Friday, April 28, 2006

Chicken Little Evangelicalism

ALERT! Plans are in place for WorldPride 2006, one of the largest gatherings of Gays, Lesbians, and Bi-sexuals and transcendent in world history in the tiny city of Jerusalem. What a tragic testimony to the Jewish people!

In an article for Agape Press, Dr. Jerry Falwell (a member of the Jerusalem Prayer Team Board of Governors said when asked about the upcoming event in Jerusalem: "While the people involved [in WorldPride] are sincere, they must know that that the Judeo-Christian beliefs still see homosexuality as sin," he says. "After 2,000 years there has been no shift of opinion on the part of Christians and Jews who believe in the Bible."

According to one Gay Pride website: Jerusalem World Pride 2006 (WP), a week-long international event, is a unique opportunity to make a global statement of pride and tolerance. The message sent from Jerusalem World Pride will echo worldwide, redefining LGBT identity, faith, and vision. This boundary-crossing event will be a massive demonstration of LGBT pride and human rights.

The global homosexual gathering, organized by InterPride, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Pride Coordinators, was last held in 2000 in Rome, where it attracted about a quarter of a million participants. Images of the Rome festivities, featured on various homosexual websites, shows throngs of shirtless men in shorts and bikini briefs congregated on the streets, some of them holding hands.

If you have not signed the petition to encourage Mayor Lupolianski of Jerusalem to deny the parade permits for the WorldPride 2005 parade through the streets of Jerusalem, please sign today.

If you have signed the petition, please print copies, and make them available to your pastor, Sunday school class, Bible study group to sign and return to the Jerusalem Prayer Team, P. O. Box 210489, Bedford, TX 76095. You must be over 18 to sign.

Please forward this to everyone you know. We have passed 20,000 signers. If every signer enlists just 10 friends to sign the petition in the next seven days, and those 10 recruit 10, we will have two million signers to present to the city of Jerusalem.

It's no small wonder that the world sees us as being against everything and for virtually nothing. The reality is that it is stuff like this that has created and feeds the negative image that the church has in the NA media. The bulk of Canadians would prefer an Atheist or Muslim PM (see earlier post) over an evangelical because of the way we conduct ourselves on issues like this.

The church has a huge image problem because of stuff like this. The media portrays us as wanting to control everything that we disagree with. Frankly, what right do American evangelicals have to call for petitions about events that happen in other countries anyways? We would be better served in dealing with stuff like this if we were seen as being proactive and supportive of a whole lot of things and then we would have the credibility to say "Gee... I don't know if this is really such a good idea..." As it is every group that has goals and a message that is contrary to the message of Jesus can COUNT on the evangelical "chicken little's" of the world to proclaim that the proverbial sky is falling and we provide them with all the free publicity that they need to advance their cause.

Think about this for a second. Why would the mayor of Jerusalem care about a petition initiated and signed by NA evangelicals that are based in Texas? NA evangelicals might create a lot of tourist revenue, but they don't pay taxes,they don't vote and they don't even live there.

The message that this sends is counter productive to the great goals of the gospel. Who will be won or reached through this? NO ONE!! All it will do is burn bridges and re-inforce what most people already think about us. It's true that persecution will come, but when it's self inflicted because of our inability to see the consequences of our actions, that's of our own making.

I'd love to hear what you have to say on this! Comment away!

4 comments:

D said...

Thank God! When I began to read the first part of the article I thought it was something you were backing up!
When I first began hanging around with 'church people' I remember having a conversation with a friend who was worked up over gay-something. I asked them if they thought it was anymore 'sinful' to have sex before marriage - as many of our friends including both parties of the conversation were 'shacking up' - than to be gay. I figured that both were quite far from what God seemed to have in mind about sex. All I can say is I'm quite thankful that I wasn't driven away from the church because of the way I was living my life at that time. God welcomes us all in, and lays on our hearts what He wants changed. It isn't the job of the Christian to nitpick, it is the job of the Christian to love.

That's what I think anyway.

D said...

p.s.
The new photograph is way better.

Tim Schindel said...

Thanks Danica. I enjoyed your blog today too. This stuff really bugs me becaue I think it is so contrary to the message of Jesus. Can you imagine Jesus starting a petition over a gay parade? I can't think of anything more riduculous... I don't think that Jesus would go, unless it was to perform so miracles and create an opportunity to point people to His Father, but He certainly wouldn't be holding a protest sign...

D said...

Oh yeah, He's be there for sure!