Speaking of forgiveness, last weekend, gay pride parades were held all over the US. Where you normally see fire and brimstone protests, the Marin Foundation, a non-profit that aims to build a bridge between the religious and GLBT communities through scientific research, and Biblical and social education, showed up to the Chicago parade with a different message.
You can read more about it here.
What an amazing story! Thanks for sharing.
After reading the full post, this seems like the other extreme of the fire and brimstone approach. Not only should we accept the homosexual lifestyle but we should also apologize for ever saying it was immoral and disordered.
Obviously we need to avoid an extreme of bashing people over the head but there must be a pastoral way of telling people in sin the truth. This, sadly, does much more harm than good. The most pastoral thing you can do is to tell people the truth.
It’s similar to abortion. When a woman comes in seeking healing for a past abortion, the LAST thing you do is tell them it was not a big deal. They have been wounded for the last however many years from what they have done, whether they were culpable or not, and they need to know that it was wrong and God willingly gives His forgiveness and mercy.
Colin, I do agree with you that the most pastoral thing you can do is to tell people the truth. However, it’s hard for me to say necessarily that this instance is the other extreme of fire and brimstone.
I’m somewhat familiar with the Marin Foundation and have been reading through Andrew Marin’s book, Love is an Orientation. He has some good things to say, but I know there’s also some controversy with him. The blog post doesn’t seem to make a definitive statement in terms of accepting the lifestyle and I might be reading too much between the lines, but it seemed to me to be more about apologizing for ways Christians have been unloving in the past though what that means to each party is likely different =P.
I guess the hard line is to figure out is how to tell people with truth AND grace. Jesus, as usual, was the master at this. I just wish I was better at figuring out what he would do in these situations =).