urge your friend to keep looking!

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Mon Feb 9 10:28:02 2009