THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
FROM CHURCH LIFE ADEQUATELY SAFEGUARD CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY?
WHAT DOES "PRACTICING" MEAN?
Homosexuals Don't Adopt. They Recruit Kids into their Homosexual Agenda; Graham Approves of Putin's Protecting Children From Gays Media Interviews Franklin Graham, Russell Moore, Ralph Reed:
GAY RECRUITMENT OF SCHOOLCHILDREN; ESPECIALLY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN:
Bob Vander Plaats: Gay Marriage Leading To Legalized Pedophilia
POLYGAMY, POLYAMORY, PEDOPHILIA BEING DECRIMINALIZED
Peter LaBarbera of www.aftah.org: Gay Child Recruitment In Media, Schools
AFTAH's LaBarbera Speaks Out on Obama, Kevin Jennings and GLSEN's 'Fistgate' Scandal
Uploaded on Aug 17, 2009
WARNING: graphic descriptions documenting "gay" corruption of youth. Peter LaBarbera, president and founder of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (www.aftah.org), opens AFTAH's June 17, 2009 pro-family coalition press conference on President Obama's radical homosexual agenda. LaBarbera exposes Obama's hypocrisy on traditional marriage, and plays the infamous "Fistgate" audiotape revealing how -- at a "gay youth" event -- underage girls and boys were exposed to graphic verbal "how-to" lessons on "fisting" and other homosexual perversions. (Fistgate occurred at a "queer" youth panel that was part of a 2000 conference sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network). GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings was appointed by President Obama to head up the Dep't of Education's "Safe and Drug-Free Schools" agency. A DVD of the AFTAH press conference in Chicago is available for $20 postpaid. Send your check to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522
Criminal GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings is Obama's Safe School Czar
Uploaded on Sep 28, 2009
GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) Founder Kevin Jennings is Obama's Safe School Czar When he SHOULD have been fired AND JAILED for counseling a student to "wear a condom" during sex with an adult male, instead of reporting the incident as Statutory Rape..... INSTEAD, our UBER Liberal / Socialist / Communist / Marxist President Obama appoints him as our childrens' SAFE SCHOOL CZAR ----------------------------------------- Per MassResistance.org .......
Jennings is a vicious anti-Christian bigot (he said [expletive deleted] em and Drop dead! to the religious right) who capitalized early on the idea of promoting homosexuality in schools under the guise of safety. One very unsafe event that should have resulted in Jennings banishment from the world of education was Fistgate [warning: very graphic language] All photos courtesy of MassResistance.org.
Boy Scout Leader Arrested For Showing Kids Porn At Church Fundraiser:
Published on Jun 16, 2015
Boy Scout leader Mark Kern was arrested by Sunrise Police last week in Broward County, Florida after admitting to showing several minors hardcore pornography on his cell phone while at a church fundraiser. The 48-year-old parent volunteer now faces two felony counts of distributing obscene material to a minor. We look at the incident on the Lip News with Margaret J. Howell and Mark Sovel.
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/...
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
When Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008, few Americans would have guessed that his administration would become the most anti-family force in U.S. history by celebrating gay marriage and the spectacle of men becoming women through the phenomenon of "transgenderism." Obama had portrayed himself as a committed pro-family Christian who recognized the importance of male role models and fathers in the family structure. "Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation," Obama said in a "Fatherhood speech" in June of that year.But in response to Bruce Jenner, a biological father of six, declaring he was actually female, Obama said, "It takes courage to share your story." Nothing was said about the impact such a bizarre declaration would have on one's children, or the condition of one's mental state to bring that about. Obama seemed to be endorsing genital mutilation as a way out of mental confusion or mental illness.Obama's definition of family has certainly changed. Indeed, he was once in favor of marriage being between one man and one woman, and today he celebrates fatherless and motherless families. He lied about his commitment to traditional marriage in order to get elected. It was a big con, but only one of many deceptions from the candidate of "hope and change" whose lasting legacy, as noted in Professor Paul Kengor's new book Takedown, could very well be cultural and not economic transformation. After all, parts of Obamacare could be repealed over time, and economic reforms could arrest our debt problem, which has accelerated under Obama. But restoring the traditional family is a mammoth undertaking that even Republican presidential candidates are generally afraid to talk about.Speaking to the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago in that 2008 speech, Obama had quoted from the Bible and said to the congregation, "if we are honest with ourselves" they would have to admit that "too many fathers...[are] missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."But the fact that "Bruce" Jenner will go missing from that family is something that is now celebrated by Obama.If Obama had told that black congregation that he would be a president who would go down in history as praising a man for dressing up like a woman, the audience would have probably laughed out loud, thinking it was a joke. Who could have anticipated that a man who once lectured the nation on the need for a strong father would later defend a father's decision to quit being one.Another major deception from Obama was his claim that he never really had a father who was part of his life. In a 2013 Morehouse College address, he said, "I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents – made incredible sacrifices for me. And I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you. But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved. Didn't know my dad. And so my whole life, I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me. I want to break that cycle where a father is not at home – (applause) – where a father is not helping to raise that son or daughter. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man."Filmmaker Joel Gilbert says that Obama's comments about not having a father present in his childhood are 100 percent bogus, and that he had several fathers or father-figures.Gilbert, director of the film "Dreams from My Real Father," examines Obama's formative years and comes to the determination that the Communist Party member and suspected Soviet espionage agent, Frank Marshall Davis, was Obama's real biological father. He believes the Kenyan Obama was a "father in name only" who was used to cover up an affair between Davis and Obama's mother. Gilbert added, "Obama's problem was not a lack of fathers, rather it was that his biological father became his ideological mentor and radicalized him into an anti-American ideology."We broke the story in the U.S. that Davis was Obama's childhood mentor, a fact that The Washington Post still will not admit. Obama himself admits Davis "schooled" him on white racism. "All my research has indicated that Obama visited with Davis about three times per week during his entire youth from age 10 to 18," Gilbert says. "Davis gave him money, taught him to drink whiskey, took him to strip clubs, and indoctrinated Obama during those formative years with his Communist view of the world."In addition to Davis, however, Gilbert says Obama had other "fathers" or father figures. These included his grandfather, "gramps," a constant father figure presence, and his adopted father, Lolo Soetoro, whom he stayed in touch with even after his mother divorced him. He adds, "Never one to be without a father figure, Obama enlisted a [Frank Marshall Davis] carbon copy ideologue, whom he said 'was like an uncle.'" That was the notorious Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who functioned like a father to Obama after Frank Marshall Davis died. Like Davis, Wright was a vicious anti-American.The idea that Davis is truly Obama's "real father" is certainly controversial and could only be solved definitively by DNA analysis. However, Gilbert recently interviewedObama's half-brother, Malik Obama, who says that "Frank Marshall Davis and Barack look alike," and that Barack does not look like his father, the Kenyan Obama. Comparison photos between Frank Marshall Davis and President Obama are indeed striking. Malik Obama says he would welcome a DNA test, and that this might explain why Barack dumped the Kenyan Obamas after he was elected President.Once a strong proponent of the traditional meaning of Father's Day, in order to get elected to the presidency, Obama will now go down in history for demeaning this national celebration honoring fathers and fatherhood.Consider Barack Obama as the President who celebrated a man for acting and trying to look like a woman. At this rate, Father's Day cards will one day be sold in the "he" and "she" categories.The impact on our young people from this presidential "example" will be seen and felt in the years ahead: more sexual confusion, alienation from family, mental illness, and suicides.This is what progressive "change" looks like.
Anti-Bullying Conference For Middle Schoolers Turns Into Gay Sex Class
"How to Strap On/Sew On Fake Male Parts"
Published on Jul 27, 2015
In rural, small-town Iowa, a group of parents and community leaders is seeking to prevent students from the local taxpayer-funded middle school and high school from attending future versions of an anti–bullying conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens.
http://www.infowars.com/at-anti-bully...http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/...
AMES, Iowa — A prominent atheist activist organization has sent a letter to the president of a secular university in Iowa, accusing its new head basketball coach of “religious coercion” for praying with players and sharing his Christian faith.
The Madison,Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to Iowa State University President Steven Leath last week to lodge a complaint about coach Steve Prohm. The organization pointed to a recent Des Moines Register article in which Prohm outlined that he had prayed with his 21-0 team at his previous job at Murray State and planned to do the same at Iowa State.
“I’ll ask them if they have prayer requests,” he said. “It’s not something you’re beating over their head; you want to give them a foundation, so when they leave Ames, it’s not foreign to them when they raise their kids, or have a wife— that they have a strong foundation and a strong faith.”
The publication also noted that when Prohm coached at Murrary State, he used the analogy of Nehemiah 6:3 to inspire his players, encouraging them to “stay on your wall.” Prohm said that he was partly influenced by his mentor Billy Kennedy, who now serves as a coach at Texas A&M University.
“Watching what [faith] meant to him—it kind of re-challenged me that I had to get invested in having a relationship with Jesus, and reading the Bible and taking time each day to do that,” he stated.
Because of Prohm’s comments in the article, as well as other statements made in the past, FFRF sent a letter to Iowa State University to ask that it ensure Prohm is not endorsing Christianity as coach.
“Mr. Prohm’s team is full of young and impressionable student athletes who would not risk giving up their scholarship, giving up playing time, or losing a good recommendation from the coach by voluntarily opting out of his unconstitutional religious activities—even if they strongly disagreed with his beliefs,” the letter stated. “Using a coaching position to promote Christianity amounts to religious coercion.”
“Iowa State University must take action to protect its student athletes and to ensure that Mr. Prohm understands that he has been hired as a basketball coach and not a pastor,” it continued. “We request that Mr. Prohm be educated as to his constitutional duties under the Establishment Clause. He may not lead or encourage any religious activities in his capacity as head coach.”
The letter further requests that the university provide in writing the steps that it is taking to “ensure that Prohm is not proselytizing” his team.
FFRF has also sent a letter to members of the Iowa State University basketball team, telling them that Prohm “may be planning to preach and push his personal religious views upon players” and advising players to complain to the university if they are feel that they are being coerced into participating in religious activities.
It is not yet known if the university plans to respond to the atheist activist organization. _____________________________________________________________
Residents Rally After Christian Flag Removed from Outside Alabama Police Department
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
GLENCOE, Ala. — Believers in Glencoe, Alabama rallied on Saturday in support of the Christian flag after the city decided to remove it from outside the local police department due to a complaint from a prominent atheist activist organization.
As previously reported, Mayor Charles Gilchrist told local television station WBRC that the flag was removed just weeks after the city received a letter from the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF). The group stated that it had received a complaint about the presence of the flag and asserted that it was an unlawful endorsement of Christianity.
“It is unconstitutional for a government entity to fly a flag with a patently religious symbol and meaning on its grounds,” the letter, written by staff attorney Andrew Seidel, read. “You must take immediate action and refrain from hoisting this flag up the flagpole at the city hall building.”
Seidel contended that the flag infringes upon the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” He also argued that hoisting the Christian symbol outside of the police department disrespects other religions or those of no religion at all.
“The display of this patently religious symbol on city property confers government endorsement of Christianity, a blatant violation of the Establishment Clause,” the letter stated. “The cross on the flag pole of Glencoe’s city hall building unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity.”
“It conveys the message to the twenty-six percent of the U.S. population who are not Christians that they are not ‘favored members of the political community,’” it said.
FFRF consequently demanded that the flag come down in order to avoid a lawsuit. Gilchrist said that the threat of a suit is what ultimately resulted in the removal of the flag.
“That would just about ruin us,” Gilchrist stated. “I have to look out for the best interests of the city.”
He said that he believes that the threat of suit is how the group strong-arms cities into compliance with their wishes.
“That’s what they do, they pick on these smaller towns that can’t defend ourselves,” Gilchrist said, noting that he personally did not want to remove the flag.
It was later given to local restaurant owner Jeff Word, who raised the flag outside of Big Chief Restaurant.
The Etowah County Chapter of First Responders for Christ soon decided to organized a rally in support of the flag’s original presence at Glencoe City Hall. Approximately 100 people turned out for the event on Saturday, which featured Rep. Mack Butler and state Sen. Phil Williams, as well as Thom Harrison, pastor of North Glencoe Baptist Church.
“We weren’t called to sit back and watch and not say a word. We’re called to go out and proclaim the gospel among all nations,” Williams declared.
Williams pointed to the Christian heritage of the nation, such as the daily presence of a Congressional chaplain since 1789 and the motto “In God We Trust,” first printed on currency in the 1800’s.
“This country and our laws were founded on Judeo-Christian principles that are literally written in stone at our nation’s Capitol, and that history cannot be overlooked or undone,” organizer Samuel Lowe told the Christian Post. “They can remove the flag from the pole, but the Christian roots of our nation’s origin can never be denied.”
“On the surface, the flag removal appears to be a battle over the fictitious separation of church and state,” he said, “but the underlying reason the flag was removed was due to the separation between God and man because of the sin that’s in man’s heart.”
SERMON OF JULY 19, 2015: "THIS PRESENT BATTLEGROUND" A MISNOMER
GAY FASCISM IMMINENT THREAT PASTOR FUNDAMENTALLY MISUNDERSTANDING AN ENEMY WHO WANTS TO STEAL, KILL, DESTROY
1 Peter 5:8-"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
DOES LOVE REALLY WIN? THEN OUR FOUNDERS SHOULD HAVE LOVED THEIR BRITISH OPPRESSORS SELF DEFENSE IS REQUIRED LOVE WON'T WORK WHEN GAYS TRY TO COERCIVELY CHANGE THE CHURCH & THE GOSPEL FROM WITHIN BY FORCE
A BATTLEGROUND IN DISARRAY
MILITANT HOMOSEXUALS DEFINE THE CULTURE
CHRISTIANS HAVE RECEIVED CONFUSING MESSAGES FROM TREMBLING HIRELING PASTORS THE GOOD:
HE WILL NOT GIVE HIS BOY A BABY DOLL
HE WILL NOT PERFORM GAY "MARRIAGES"
HE WILL NOT ALLOW UNREPENTANT GAYS INTO MEMBERSHIP, MINISTRY, OR EMPLOYMENT AT HIS CHURCH
THE NOT SO GOOD:
HE WILL NOT FIGHT THE MILITANT GAY AGENDA
BLAMES CHRISTIANS FOR BEING HOMOPHOBIC, UNFRIENDLY,
UNKIND, PREJUDICED, ACTING CONTRARY TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE, MERCY, FORGIVENESS
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE;
A STATE OF PANIC SETS IN ABOUT POTENTIAL LOSSES OF FREEDOM & ASSETS
WHEN YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR 501C3 TAX EXEMPTION, A VISIT FROM THE IRS, AND NOW ATTACKS FROM GAYS, NOTHING OF ANY CONSEQUENCE IS PROCLAIMED IN FEAR OF REPRISALS.
HE HAS LESBIAN "ACQUAINTANCES" WHO ARE SUCH NICE PEOPLE;
SO WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAKE GAYS SO MILITANT?
ADMITS THAT AMENDING THE CHURCH CONSTITUTION IS FUTILE WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE WOULD HAVES, THE COULD HAVES, THE SHOULD HAVES
WHO'S THE OSTRICH WITH HIS HEAD IN THE SAND? WITMER HOLDS UP OBAMA AS A SUPPORTER OF THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY A MODEL FOR ALL? NO, JUST FOR THE IGNORANT & GULLIBLE "DOOMSDAY" PREPPING WILL KEEP THE CHURCH ALIVE FOR THE BATTLE; AFTER THAT, WE CAN LOVE THEM WITH THE GOSPEL! SOME OTHER OPINIONS ABOUT AN AGENT OF SATAN BRINGING A REAL "DOOMSDAY" CLOSER THAT THE CHURCH IS STILL DENYING AND ILL EQUIPPED FOR:
VIDEO OF JOAN RIVERS CALLING BARACK GAY, & MICHELE A TRANSGENDER:
VIDEO OF OBAMA REFERRING TO HIS WIFE AS "MICHAEL":
“Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, was born Michael LaVaughn Robinson in Chicago, Illinois on January 17th, 1964. He was the second son born to Fraser Robinson III, a well known cocaine dealer and union thug for Crime Lord/Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Marian Shields Robinson, a transient street prostitute who was diagnosed with the HIV virus in 1998. He was a popular high school athlete and in 1982, he accepted a scholarship to play middle linebacker for the Oregon State Beavers.
After finishing a respectable rookie season with 88 tackles and 7.5 sacks, he suddenly dropped out of the school. Fellow teammates observed that Robinson could regularly be heard lamenting over how he is a “woman trapped inside a man’s body”, and on January 13th, 1983, he underwent sex reassignment surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. To hide the shame of his new identity, Michael left Oregon State to attend Princeton University under his new legal name, “Michelle Robinson”. Years later, he met Barry Obama Jr. a Kenyan immigrant who later became aware of “Michelle’s” true identity. They subsequently married and adopted two children.”
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRESIDENT
OBAMA'S LIFE IN HAWAII BY SOMEONE WHO KNEW HIM AS A PIMP, DRUG DEALER, HOMOSEXUAL, TRADER OF SEXUAL FAVORS FOR DRUGS, MANIPULATOR OF PEOPLE OBAMA: A/K/A "BARRY SOETORO" MAC DADDY OBAMA, COCAINE SMOKER
2013
2013
2015
BUT WITMER AND THE ASSISTANT PASTOR
GIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING YOU DON'T NEED THE ADVICE OF THESE! INSTEAD:
EPHESIANS 6:10-17-"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
"Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (born 1962) is a writer, speaker, homemaker, and former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. Butterfield, who earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in English Literature, served in the English Department and Women Studies Program at Syracuse University from 1992 to 2002. During her academic career, she published a book, as well as many scholarly articles. Her academic interest was focused on feminist theory, queer theory and 19th century British literature. She achieved tenure in 1999, the same year that she converted to Christianity.
Butterfield is more widely known today for the autobiography she published, "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith," in which she tells about her transformation from a postmodern lesbian professor to the wife of a Reformed Presbyterian Church pastor and homeschooling mother. Following her religious conversion to Christianity, Butterfield developed a ministry to college students and frequently speaks in churches and universities about her experience. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College. She now lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Kent Butterfield, and their children
She does not identify herself as "ex-gay" and does not think any Christians should identify themselves as "gay Christians." She notes that "The job of the adjective is to change the noun."Butterfield has criticized conversion therapy for contending that the "primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation." Butterfield suggests this is a version of the prosperity gospel."
J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., said Oct. 29 during the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's conference, “we have to love our gay neighbor more than we love our position on sexual morality.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
1 Corinthians 6:9-11-"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."
NEW CREATURE? NOT SO FAST!
DENIAL OF THE EFFICACY
OF CHRIST'S ATONEMENT WHICH GOSPEL WINS OUT? NEITHER ONE HERE: WITH HER WISDOM, FEMINIZED PASTORS WILL TRY THE SOFT APPROACH TO GAY MILITANCY
EXCERPT: "Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore denounced reparative therapy, saying the controversial treatment that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation has been “severely counterproductive.” Faithful Christian living demands obedience to biblical teaching, not automatic release from same-sex attraction, said Moore, president of Southern Baptists’Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea,” Moore said. “Faithfulness to Christ means obedience to Christ. It does not necessarily mean that someone’s attractions are going to change.” Some pastors, like John Piper, a respected Minneapolis preacher and author, still encourage the possibility of change for those who have same-sex attractions."
EXCERPT: I give thanks to God for Rosaria Butterfield's conversion from unbelieving lesbian activist to faithful Christian witness. I don't agree, though, with her buy-in to the view that there is a "sin of homophobia" any more than I buy in to the view of "incest-phobia" or "poly[amory]phobia." Nor do I think she reads Romans 1:24-27 correctly in context when she suggests that Paul viewed homosexual practice as no worse than any other sin. And her category of a "reparative therapy heresy" is uninformed. Reparative therapy is not a "name it, claim it, pray the gay away" form of therapy. Quite the contrary. Nor does it presume that one will never again struggle with sexual temptation. Nor does it contend that becoming heterosexual is "a primary goal of Christianity." It aims are more modest: To help persons with same-sex attractions to deal with emotional wounds that contributed to the intensity of such attractions. In this it is no different from numerous other valid therapies that seek to help Christians who struggle with depression, anger, insecurity, and various other intense sinful desires.
As I write and speak today, 14 years have elapsed since my queer activist days. I'm a new creature in Christ, and my testimony is still like iodine on starch. I'm sensitive to three unbiblical points of view Christian communities harbor when they address the issue of Christianity and homosexuality. Everywhere I go, I confront all three.
1. The Freudian position. This position states same-sex attraction is a morally neutral and fixed part of the personal makeup and identity of some, that some are “gay Christians” and others are not. It's true that temptation isn't sin (though what you do with it may be); but that doesn't give us biblical license to create an identity out of a temptation pattern. To do so is a recipe for disaster. This position comes directly from Sigmund Freud, who effectually replaced the soul with sexual identity as the singular defining characteristic of humanity. God wants our whole identities, not partitioned ones.
2. The revisionist heresy. This position declares that the Bible's witness against homosexuality, replete throughout the Old and New Testaments, results from misreadings, mistranslations, and misapplications, and that Scripture doesn't prohibit monogamous homosexual sexual relations, thereby embracing antinomianism and affirming gay marriage.
3. The reparative therapy heresy. This position contends a primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation. This heresy is a modern version of the prosperity gospel. Name it. Claim it. Pray the gay away."
Rosaria Butterfield on the Christian Response to Homosexuality
Published on Jan 5, 2015
Rosaria Butterfield lived as a lesbian professor before experiencing a "train-wreck" conversion to Christianity. Now a pastor's wife and a homeschool mom, she offers a unique perspective on how Christians can treat those within the homosexual lifestyle.
Secret Thoughts Of An Unlikely Convert | Rosaria Butterfield and Russell Moore
Reaction To The Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage by Russell Moore
John Hagee's Response to Supreme Court Marriage Ruling
Published on Jun 30, 2015
“I vigorously disagree with the decision of the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court’s ruling does not change the Biblical truth that marriage is between a man and a woman. I agree with the Supreme Court's dissent that this ruling is a direct attack on states’ rights and usurps the liberty of the American people to govern themselves.” Pastor John Hagee
Dr. Moore on Reparative Therapy: So Broad a Term That Could be Interpreted As Giving the Gospel to Someone.
OTHERS DON'T SEE CONVERSION THERAPY AS BENIGN:
White House seeks to ban gay 'conversion' therapy
Supporting a Ban on Conversion Therapy: GAY PERSPECTIVE:
Sims Against "Conversion Therapy"
Published on Jun 25, 2015
PA state Rep. Brian Sims speaks out against so-called "conversion therapy" intended to change a person's sexual orientation, which is still legal in Pennsylvania.
PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR GAYS:
Coming Out to My Dad, the Founder of Conversion Therapy (by Richard Socarides)
Stephen Fry meets an ex-gay therapistStephen Fry meets the founder of NARTH, Dr Joseph Nicolosi and also interviews a former patient Daniel Gonzales.
Samuel Brinton: "Ex-Gay Ministries" Talks at Google
Published on Jul 4, 2014
Hear Samuel Brinton, son of two Southern Baptist ministers, talk about the years of reparative therapy designed to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Sam speaks often about his experiences in the hopes that others who have endured similar struggles will find hope.
OTHERS SEE THE COERCIVE ELEMENT WITHIN THE GAY AGENDA
DR. JAMES WHITE,
REFORMED BAPTIST APOLOGIST:
"DEFINED BY GOD'S CREATIVE ACTS":
The Gay Christian Movement: Part I (Audio Begins at 1:26).
The "Gay Christian" Movement: A Response Part 2
Get Your House In Order NOW! -- The Supreme Court THE PATRIOT NURSE:
I was 11 years old when Roe v. Wade (1973) gave women a constitutional right to abortion. My parents told me a story to help me understand this momentous event.
Here was the content: a member of my family, whom I loved, once used her own knitting needles to abort a baby she knew she couldn’t afford to feed.
Here was the meaning: we were practical, hard-working Italians, and nothing was going to hinder us from achieving the American Dream for each and every family member.
This was a story of heroism. The woman was a matriarch who knew how to take control of her own womb, a loving mother who knew poverty and starvation were far worse than death before birth. This was also a story of a nation. Our country was advancing in its high regard for women, leaving the barbaric days of back-alley abortions and welcoming one where medical care came to the aid of heroic women like my beloved relative.
Grip of Old Family Values
This was one of the first times I remember history folding into future and holding me solidly in the grip of family values: we were a progressive family, and even our unschooled ancestors showed the grit and goodness of the progressive ideas we knew were best.
My family member was not a feminist. Although long dead, she would not want to be remembered this way. She was a poor woman abused by her husband and trapped by a life with too many children to feed. I was taught that the right to choose came to the aid of all women, but especially poor ones.
For most of my childhood and early adulthood, the name “Planned Parenthood” conjured feelings of safety and security. The institution represented for me and my family of origin a bedrock of civilization: a woman’s right to liberation from the oppression of bearing a child. As I understood it, because of Roe v. Wade a single mistake wouldn’t result in a lifetime of punishment for women. For as long as I can remember, my parents would designate Planned Parenthood as their end-of-the-year monetary donation.
We believed only third world countries would abandon women without medical solution to terminating pregnancy. Not only did abortion rights secure each person’s free right to consensual sex without impunity—a fundamental right of personhood, we believed—but it made the world a better place for children. Indeed, the sheer fact that the world was overpopulated and that “unwanted” children were subject to poverty and abuse proved abortion was good for both the environment and the family. It also seemed to us that the wrong people kept having babies—and lots of them—while educated people like our family knew to have only one child or two.
Long before I became a self-conscious feminist supporting the worldview of Planned Parenthood, I believed abortion was more than just some “necessary evil.” I believed abortion was a compelling good.
Frankenstein and Jesus
The goodness of abortion followed me through graduate school, when I wrote my dissertation on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
In 1818 Shelley, the 17-year-old child wife of poet Percy Shelley and the classically educated daughter of natural philosopher William Godwin and first feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote a novel on a dare. Deeply influenced by natural philosopher and English physician Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles),Frankenstein is about a bachelor who learns how to create life in a laboratory. The protagonist scientist, Victor Frankenstein, is raised by a progressive family, one that protects him from the foolish superstitions of organized Christian religion and affords him the best education in the natural sciences. He’s therefore unafraid to collect body parts from a church graveyard by dismembering bodies. The novel records how night after night he returns to the graveyard and hacks away until he has the bloody parts he needs. It’s base and gruesome work done in the name of higher-minded science. Frankenstein works hard to extract intact internal organs. He skimps on the skin, though, creating a creature whose skin doesn’t stretch to cover all his internal organs. Frankenstein’s “monster,” in spite of having natural science as its mother and receiving the very best Rousseauian education, is literally falling apart at the seams, his internal organs spilling out for the whole world to behold and ridicule.
Like Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, Dr. Victor Frankenstein understood the need for intact hearts.
Like Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Dr. Victor Frankenstein believed there’s no higher calling on the human body than the donation of tissue for scientific research.
And like both doctors, one fictional and one real, I followed in their footsteps.
Like Victor and Deborah, I wanted to control nature and believed I could with enough hutzpah and smarts.
And then I met Jesus Christ.
But when I was first converted, I did not understand why abortion was a sin.
I remember asking the women in church why Christians condemned abortion and celebrated capital punishment. I never heard a compelling argument.
And then, one day during worship, we sang Psalm 102 and it hit me between the eyes. Here was the line of my undoing: “And peoples yet uncreated shall praise and magnify the LORD” (Ps. 102:18). I got it: abortion is not a right or an entitlement. Abortion steals praise from God by denying image-bearers the opportunity to live through and for him. Abortion despises and attacks and destroys the image of God.
Yes, children must be protected from abuse, but abortion does not accomplish this.
What Could Have Been
Before committing suicide, Victor Frankenstein’s “monster” diagnoses his problem. He laments, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (emphasis mine).
Frankenstein is an abortion novel. The “monster” declares he is an abortion—a present-tense, walking-and-talking, breathing-and-reading embodiment of a culture that values intact hearts but not the children who need them, and that values the all-cleaned-up Proverbs 31 woman but not the Mary Magdalene who precedes her.
The monster in Frankenstein is me—and you—and my sins are always so much worse than I confess. The wages of sin is death. It is always death—even if medical science promises the wages of sin is life.
I am a Christian now, and a wife and mom as well. All of my children are adopted, and all bore the label “unwanted” by somebody at one time. But their birth mothers loved them even when they could not raise them.
And today, as I reflect on the outrage of Planned Parenthood, I think of my life.
I could have been Dr. Deborah Nucatola. I was groomed to be her. I could have been videotaped pausing between bites of arugula salad and salmon to pontificate on the price of a dead baby’s intact heart and lungs.
Staying for the Long Haul
As I pause today to reflect on the outrage of Planned Parenthood, I think of Frankenstein’s monster. And the monster that I am. And for the life of me, I don’t understand how people like my beloved relative and her unborn child could have been helped apart from God’s people taking her and her kids into their home for long-term, real-life care. She needed more than a word in season. She needed the hands of God.
The worldview that redefines “personhood,” denies the God who created us, despises Jesus—the prophet whose wisdom knows no earthly bounds, the priest whose grace and sacrifice knows no earthly shackles, the king whose power and authority orchestrates the details of every life and every day—is the worldview manifested in the recent SCOTUS decision and the viral Planned Parenthood videos.
It was my worldview not too terribly long ago. And it would be my worldview now—if Jesus and his people hadn’t shown up in my life and stayed for the long haul.
"John Piper has joined hands with Rick Warren in ministry and has proclaimed him theologically sound, we would remind our readers that Warren signed “A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You’” in November 2007. This document says that Muslims and Christians worship the same God and claims that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.” The statement says, “... we must engage in interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other’s good, for the one God unceasingly seeks our good” (http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm). It was signed by the two major evangelical church growth gurus in America, Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. In this act they joined hands with hundreds of other signatories, including Roman Catholics."
"When Piper publicly interviewed Rick Warren in 2011, he showed his support for the Purpose Driven pastor’s doctrine when he stated: “At root I think he is theological and doctrinal and sound” (Cecil Andrews, “John Piper Invite to Rick Warren,” Take Heed Ministries, April 3, 2010). This caused much dismay for those who understand the underlying beliefs of “America’s pastor.” Rick Warren is a strong advocate and promoter for contemplative mystics (such as Henri Nouwen) and the spiritual formation movement (the vehicle through which contemplative is entering the Protestant church) (“Saddleback Is a Contemplative Church,” Lighthouse Trails, Jun. 16, 2008). So with John Piper’s embrace of Warren coupled with his apparent acceptance of Richard Foster, Piper students should be asking some prudent questions of their teacher. They should also dismiss the notion that we can distinguish between good and bad contemplative prayer. There is no such thing."
So said my sister in a phone call shortly after the start of this year’s Passion Conference, taking place now in Atlanta, GA (Jan 1-4). I’m sure she said this with all due respect to Dr. Piper, who has long been looked to as a solid teacher of the Reformed tradition. And yet in recent years, Dr. Piper has gone about giving his stamp of approval to various and sundry teachers, many of them solid and trustworthy, but some of them quite dangerous.
Then Rick Warren got Dr. Piper’s stamp of approval at the 2010 Desiring God Conference. Yes, that’s right, Rick Warren. To paraphrase my friend Pastor Bob DeWaay, what made this particular alliance so very shocking was that Dr. Piper, who has long been regarded as one of the faithful few guarding the flock against false teaching was the very one who had opened the pen gate and ushered the wolf (Warren) right into the fold of his Desiring God conference.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” Gal 1:8
“Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what wea have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.” 2 John 1:8-11
“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” Romans 16:17
“For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Titus 1:7-9
So why doesn’t Dr. Piper storm out on the stage like a man on fire and rebuke this madness? Or, he could leave the conference and write an eloquent and heartfelt apology for his part in confusing the flock in his care by knowingly linking with false teachers. I’d be all for that. And yes, I get that he’s just a man, and no man is perfect. I’m not expecting perfection, but what I do desire to see is him seriously taking to heart the admonition in Scripture that not all should teach because those who do are judged more strictly (James 3:1). BUT, if Dr. Piper is unwilling to repent of going around giving false teachers his stamp of approval, then maybe one of our Godly pastors could fly to Minneapolis and wrestle the stamp away from him to keep him from further harming the flock. Just a thought.
Giglio, Chan, Moore and Piper return to Passion from last year and now we have sinfully ecumenical emerging musician David Crowder added to the mix. In closing this, for now, I’ll show you something that gives us real cause for concern in the seeming dangerous drift of Beth Moore and John Piper.
Following are clips from Session 5 of Passion 2012 where we were to enter into the silence to let God speak to us, not only through Scripture, but directly inside of us as well. However, this is language actually straight out of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and its crown jewel Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is meditation in an altered form of consciousness.
Why would Dr. John Piper, a Calvinist, want his followers exposed to this kind of man-centered, and blatantly false, mystical mumbo jumbo of Foster-Willardism? I wonder, could we actually be witnessing the rise of some kind of a Reformergence? In closing this, for now, you’re probably aware that John Piper has for some reason recently taken it upon himself to begin promoting the pragmatic semi-pelagian (at best) Church Growth Movement ministry of “Protestant” Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren.
Both John Piper and Rick Warren are promoting the bookCelebration of Disciplineby Quaker mystic Richard Foster, who by following the approach to spirituality he teaches within, is nearly a universalist who is definitely sinfully ecumenical repudiating the Lord’s Protestant Reformers. Here’s what the aformentioned Dr. Gary Gilley has correctly stated concerning Foster’s magnum opus in his excellent series calledMysticism:
Celebration of Discipline alone, not even referencing Foster’s other writings and teachings and ministries, is a virtual encyclopedia of theological error. We would be hard pressed to find in one so-called evangelical volume such a composite of false teaching.
