local pastor

So I was reading to other day in the news about a rally at the state capital where a Baptist church was going to protest in support of passing a law that defines marriage as an act between one man and one woman. In the next paragraph it stated that another Baptist group the following day was going to protest the opposite. Here is the excerpt from the article.

"We see and have a very clear biblical conviction, based on our understanding of Scripture, that marriage is between one man and one woman," said Goold, senior pastor of the Crystal Evangelical Free Church in New Hope who joined about 1,000 people Tuesday on the Capitol lawn in support of defining marriage in the state constitution.

Donley, pastor of University Baptist Church in Minneapolis, holds equally strong religious convictions. He will rally Thursday at the Capitol with potentially hundreds of people of faith against the marriage amendment, in part, to make clear that there are religious people on both sides of the debate.

"The heart of the Gospel is one of inclusion. Whenever Jesus was given the opportunity to exclude somebody, he included all people," Donley said. "I think what the supporters of this amendment are trying to do is ... write one interpretation of the Scripture into the constitution."

I was stunned. How can he think that marriage between one man and one woman is interpretation of Scripture? God says explicidly and multiple times that anything different that that is a sin. I had to write him a letter and here is what I sent:

Pastor,

I’m sure you get or are getting a ton of email lately... but I figured I’d write anyways because I guess I am confused. In reading some of the pages on your webpage, particularly the parts about marriage I have been trying to wrestle with how you justify your beliefs, because in my searching of the Bible I come up short. Mind you, I have zero formal Bible education and have only learned what I know (Biblically) by reading His word. Maybe you can help.

With your churches stance for homosexual marriage, how do you justify 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 or Romans 1:26-27? To me it seems that allowing sin and condoning sin are two different things. Allowing sinners into a church congregation (sinners as in liars, fornicators, thieves, etc) is one thing because we all fall short of His desired perfection. If we didn’t allow sinners, the churches would be empty! But, saying lying, stealing, blasphemy, or fornication (homosexuality) is OK / permissible / allowed / correct / just seems to me to be a huge contradiction of scripture.

From your letter to Regional Executive Ministers, “I pray for the day when we will find the reconciliation in Christ where, to paraphrase Paul’s letter to the Galatians, there is no male nor female, no slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, right nor left, red nor blue and even gay nor straight for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I’m assuming you are quoting Galatians 3:28? Reading Galatians 3:28 in my Bibles it appears you have misquoted Paul’s writing as I saw no mention of gay or straight. You did seem to quote it correctly though is saying we all are one in Christ Jesus… if we repent and put our trust in Jesus Christ.

From Webster’s dictionary:
Repent
Pronunciation: ri-'pent
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French repentir, from re- + pentir to be sorry, from Latin paenitEre intransitive senses
1 : to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life

Repent means to turn from sin, not embrace it.

To quote Jesus in Matthew 9:12-13: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Again, I am not saying that we should throw transgender / bi-sexual / homosexual / etc folks out the door and wish them luck. Without a doubt in my mind we should embrace them and show them God’s love. In the same sense of love though, isn’t it our duty to not only God, but to sinners to show sinners that God wants everyone to be cleansed of our sin in repentance?

Sincerely and humbly,

- Me