(HT: Pastor's Weekly Breifing from FOTF)
Presbyterian Church Ordains Gay Minister
There's an effort aimed for the next general assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) that would allow individual presbyteries to decide whether to ordain homosexuals to the clergy.
At least one presbytery has already ordained an openly gay minister. Rev. Joseph Gilmore, who presided at the ordination of openly gay Raymond Bagnuolo, said the members of South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., are feeling enormous pride. Gilmore told Family News in Focus radio that what the Bible may have to say about such ordinations no longer applies. "When the writers of the original sacred text — the Bible — wrote all those years ago, they thought the earth was flat. Am I obliged to think the earth is flat?" he asked. "They also thought that there was only one sexuality and that was heterosexuality."
Earl Tilford, a professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, a PCUSA school, called it another step in a long march to apostasy. "It started in 1967 when the Presbyterian Church decided that the Bible was not the Word of God, but that it contains the Word of God — along with a lot of nice suggestions," he said.
Rather than a contentious split, Tilford suspects the erosion of Bible-based teaching will bring slow death to the denomination. He estimates that even at the current rate of decline in membership, the denomination will be gone in 35 years. "It's hemorrhaging its membership," he said. "If gay ordination and/or gay marriage ever becomes the law of the church, you will see half the members leave."
2 comments:
These are the basic reasons why the OPC formed in the early 1930s and the PCA formed in 1973. I don't think there's much left that is salvagable. Nevertheless we need to pray that God upholds and strengthens those believers who remain...
It's really coming to a head in a number of denominations. The next year or two will be interesting for the PCUSA, American Baptist, United Methodist, and Anglican Churches to name just a few. I think the PCUSA took a turn a long time ago that many now regret, and it's manifesting in ways like this. You are correct that we need to pray for these denominations, their leadership, and their membership that God can work in some magnificant ways.
Big Chris
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