carleton1958's Xanga

Merry Christmas!

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:11:52 GMT

Merry Christmas, everyone! We're celebrating Christmas Eve today with my dad visiting for three days, and joining my in-laws at our Christmas Eve service at 3:00. It'll be a privilege to be with them in church together, my dad at 81 and my in-laws almost 88, along with my wife and kids. Then tonight we're breaking tradition and opening presents after a pot roast dinner, and opening stockings in the morning along with a "Santa" gift. I actually surprised myself by being the one to recommend opening presents tonight instead of tomrrow morning since we're having a total of 35 for Christmas and we'll have a long list of things that still have to get done tomorrow before they arrive. We're taking over hosting of the big family Christmas since it was getting to be too much for my in-laws. Tomorrow should be a joyous occasion. We sing carols, read the Christmas story from Luke, and then open presents. And when my wife's family gets together they love to hang out, so I'm expecting the last ones will leave around 1:00 or so.....

So Merry Christmas to all and may God bless you richly in the New Year ahead.

Peace in Christ,

Jeff

Three momentous events in my life

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:55:04 GMT

I have some pretty exciting events that have been taking place in my life recently which give me reminders of how God is at work even when we don't expect it.

The first was my son's baptism (by immersion) on December 2 at a special youth night service along with ten other students and two leaders. He had considered it for a long time, but a series of messages by our youth pastor this fall led to several students making the decision to be baptized including several who had been on the Toronto missions trip this past summer. My son was more than ready and gave a great testimony of how God has been working in his life and how he wanted to publicly profess his faith in Christ. It was a humbling experience to see him make the same decision I did to get baptized when I was 24.

The second and very momentous event is that my nephew (my brother's son) contacted me via Facebook about two weeks ago, the same week my son was baptized, after no communication from anyone in my brother's family for over five years, since the day of my mom's funeral. I've blogged here before about my narcissistic brother and reached a point where I had to just place him in God’s hands and stop trying to expect him to treat me and my family better. I prayed that someday something would change that would bring about renewed communications in a healthy way, and my 21-year-old’s message just showed up in my message inbox one day out of the blue. I was initially unsure about how to approach him, but after a couple days of processing some things that he wanted to understand, we are now dialoguing regularly about day-to-day things, and I’ve been invited by him and my sister to join them for dinner this Friday evening when he will be in Chicago. This is a truly momentous event and I am praising God for it.

The third momentous event in my life happened last night when my friend Phil asked me to be a groomsman at his wedding on January 30. Phil just returned home last month after serving four years as a Marine including two tours in Iraq. I first met him at our Celebrate Recovery program about five years ago when he was a scrawny struggling 19-year-old, so I have seen this man truly transformed over five years time, first as God began working in his life and he received support and encouragement from the guys in our CR program, then as I saw the military train him to be a Marine. I was truly humbled to be asked to stand up in his wedding along with some of his Marine buddies. Who am I to be in such company? But what a privilege. I told Phil that I fly my flag everyday in his honor for serving our country as he did.

God is good.

Peace in Christ,

Jeff

personal update

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:10:58 GMT

Just checking in right now. I need to make some changes in life to get rejuvenated. Some of my other readers' stories are inspiring , and I am finding myself periodically falling into slumps. I might go to the gym faithfully for three weeks in a row, then skip the next three. I might eat healthy for a good while, then get back into the habit of stress eating and go right back to where I was, never getting to my target weight. I get my work to a place of feeling caught up and enjoying it as much as I can, then something triggers inside and I feel inadequate in what I do. I get into scripture steadily for a few weeks, then I lapse back to every other day and then maybe a couple times a week. I reflect on other people I know who just seem to keep the same pace all the time - at the gym almost every day, always looking like they have it altogether, happy-go-lucky - and I feel like I struggle too much with everything and need daily reminders to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

So, today, if I can keep it up, I want to start hitting the gym everyday, from 6-7 in the morning, time for myself, time to reflect and pray, time to get in shape and stay in shape, time to listen to some music on my iPod. Everything else needs to fall in around that hour. When I let that hour go, everything else seems to get out of whack.

Jeff

Losing Respect for Rick Warren for Refusing to Denounce Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:21:54 GMT

[12/10 edit: After I posted the following on my blog back on Dec. 4, Rick Warren has now come out with a statement condemning the Uganda bill. Hopefully his words will have some effect on the government there as they continue deliberating this legislation.]

http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2009/12/pastor-rick-warren-condemns-uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill/

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I have generally admired Pastor Rick Warren and the work of Saddleback Church. However, he is apparently refusing to denounce the proposed anti-homosexual laws in Uganda, making the statement that "I never take sides". Here is a Newsweek article from which I pulled the excerpt below:

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/11/29/pastor-rick-warren-responds-to-proposed-ugandan-legislation.aspx

But Warren won't go so far as to condemn the legislation itself. A request for a broader reaction to the proposed Ugandan antihomosexual laws generated this response: "The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations." On Meet the Press this morning, he reiterated this neutral stance in a different context: "As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides." Warren did say he believed that abortion was "a holocaust." He knows as well as anyone that in a case of great wrong, taking sides is an important thing to do.

I lose respect for people, especially a pastor, when they take such a wishy-washy stance. Would he have also refused to take sides in Nazi Germany???????

Peace,

Jeff

The Manhattan Declaration: New Litmus Test for Christians?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:06:29 GMT

So if you haven't read or heard about the "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience", it's a new document released on November 20 that has been signed by a virtual "Who's Who" of evangelical leaders along with a list of Orthodox and Catholic leaders. It's main theme is defending these three areas:

the sanctity of human life
the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Here is the official website: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/

And if you click on the second link on the right, it takes you to the document itself with its list of signatories.

http://demossnews.com/manhattandeclaration/press_kit/manhattan_declaration_signers

I seek to be consistently pro-life in my beliefs and voting record, so I support the first issue - sanctity of human life. It's a tough issue, but one that I've not been able to be persuaded to change my position on in the years that I've grappled with it. And I believe in freedom of religion, so how can I argue with the third issue - the rights of conscience and religious liberty? But I don't toe the line there with my conservative Christian friends. I'm not a supporter of having prayer in schools, or having to have "In God We Trust" on our money, or "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. So I'm probably considered liberal by most of them because of that. Some extended relatives would even consider me un-American for not supporting those.

But the second issue - the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife - I fear becoming a litmus test for Christians. If you don't support this part of the Manhattan Declaration, are you going to be branded as not truly Christian? I mean, how can I disagree with Joni Eareckson Tada who I've always admired, or Randy Alcorn or Josh McDowell or Ravi Zacharias? But do I have to support imposing my religious beliefs on all of society on the issue of marriage? Can I not distinguish marriage under civil law differently than marriage within the church and still call myself a Christian?

Basically I see this as one more litmus test for Christians taking us away from focus on other serious issues like poverty, social justice, the environment, health insurance for all. As same sex relationships steadily become legal in some way state by state, do we really have to focus so much effort on "preserving" opposite sex marriage while the divorce rate stays so high, especially among evangelicals? Seriously, are all these Christian leaders focusing on the right thing for our time?

This is supposed to be a call to action by these leaders and their followers, and I've even heard a call for civil disobedience as part of the purpose of this declararation. This is a newly-released document. I will be interested to see how widely accepted and how frequently referenced it becomes.

Peace,

Jeff

11/25 edit: If you're Facebook friends with me, there's a lively discussion going on about this post in my Notes section. Feel free to comment there or here. Here is my latest contribution:

Yes, we legislate morality, but we are selective in what morality we legislate. Murder and stealing bring easily definable harm to others. Protection of children is understood by most as an area where a line has to be drawn in terms of age, and though the difference of 16 and 18 may be close and judges often are lenient in such cases if it is consensual, the laws are meant primarily to protect minors from adults until they reach a legal age of consent. As for other moral issues, we no longer legislate against fornication or adultery which are clearly definable sins in the Bible, or stuff like pornography and sodomy between consenting adults. So we are selective in what to make an issue of.

In relation to the marriage issue, to use the Bible as the basis for legislating morality is fine if the majority go along with it and it withstands the test against the U.S. Constitution. If people are collectively unhappy with something deemed unconstitutional, such as if same sex marriage were judged to be so someday by the U.S. Supreme Court, then the means to change that would be a constitutional amendment passed by 38 states declaring marriage as between one man and one woman. That is what has happened on the state level in quite a few states. Anything could be added to the U.S. Constitution if enough people agree, hence the experiment with prohibition.

But we as Christians need to decide what is important to press society on while at the same time understanding that the Bible does not call us to impose Christian belief on all of society. It is to guide us as individuals and as churches, but nowhere is it defined as a blueprint for a civil government. The Bible may guide us in the area of marriage and give us motivation to press for legislation to give incentive for marriage (like tax breaks) and building families, but we are a pluralistic society and our Christian beliefs can only be imposed on society when it is collectively agreed on.

In the case of same sex relationships, churches are free to decide what they will, hence the divide among denominations. But as a society we value freedom and equality, and I no longer see equality in how some people in same sex relationships are treated in our society and I now see it as important to speak up for them. In the particular areas of inheritance rights, medical decision-making, hospital visitation and guardianship or adoption of children who are in families with same-sex parents, our society does not treat same sex couples equally. Yes, wills can be written and medical powers of attorney, but if those documents don’t exist, the state steps in and decides certain issues. Whereas if a heterosexual couple is married, they have those rights based on their marriage certificate, in addition to all of the tax benefits granted by society to foster marriage and families. Society is free to grant those benefits if the majority agrees, but when challenged constitutionally, we must either be prepared to accept the result or pursue a constitutional change accordingly if we don’t like the result.

I have yet to see a push by evangelical Christians to support equal rights for gay couples who have been partners for years and decades to have those same rights of inheritance, hospital visitation or medical decision-making, whether it be in the form of marriage or civil unions or domestic partnerships. It is that lack of support for compassion and social justice that I feel most strongly about which initially led me to support civil unions for gay couples. But it has made me think long and hard about same sex marriage as well. If I believe it is wrong for a Christian, that does not mean I have to work to impose that belief on society. The same as if I may have belief about Christians remarrying who have committed adultery, that does not mean that we have to legislate against that as a society.

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11/26 edit: I just got an email from the president of Focus on the Family (whose mailing list I can't seem to get taken off of) in which he made the following statement about the Manhattan Declaration: "Instead, it addresses and elevates four specific areas of universal consensus. Some have referred to these as "threshold issues," meaning they represent the foundation of our faith and the pivot point from which everything else flows. This is the bedrock. If we can't agree on these areas of doctrine, everything else will be of reduced value." Interesting statement. "Universal consensus" is a pretty strong description. And sorry, but to call these the foundation of our faith and the bedrock tells me he hasn't read his church's doctrinal statement lately. I thought Jesus was the bedrock and that our core beliefs were things like the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, etc. And if we can't agree on these issues, then "everything else" is of reduced value? Sorry, but again my faith is much stronger than that. Emails like this are exactly what I anticipated when I first read this declaration.

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11/27 edit: Here is an article by Nathaniel Frank opposing the Manhattan Declaration which some of you might find interesting:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathaniel-frank/christian-leaders-scapego_b_370525.html

Memories from My Dad's Childhood

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:23:40 GMT

My dad, who is 81, wrote this narrative about his childhood in our hometown in Pennsylvania. It's loaded with special memories for me of the relatives he writes about and a lot of the familiar places and activities.

Memories From My Childhood

September, 2009

For the last few years I have thought about putting some of the memories I have from my childhood in writing. These words will relate a few of the memories I have of growing up in Brookville as well as of my father's side of the family. Some time in the future I will write about my mother's side.

I was born at home in Brookville, Pa. on June 23, 1928. My two brothers, Duane and Robert, and my sister Marilyn were also born at home. The house had a living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. There were three bedrooms on the second floor with a commode in an offset off one of the bedrooms with a curtain over the front. We got baths on Saturday night in a porcelain tub upstairs. Since we had no running water upstairs and no hot water in the house, cold water was carried upstairs in a kettle to which hot water that was heated on the kitchen stove was added.

In the basement was a furnace room and another larger room with a sink, a built-in cupboard for canned goods, a two burner hot plate, and a wringer washing machine. In the middle of the room was a long bench on which Marilyn and I would play “restaurant” with a toy electric stove and a set of play dishes. On the west side of the room was a window with a shelf in front of it. That is where we would put home made root beer to cure in the sun. The root beer was made from Hires extract and put into ketchup bottles we would save over the years. The bottles would be capped with a manual bottle capper.

We would also make ice cream in the basement. Mother would make the ice cream the night before we would want to freeze it and store it in the refrigerator. The next day we would put the can of ice cream into a four quart manual freezer. We would buy a block of ice at the “creamery” for twenty-five cents and chip it with an ice pick. Alternate layers of ice and salt would then be put into the tub and we would start cranking. In about 20 minutes the ice cream would be frozen.

The furnace room had a coal fired furnace and a coal bin. The furnace supplied heat to the house through a single floor register in the floor in the living room near the front door. It was a treat for us when a truck load of coal would be delivered. The truck would back in on the west side of the house. The coal would be put into the coal bin a shovelful at a time into a chute which would be placed from the truck into the house through an open window in the basement.

There was a porch on the first floor which wrapped around the house on the front and east side. There was a glider on the front porch and a swing on the side porch. In the daytime in the summer we would play on the porch and in the evening we would sit on the glider and greet neighbors who would be out walking.

Some things I remember about the kitchen were the sink where we washed dishes in the corner. Since that is where Dad shaved in the morning his razor strop hung by the sink. An aluminum tea pot was on the stove with sassafras roots for making tea.

In the evening in winter we would listen to the radio or play such card games as Flinch, Hearts, and Rummy. Among the radio programs we would listen to were Amos & Andy, Fibber McGee & Molly, Fred Allen, Red Skelton, Dr. IQ, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, and Sherlock Holmes. Our radio was a floor model Airline that was purchased from Montgomery Ward. Sometimes on Friday nights we would make hickory nut fudge.

In the backyard was a Northern Spy apple tree that provided us with plenty of apples, a place for climbing, and a limb for hanging a swing.

Dad had a garden the full width of the lot which was approximately 90 feet. In the spring he would hire someone with a team of horses or tractor to plow and harrow it. He spent long hours in the evening planting, cultivating, and watering when necessary. As the various vegetables would ripen we would pick them for consumption or canning. Included were onions, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, corn, beets, beans, potatoes, and cucumbers.

Mother would spend many hours canning the vegetables as well as fruits. We picked blackberries, elderberries, and huckleberries and buy peaches, raspberries, and plums. The canning process involved filling Ball jars and closing them with rubber rings and zinc lids. The jars would be placed in a large copper boiler filled with water on the two burner hot plate. The time to be on the hot plate would vary depending on the vegetable or fruit.

Just east of the house was an unpaved alley. On the other side of the alley was a row of seven brick houses that were built in 1928 (by the man who would eventually become my father-in-law) for Sam Hunter as rental properties except for one that was owned by Emma Hunter, Sam’s sister-in-law. She lived in the first house on the other side of the alley with her brother Clyde McCann who we called “Jum”. She would knit mittens for each of us every winter. To the west of our house lived Jack Plyler and his wife Bertha. There was a small unpainted building behind their house where Jack spent much of his time.

All the kids in the neighborhood played several outdoor games. One of our favorites was “kick the can”. A tin can was placed in the middle of the field. Someone was picked to guard the can and others would try to kick it without the guard tagging them. When someone was able to do that the can would be placed back in the middle of the field and someone else would be the guard.

Another game was a variation of softball called “scrub”. There was not a set number of players. After the infield positions were filled and three or four batters were chosen, the remaining boys and girls would be placed in the outfield. The regular rules of softball would be followed with the exception that if a batter hit a fly ball or pop-up and it was caught the one who caught it would change positions with the batter. When a batter was out for any reason he or she would go to the outfield, the catcher would become a batter and everyone else would advance one position.

Another of our favorite pastimes was climbing trees. Two of the most popular ones were the apple tree in our backyard and a large maple in back of the last “Hunter” house at the top of the hill. We would climb as high as we could and carve our name or initials in the bark with our pocket knives. In the woods off Evans street where Bill lived we would “shinney” up thin saplings and then ride them to the ground.

In the winter we would sled in the alley beside our house and ski on the hill behind the “Hunter” houses.

There were two elementary schools (grades1-6) in Brookville. The one that served our side of town was Longview to which all the boys and girls walked. It was a two story building with eight rooms, seven of which were classrooms and the eighth served as a gym. At the back of each room was an open cloak room where we hung our coats and hats and stored our lunches. The desks which had ink wells were bolted to the wooden floor

We had one recess in the morning and one in the afternoon. Weather permitting ,we would go outside where the boys would play softball, shoot baskets, or play marbles. The girls would play jacks, jump rope, or play hopscotch.

We either carried our lunch or walked home to eat.

Across Hastings street from the school was Reed’s candy store where they sold Guess Whats, candy cigarettes, root beer barrels, and more. The store was in the front of a small frame house. The Reeds lived in the back. In the summer they would travel with a carnival.

Most of my extended family lived in or around Emerickville or Brookville. We had a practice of exchanging visits in the evenings or Sunday afternoons, sometimes for dinner. The men would talk about hunting, fishing, gardening, politics, or family matters. The women would talk about cooking, canning, sewing, and their kids.

Grandpa and Grandpa's was a place where several families would go to visit on Sunday afternoons, not necessarily at the same time. In the summer the front porch and yard would be he place to gather. Some would take a hike through the woods to the back field or visit the barn and pig pen to see the livestock which usually included one horse, two cows, and a couple of pigs. At certain times of the year we would pick grapes from either the blue grape vines or the white grape vines which were below the smoke house on the way to the outhouse.

Granddad had a number of beehives. From the wooden frames he would load into the hives he would harvest two kinds of honey, white clover in one season and buckwheat in another. He also had a strawberry patch. I, along with my cousin Bill , would help pick them. Granddad would load the baskets of strawberries into his car and take them to Reynoldsville to sell mostly to his regular customers.

Bill and I would stay with Grandpa and Grandma one week each summer, helping in whatever way we could. That would include getting the recently laid eggs from the chicken coop, cranking the milk separator, and churning butter. These experiences taught us first hand about life on the farm. Unfortunately not too many kids today have that opportunity.

In the winter we would gather in the front room by the coal burning “pot belly” stove. Grandma always had a dish of apples on the table and sugar cookies in a jar on top of a cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. There was a lever handle pump in the pantry off the kitchen where we could get a cup of water from the well outback. There were a number of tin cups hanging on the wall in the pantry where we could select one to get a drink.

Down behind the house was a “two holer” outhouse that was supplied with a Sears & Roebuck catalog. Needless to say, it was very cold in the winter.

Dad’s oldest sister Mabel whose nickname was Polly and husband Lawrence Schuckers, “Uncle Benny” had a larger farm near Grandad’s. They had about a dozen cows , several pigs, and a team of horses. In the back of the house was a summer house with a kitchen and screened-in porch where Aunt Polly would serve the meals in summer..

In the evening Aunt Polly would call the cows in to be fed and milked which she did by hand. The milk would be put in a small spring house to keep cool until it could be put out in cans to be picked up by a buyer or make butter for themselves.

At harvest time when the wheat and later the oats would be cut and threshed there would be a number of men from neighboring farms come to help. I would go to stay for a week when the wheat was harvested. My job was to carry iced tea to the men as well as other things they would need. As the mowing machine would go through the field I enjoyed seeing the rabbits scatter ahead of it.

They had an ice house where they would store ice that had been cut from the creek in the winter. It was stored in sawdust for year-round use.

These are just a few of the wonderful memories I have of growing up in and around Brookville, PA.

Are More Evangelicals Becoming Gay-Affirming?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:05:32 GMT

There is a fascinating conversation taking place on Karen K's blog (called "Pursue God") that started with Karen's post entitled "More Evangelicals Becoming Gay Affirming?" in which she mentions that many evangelical leaders are quietly questioning their traditional stance on homosexuality. She references an upcoming symposium at Highlands Church, in Denver, Colorado entitled “The Evangelical Church and Homosexuality,” featuring gay-affirming speakers Justin Lee and Mark Achtemeier. Following her post is a long series of comments and responses by Karen which I have taken the time to read through methodically. I encourage you to do the same, reflecting on Karen's ability to respond with grace and respect to each commenter, even when views and beliefs vary greatly on issues like celibacy, love, God and what it means to be "anti-gay" which is a phrase used by one of her commenters.

In general my own views align with Karen's, while I aspire to have the ability, not to mention the time, to respond as she does so thoroughly, respectfully and patiently with people who either disagree or are uncertain about their own beliefs on this difficult issue.

http://pursuegod.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/more-evangelicals-becoming-gay-affirming/

Peace, Jeff

[Edit 11/12/09: I added my own comment to the dialogue, #67 I think, which is time-stamped at 4:41 a.m. on November 12. Here is what I stated:

I continue to follow this conversation with interest. Where positions and beliefs are thought out rationally and discussed civilly, I think we have much to gain by learning why one thinks and believes as they do. My views have evolved over time by learning to listen and process rather than just digging my feet into the ground.
I do have a question and some comments to toss out to Francene related to the sexual ethics discussion. You posed this question to Karen:
“Do you know that someone, maybe even in your school, or even a close acquaintance or friend, is contemplating suicide because they have been told these things over and over again their entire lives? If your best friend were about to jump off a 20-story building because of these personal claims you advocate, what would you say to that person if you were their last hope? Would you lay down your “life” of your beliefs to save your best friends life, as the Bible would have you do?”
While this is a hypothetical situation, we do know there are very real situations of suicide where a person has felt rejection or depression based on how they have been treated by others. But the question here is whether one should give up their personal beliefs if it would make a difference in that person’s decision to take their own life. Personally I might tell the individual that my beliefs are just one person’s beliefs and that they need to decide for themselves. Anyone is more than able to ignore what I believe, as you are able to ignore what Karen believes and move on. Hypothetically a person contemplating suicide could be struggling with any issue related to the concept of God and sin and challenging their friend to drop their whole belief in God to keep them from jumping off the bridge so they wouldn’t feel guilt in any way. But that would just be one’s person distorted attempt to force another what to believe.
Sexual ethics is something I challenge anyone to think through, gay or straight. What sexual ethics does that teen follow even if he decides to come out as gay? Stay celibate until he marries some day, or engage sexually with one or more boyfriends over the years? If he is a Christian, does he look to the Bible for guidance on sexual ethics. Or if a heterosexual teenager is the one contemplating suicide because he wants to have sex with his girlfriend and he’s been advised to wait until marriage, would you also challenge Karen to give up that belief to bring the teenager down off the bridge, to say that it’s okay to have teenage sex regardless of what the Bible says? Do sexual ethics based on biblical belief have any place in counseling anyone? The idea of advocating celibacy to homosexual people is seen by you as damaging, but would you also see advocating waiting for sex until marriage as damaging to heterosexual teens or young adults? That is a position advocated even by some non-Christians. Would you expect a person to drop that belief because it may be “damaging” to some teenager who is agonizing over wanting to have sex with his girlfriend or feeling guilty that he did?
I am presently in conversation with a gay Christian teenager who is considering entering a sexual relationship with a friend. I’ve told him that I would counsel a heterosexual teen the same way, to not become involved sexually at his age. He can ignore my advice if he wants, but I won’t take responsibility for “damaging” him by advising him to wait. Even if one believes in same-sex marriage, which I support from a civil rights perspective but not within the church, what place do sexual ethics have in same-sex relationships and on what are they based if not the Bible? I base my own sexual ethics in relation to heterosexual relationships on the Bible, which would include remaining celibate (chaste) until marriage. If I did believe homosexual relationships to be acceptable for Christians, I would hold the same position and counsel others accordingly.
Anyone can claim that one’s beliefs are damaging to others. In this case, it seems to really come down to what place the Bible and belief in Christ have in one’s life and in one’s sexual ethics. Either it is true and it matters, or it is not true and it doesn’t matter. But each person ultimately needs to make their own decision and live with it and not place the blame on others.

"What Matters More" by Derek Webb

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:19:56 GMT

I just listened to an awesome (presumably controversial) song for the first time: “What Matters More” by Derek Webb. The “Live at Cornerstone” version moved me the most and reminded me why I miss Cornerstone so much. The second version is the original video. If you don’t focus on the one use of strong language to make his point about what matters most to us, it is a very powerful song about overfocusing on an issue like homosexuality when we are not concerned or doing much about other issues as Christians like we should be.

Peace in Christ,

Jeff

Reflection on my identity in Christ on National Coming Out Day

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:30:24 GMT

I composed this message as an admin of a private Facebook group . I thought I would also share it here, with some slight modification, for my blog readers.

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Brothers in Christ:

Today is National Coming Out Day. I am not promoting this day as an admin or member of this group, but it is much on my mind as I’ve already seen two former group members and a current member post Facebook status messages recognizing themselves as gay, along with another friend who has attended an Exodus conference in the past. There is a sense of freedom in being able to share this declaration with friends and family, especially when most of us have at one time feared others finding out about our struggle with sexual orientation, especially in the face of prejudice or stigma that many of us have experienced in some form or other in our lives. At one time there was a "National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day” also, to recognize people who seek to be free of homosexual behaviors and seek a way out of the homosexual lifestyle, but that movement promoted by some conservative Christian organizations has apparently died out a few years ago.

I respect my gay friends who see this as a day of bold honesty in their lives, including those who profess to follow Christ, and yet on this day I yearn for all of us as brothers in Christ to focus on our identity in Christ and not let homosexual attractions become the basis of our identity. Our group exists to help us find support, encouragement and accountability in areas of struggle related to the same sex attraction that we experience, and yet we don’t see this as the defining focus of our identity. It is but one area of our lives that we bring to Christ in faith to help us overcome struggle and temptation and to seek Him for His purpose in our lives.

A verse that I hold to closely is 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Help us to be honest to God and with our loved ones as we have the need to find support by sharing our struggles that relate to same sex attraction, but let us find our true identity in Christ. As one brother shared in a current group topic “Identity Crisis”, “We need to stop seeing ourselves through the eyes of any human and see ourselves through the eyes of Christ who died for us. In doing so we will find out who we truly are. For in Christ is truth.”

Be blessed this week, my brothers, and may you boldly claim your identity in Christ and share the good news with others as you have opportunity.

Much love to each of you as my brothers in Christ.

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Peace in Him,

Jeff

Gay People Seeking God

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:38:08 GMT

My goal this week is to watch this complete video of Pastor Ted Beasley's message on same sex attraction and the church. I can tell it's a powerful video just after watching the first three minutes and from reading the "Pursue God" blog post of Karen K whom I greatly respect in her approach to communicating about homosexuality and Christianity. The first 15 minutes are the pastor's message and the last 30 minutes or so are a panel discussion. As Karen describes it: "These are not testimonies of coming out of wild, drug abusing, promiscuous “lifestyles.” These are just three people pursuing God as they felt led. They admit still having same-sex attraction. The focus is not on changing sexual orientation, but on hearing from God and walking toward Him."

http://www.gatewaychurch.com/media/2009/08/30/letsexpress-same-sex-aug-23-2009/

I've teared up twice when I've started to watch this because I expect it to be powerful and I sense that it is going to leave me dissatisfied with how the church in general and my own church specifically deals with this issue. I plan to take some focused time to watch the complete video in the next day or two, and then I may comment again on here on what impressions it leaves me with. Feel free to do the same after you watch his message.

Peace in Christ,

Jeff