I forgot that Tuesday was “Vile Affections” Day! Yes, ‘31 years ago – on May 17, 1990 – the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) celebrates LGBTQIA+ people globally, and raises awareness for the work still needed to combat discrimination.’https://www.idahobit.org.au/index.php/get-active/the-stats
sin
All posts tagged sin
‘A Colorado mother was cut off at her local school board meeting after trying to read out a sexually explicit passage from a book she said was available to children in the school district.
The mother, identifying herself as D. Barnes, spoke at a March 16 school board meeting for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves Denver’s northeastern outskirts. She told board members that she was “very concerned” about the material that children have access to through their schooling.
“I do not favor book banning,” she said to the audience, many of whom had spoken before her either in support or opposition to the district’s policy regarding “gender non-conforming” and transgender students. “But I do want to tell you that pornography does not belong in our schools.”
Barnes specifically took issue with two books: “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, and “Lawn Boy,” a young adult novel by Jonathan Evison. She said that young children have access to these titles “via online resources that Adams 12 made possible.”
“Alison Bechdel writes ‘Fun Home’ about discovering masturbation soon after her first period,” Barnes began reading from “Gender Queer.”
“I discovered around the same age followed by the further realization that my ability to become aroused was governed by a strict law of diminishing returns, an elaborate fantasy based on Plato’s Symposium. The more I had to interact with my genitals, the less likely I was to reach a point of satisfaction. The best fantasy was one that did not require any physical touch at all.”
She then continued to read a section detailing the use of a new sex toy and various associated quotes.
It was at this point that the board decided Barnes was “out of order” and demanded she stop reading. “This is your first warning,” a board member said.
“This is a book that is accessible in Adams 12,” the mother protested as that board member asked her to refrain from reading further. “This is what you allow in our schools. This is what you allow for our kids to have access to. This is pornography and this is grooming for pedophilia.”
Another board member suggested restoring Barnes’s time so long as she agreed to keep the content “appropriate for K-12.” The apparent irony prompted several attendees in the audience to speak out in frustration.
“But it’s in the library. You made it appropriate,” a man yelled.
Barnes moved on to describe her feelings when she discovered “Lawn Boy” was available to high school students in the district.
“I was livid, I was angry, I was hurt that this was accessible to our children,” she said, arguing that the book should be treated the same way as “Playboy” or “Penthouse,” which don’t deserve a place in schools in the first place, she added.
The video of the four-hour meeting has been on the Adams 12’s YouTube since March, but has recently gone viral on social media after a two-minute clip of the exchange was shared by popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok.
In a statement regarding Barnes’s comments, Adams 12 said the district has just one copy of “Lawn Boy.”
“Members of the community have the opportunity to challenge school library materials currently held in district-managed schools,” the district stated. “At the current time, one copy of ‘Lawn Boy’ is held at one of our high school libraries and ‘Gender Queer’ is not held in any of the school libraries of district-managed schools.”’https://www.theepochtimes.com/colorado-school-board-cuts-off-mom-for-reading-out-sex-scene-from-book-available-to-students_4460490.html?est=8rmYXWc6p2mknR63oGnEWhGKYXrHPGtakMQJcZoyQKTIQcPH3C5J9zsygRpujBc0aA%3D%3D
The speech begins at about 3 hours into the meeting.
I think you will find the following interesting reading for this Easter season https://creationfactfile.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Easter-Eaggs-Bunnies-Bible.pdf
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven
‘After finding out Astrid was “almost infertile”, the specialist laid out two options for the Gippsland-based couple.
“We could have done IUI treatment — which some people call ‘turkey basting’ — where they squirt the sperm in you,” Belinda says.
“But because of Astrid’s infertility issues we ended up doing IVF and I’m carrying her egg.”
The couple found out 12 days after the egg transplant they were pregnant.
Belinda and Astrid are part of a growing group of same-sex couples in Victoria having children using donor sperm.
According to VARTA’s 2021 report, single women are still the largest group using donor sperm (53 per cent), followed by women in same-sex relationships (34 per cent) — compared to people in heterosexual relationships (17 per cent).’https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/same-sex-couples-and-parenting/100939644
In the Australian state of New South Wales ‘The new commemorative birth certificates issued in NSW are missing one thing – and one NSW MP is not happy.
A new “genderless” commemorative birth certificate issued by the NSW Births Deaths and Marriages Registry — which removes information about the sex of a baby — has been slammed as “woke nonsense”.
The colourful certificate — featuring specially designed “genderless” cartoon animals — was launched to help “empower” LGBQIA people, the agency says.
NSW Registrar Amanda Ianna said the rainbow certificate was: a “special way for people to celebrate the birth a new family member”.
Anyone can apply for the certificate, which depicts “genderless native animals” to give “rainbow families the freedom to be seen as they wish to be”.
It comes amid a growing push by the transgender community to remove information about the sex of babies on official certificates, with the Tasmanian parliament recently passing a bill to make gender optional.
But One Nation MP Mark Latham — who asked questions about the new $41 NSW certificate in state parliament — says only 12 people have bothered to apply for one and questions why public servants are “wasting time” on “gender politics”.
The agency spent $9257 on commissioning the artwork, producing it and launching the certificates. The agency already has a number of commemorative birth certificates celebrating football teams but they can’t be used as official proof of identity.
“All this virtue signalling in the public sector ends up being a waste of time, a waste of money and for what?” Mr Latham said.
“Twelve people out of 7.5 million people in the state?
“We just want the public sector to do its day job.
“It defies what most people would regard as the point of a birth certificate, to identify the individual, their date of birth and gender.”
Binary spokeswoman Kirralie Smith raised concerns about harms to children over time with gender being erased.
“This is another step in the appropriation of sex and it will cause harm and confusion for our children,” she said.
“Gender ideology is being imposed in all areas of society and ultimately activists want birth certificates, official documents of identity that rely on facts, to be documents that express feelings rather than fact.
“Gender the way activists use the term, is more like personality expression. It has nothing to do with biological reality, it is grounded in a political ideology.”
In NSW, anyone wanting to change the sex listed on their official NSW Birth Certificate must show proof of a medical change of sex.’https://www.facebook.com/MarkLathamsOutsiders/?ref=page_internal
Has God written Ichabod on the West?
‘Is evolution compatible with Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man? Keller says it is. This question relates to an article by Time Keller on the Gospel Coalition website. Tim Keller (MDiv, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) is founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Manhattan, chairman of Redeemer City to City, and founder of The Gospel Coalition.
Tim Keller was asked: If biological evolution is true and there was no historical Adam and Eve, how can we know where sin and suffering came from?
His brief answer was: Belief in evolution can be compatible with a belief in a historical fall and a literal Adam and Eve. There are many unanswered questions around this issue. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sinned-in-a-literal-adam-raised-in-a-literal-christ/
Keller followed this statement with a detailed article, which is mainly the opinions of theologians about the style of literature in Genesis followed by Keller’s own interpretation of Romans 5 and I Corinthians 15.
Keller states he believes in an historical Adam and Eve but does not explain how this is compatible with evolution, since Darwin himself described evolution as the “war of nature” and claimed that long ages of famine and death brought about “the production of higher animals”. (Darwin, Origin of Species, 1859) This is the exact opposite of God’s description of the original created world as “very good”(Genesis 1:31).
So we wonder if has ever bothered to compare such processes to what God said in Genesis 1 and 2, or if Keller really understands evolution, and the processes claimed to bring it about, so let us do that.
Modern day evolutionists use less emotive terms than Darwin, such as “selective advantage” but the process is still the same. This is a flat denial of Genesis 1, which culminates with God looking at all that He had made and declaring it to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Darwin and his successors also regard human beings as simply “higher animals,” which is another complete denial of Genesis. Human beings are unique creations made in the image of God.
Keller tries to avoid the issue by referring to various theologians who clearly do not believe Genesis 1 and 2. For example Keller refers to Bruce Waltke who claims that forming Adam from dust of the ground could mean “the author might be speaking figuratively in the same way, meaning that God brought man into being through normal biological processes.”
Keller and Waltke (and their followers) should take note: there are no normal biological processes that turn dust into people. It works the other way around, i.e. people turn to dust – it is happening all the time, but that is a destructive death process and the opposite of a creative process.
Keller spends a lot of time naming names such as C. S. Lewis and hiding behind their opinions. After meandering through the opinions of such theologians Keller summarises his section on Genesis: “In summary, it looks like a responsible way of reading the text is to interpret Genesis 2-3 as the account of an historical event that really happened.” If that is what Keller really believes, he should say so straight away and affirm what the text actually states.
So let us clearly state what the Biblical text does says. The first thing we are told about the creation of human beings is they were special creations made in the image God (Genesis 1:27-28). We are then given details of how God did this in Genesis 2. Adam was made from “dust of the ground,” i.e. raw materials, not some pre-existing animal, and Eve was created from tissue taken from Adam. This is either an accurate description of what God actually did or it is a fairy tale. If it is a fairy tale it has no authority, and sceptics, liberal theologians and other unbelievers are justified in scoffing at it.
There is a theory promoted by John Stott and others that God somehow “stamped His image” on a pair of the evolving hominins that had come into being by evolutionary processes, but this cannot be reconciled with the description of the creation and man and woman in Genesis. For more a more detailed critique of this theory see the question: HUMAN EVOLUTION? Does it create any problems for Christians who believe it? Answer here.
Anyone reading Genesis 1 and 2 will straight away see that it is not compatible with the evolutionary story of how human beings arrived on the planet, and what a ‘non-good’ state the world was in if evolution was true.
Keller claims he believes in a historical Fall of Man but does not go into details concerning Genesis 3 or the chapters that follow, so let us provide them. After judging the serpent and promising a Saviour who would defeat the serpent, God sentenced Adam and Eve to death and cursed the ground. From then on the living world degenerated into violence, disease and general degradation – all things that are not good. If death, disease and struggle had already been in the world, these would not be punishments. Again, there is a clear incompatibility between Genesis and evolution.
Rather than dealing with the actual events of the Fall of Man, Keller goes straight to Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 and correctly states that Paul believed in a literal Adam and we should too. However, Keller reveals his own “pick and mix” attitude to the Bible when he states:
“The key for interpretation is the Bible itself. I don’t think the author of Genesis 1 wants us to take the “days” literally, but it is clear that Paul definitely does want readers to take Adam and Eve literally. When you refuse to take a biblical author literally when he clearly wants you to do so, you have moved away from the traditional understanding of biblical authority.” (word “days” in inverted commas in original)
What Keller really means is that he doesn’t want to take the days of Genesis 1 literally, presumably so as not to upset those who believe in an old earth and millions of years of evolution.
If Keller wants to use the Bible as the key to interpreting itself, let’s see what it says about the days in Genesis. In Exodus we are told that God spoke and wrote down the Ten Commandments, which include this statement:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
It is clear from the context God is speaking about real days, not some vague long periods or symbolic times. We would also remind Keller that the Creator who spoke and wrote down these words is Christ, who made all things (John 1:3).
For further details see the question: CREATION DAYS: Were the days of creation, as described in Genesis 1, real 24 hour days? Answer here.
Keller goes on to explain how we can benefit from Christ’s death. He states: “We are in covenant with him, not because we are related biologically but through faith.”
This is half-truth. Yes, we are in a covenantal relationship with Christ through faith, but it is only effective because we are biologically related, and Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer. Only a relative can be a Kinsman Redeemer. If we go back through the generations, the entire human race can be subsumed into Adam. All human beings, including Christ in His incarnate form, are descendants of Adam, so we are biologically related to both Adam and Christ, and that is why the covenant applies to us.
Keller skips over the real link between Adam, Christ and us, and completely ignores how death really came into the world. Paul makes it very clear that Adam’s sin brought death into this world, and Christ’s death and resurrection brings eternal life in the next. This is the real basis of Paul’s “one man” principle in Romans 5. One man, Adam, brought sin and death into the world; one man, Christ, paid the penalty, which made forgiveness and new life freely available for all people.
Finally, we have a challenge for Keller and all evangelical Christians who believe that Christ’s death and resurrection will bring them eternal life in a New Heaven and Earth. Think carefully about this question: What will that new world be like? If God created the first earth through a long process of struggle and death, and declared that to be “very good” can we trust Him to keep those things out of the New Heaven and Earth that Christ’s death and resurrection enables us to live in for eternity? Sadly the Gospel Coalition is increasingly characterised by such half truths concerning the gospel. Wake up guys!’https://askjohnmackay.com/tim-keller-on-evolution-adam-is-evolution-compatible-with-adam-and-eve-and-the-fall-of-man-keller-says-it-is/
To the church at Rome (NOT the Roman Catholic Church) Paul wrote 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. Sadly, in this day of mega-churches and easy beliefism that word “holy” is so often neglected either on purpose or ignorance of true Biblical Christianity. It will be interesting to see how much different the following new “church” will be different from the Hillsong group and if it will be a place of carnal worldly entertainment or true Biblical HOLINESS!
‘On his final Sunday as pastor of Hillsong Atlanta, Sam Collier reflected on the crucial role justice, trust and safety play in the health and growth of a church and expressed his confidence in God’s sovereignty as he prepares for the next season of ministry.
“We are living in a new generation. And this generation is focused on justice, on calling out what’s right and what’s wrong, and making sure that we’re living honestly in all of our actions, while in the previous generation, we handled a lot of these ills behind the scenes,” the 33-year-old pastor told The Christian Post.
“Now more than ever, one of the things that the Church can learn is, it’s important to let people know that they can be safe. It’s just so paramount. Justice, safety, trust matters more than anything. People used to assume trust as soon as they came into the church. Now, people are saying, ‘Prove it to me.’”
Collier understands firsthand what it means to be tasked with rebuilding trust in the face of ministry scandals. On Wednesday, Collier, the first-ever African American lead pastor of a Hillsong church, announced he would be stepping down from his position as controversy continues to swirl around the global church and its founder, Brian Houston.
“With all of the documentaries, scandals, articles, accusations and the church’s subsequent management of these attacks it’s become too difficult to lead and grow a young Church in this environment,” he wrote in a public statement.
And after a brief sabbatical, during which Collier and his wife, Toni, plan to reset and rest, the couple and their ministry team will launch a new church, Story Church, on Easter Sunday 2022.
But the pastor acknowledges that rebuilding in the current climate will come with challenges.
“Transitioning into Story Church, so many people have questioned, ‘Well, we hear what happened over here, but what’s going to make you different? What policies are you putting in place?’” the pastor said. “We’re imperfect; somebody is going to make a mistake. But when somebody makes a mistake, what are we going to do to reassure members and congregants that they can trust us with their lives and their investment?”
Ahead of Story Church’s opening, Collier and his leadership team are partnering with a team of experts, including a chief culture officer and fellow pastors, to “really go deep on how we can guarantee that safety.” And like Hillsong Atlanta, Story Church will be focused on racial reconciliation and modeling unity amid division.
“Racial reconciliation is our number one reason for existing besides salvation,” Collier, who is also an author and founder of A Greater Story Ministries, contended.
“There are so many churches within Atlanta; Atlanta doesn’t need another church. But what we believe is that Atlanta needs a church that is focused on uniting our world. In such a polarizing climate, no matter how you vote, no matter how you look, no matter where you come from, there should be a safe place for believers, for believers to gather under one name, and that’s Jesus.”
“We can work out our differences,” he added. “I believe if we all come to the table and become unified about being unified, we can change the world.”
This time, Collier is looking forward to shepherding a young church without the shadow cast by the scandals that have plagued Hillsong over the last two years.
Speaking before hundreds gathered for an emotional final Sunday service, the pastor reflected on the moment in 2020 that Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbi, told the Colliers they’d be launching Hillsong Atlanta in early 2021.
“We were in,” he said, reflecting on the excitement that came with being affiliated with one of the world’s most well-known churches and the opportunity to realize their vision of a unified church focused on racial reconciliation.
“We would be announced as the first-ever African American couple to lead a Hillsong Church. We were excited to be the Jackie Robinson of the situation.”
But shortly after Hillsong Atlanta was announced, over the next few weeks, Collier estimated “there was probably an article every single week” about a scandal surrounding a Hillsong Church or its leadership.
In December 2020, Carl Lentz, the famed leader of Hillsong Church in New York City, was fired over “leadership issues” and moral failures, including being unfaithful to his wife.
In early 2021, it was revealed that former Hillsong Dallas Lead Pastor Reed Bogard and his wife, Jess, were under investigation for leadership failures when they abruptly resigned in January of that year.
Later that year, Darnell Barrett, who served on the leadership of the church’s Montclair, New Jersey, branch resigned after sending a sexual photo to a church volunteer. Around this time, Hillsong leadership was made aware that documentaries about the church were going to be released.
But amid all the headlines and negative media attention surrounding the church, which has about 80 branches in 21 countries, Collier said he sought to faithfully lead his young congregation.
“I said, ‘Well, God, if I want to ever leave, what’s the sign?’” he recalled. “God said to me, ‘The moment you begin to lose trust, and you cannot continue the growth or the expansion of the vision is the moment that you should leave.”
In August 2021, Brian Houston, who founded the church in 1983, was accused of covering up his father’s crimes against underage boys, and criminal charges were brought against him in Australia. Though he denied the allegations, the charges led Houston to step down as Hillsong’s Global Pastor in January.
At that time, Collier said, Hillsong Atlanta leadership “started to notice that there was a shift that started to happen in our ministry,” adding: “People started to become more and more skeptical of not just the global church, but our church.”
During this time, the pastor said donors, members, and even Hillsong Atlanta staff would tell him, “This is not what we came to church for. We didn’t come to church to continuously go through scandal after scandal after scandal. We’re not sure we can trust this.”
“In that moment, the Holy Spirit reminded me, ‘I told you, the moment you can no longer continue to build the ministry because of the scandal, because of the mistrust, is the moment for you to go,'” he shared.
On Monday, March 21, Collier formally informed Hillsong of his resignation. Two days later, Houston formally resigned as global senior pastor in the wake of recent revelations that two women made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years. Collier publicly announced his resignation hours later.
“Between Monday and Wednesday, things did speed up. And why did they speed up? Because, as a global church, we entered into crisis mode,” Collier said. “There’s one goal for me as a pastor, and that’s that you will be able to trust the church you attend and that you will feel safe. And that’s my decision.”
Though the Colliers are leaving Hillsong entirely, the pastor stressed that the global churches “are not our enemies.” He shared a brief video of Phil Dooley — who has taken over for Houston — giving Collier the church’s blessing.
“Hillsong Church is so excited that we’re continuing,” Collier said, adding that he and Dooley “speak almost every day.”
Story Church, he said, will remain in the same location as Hillsong Atlanta, with the same worship team, and likely, the majority of the congregation.
“Same people, same goodness, new name,” the pastor said. “There is a multicultural movement being birthed here. We want you to be a part.”
Collier knows there’s work to do ahead of him — but he expressed repeated confidence in God’s sovereignty over the future of Story Church. He added that coincidentally, the end of Hillsong Atlanta comes a symbolic nine months after its launch.
“Hillsong has been the ground on which the seed is planted,” he said. “[God] does nothing on accident. He used that incubation period to birth somebody new … I believe God for the new.”’https://www.christianpost.com/news/sam-collier-says-trust-plays-crucial-role-in-health-of-church.html
The fruit of Hillsong is evidence that Hillsong was and is not good ground upon which the seed of the Gospel may be planted!
whatyareckon 