Posted by
GunsInTexas on Thursday, August 09, 2007 5:29:41 PM
Let’s start off with one thing clear. I am on the conservative side of most Episcopals. I have no problem calling myself a red-neck. Hell, I am from Texas. I grew up in East Texas. What else would I be?
But that doesn’t mean I am stupid nor am I insensitive…typically. Most of the time, it I am insensitive, I absolutely intended to come across that way. Generally I know what is right and what is wrong, and generally I choose to do what is right. But I am not perfect. We know that.
I was a confirmed atheist from about the age of 12 until I was about 48. I am an engineer, so I had considered this pretty thoroughly and decided that there was not one shred of evidence that there IS a God, much less one as described in the Bible. It didn’t make any sense at all to let some 2000 year old book dictate how I lived. That didn’t mean I was a gangster; I was a pretty good guy. But I made my own decisions about what was proper and right based on my own standards.
I became a Christian April 19, 2003. My resolve had started to crack about a year before, I guess when I started to feel my own mortality. I was led to the church because I was in love with my wife-to-be at the time and she liked going to church. I liked spending time with her, so I went with her. What I found is that if you go to a place with good people, you kind of begin to have it rub off on you. And it did on me.
There is something that distinguishes Christians from all you dang heathens. We are not perfect, but we try to do better, we want to do better. And we are forgiven for our failures because our souls were ransomed by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Those who criticize Christianity choose to do bad, and often have no intention nor desire to even TRY to do better. AND they will be judged for their failures by a just God. I believe THAT is why there is so much fear and loathing of Christianity; the idea that folks will be judged justly for their choices. That is pretty dang scary, if you ask me. I am glad I have someone who already went to bat for me.
But you know, there are some expectations that God has of us. And when we do wrong it is a sin.
If I shop at a 7-Eleven store and shoplift a candy bar that is a sin. It doesn’t mean I am not a Christian. It means I am a sinner and I am forgiven. However, if I have an ongoing relationship with the 7-Eleven and 3 times a day I shoplift a candy bar and I have every intention of shoplifting a candy bar 3 times a day every day that is a bit of a different thing.
And that is the problem with Homosexual Marriage and Homosexual Priests and Bishops.
When someone commits a homosexual act, it is a sin. Sorry if that is insensitive, but there you go. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t a Christian or aren’t saved, but it means that when you commit the act you are sinning.
If the Episcopal Church gives it’s blessing to homosexual marriage it is approving this act of ongoing sin. And if the Episcopal Church selects and approves a homosexual priest or a homosexual bishop who is in an ongoing homosexual relationship, this ALSO is approving of ongoing sin.
It doesn’t mean the sinner is not a Christian.
But it is inappropriate to choose someone who is a thoughtful and willful and deliberate sinner on a regular and ongoing basis to be the leader of a flock.
And if that is insensitive then write it off to the fact that I am an old Texas red-neck. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t right.